Consumers frequently use digital and social media to express their identities. In this chapter, the authors begin to delve into the many implications that the digital world has on consumer identity creation and maintenance, expression, and subsequent behaviors. In a broad sense, they believe that expressing identity online is a multi-step process with several considerations and ramifications of each decision. These steps include the antecedents to, and consequences of, online identity expression, the online platform chosen to express identity, and possible audiences to digital identity expression. Critically, they believe that the considerations and consequences of online identity expression differ from offline identity expression as it has traditionally been studied. Throughout this chapter, the authors reflect on the different processes, questions and consequences a consumer may go through when expressing identities online. They also pose a number of future research questions within this domain.
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Front Matter
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Part I: The Identity Salience Principle
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Part II: The Identity Association Principle
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Part III: The Identity Verification Principle
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Part IV: The Identity Conflict Principle
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Part V: The Identity Relevance Principle
