There’s no doubt that Facebook played a key role in shaping the idea of personal and brand online identity. On a personal level, your photos, comments, and profile create an image of yourself for the social world, or at least for your Facebook friends. However, as social media has progressed, many users, especially those aged 21 to 45, have found the concept of a fixed online identity to be limiting and one-dimensional. They have begun to question the idea of a “unified self” that remains the same across all aspects and with everyone in their life.

When you think about it, the concept of a single social identity doesn’t really add up. You don’t dress the same way at work as you do on the weekends. In reality, very few people act exactly the same in all areas of their lives. This growing idea that you are essentially a different person in various social situations is called the “liquid self.” This term, introduced by Nathan Jurgenson at Snapchat, highlights that: “Identity is never fixed and is always changing. Instead of a single, unchanging self, we might think of a ‘liquid self’, more like a verb than a noun.” Jurgenson’s definition helps to clarify, in part, the rising emphasis on messaging over networking.

To say that messaging is hot right now is an understatement. Facebook’s February 2014 $16 billion purchase of the messaging service WhatsApp followed their $1 billion purchase of Instagram Direct in 2012. Chat app Viber was acquired by Rakuten this spring for $900 million. Startup Tango raised $280 million in March, a funding round that valued the company at more than $1 billion. And who can forget Snapchat’s rebuke of Facebook’s $3 billion offer last year.

But more important than the money, is why messaging appeals to social media users who embrace the concept of liquid self. Personal communications on social outlets leave a trail of personal information that can live “forever.” This information can inhibit personal relationships and employment. Messaging aps are increasingly, albeit with uneven success, offering messages that disappear once they have been read or after a specific period of time. They also offer the opportunity for people to share with groups or individuals you select. As a result, you control the distribution and context. This gives users great comfort in knowing that who they were at a specific point in time will not define who they to all of their social connections.

For social marketers this information is more than interesting – it is vital to understand because it means that the identification and support of brand advocates will become more important than ever before. The trend toward direct social messaging will only increase, making video, images and text that support your brand among the most powerful of social marketing tools. You’ll need to adapt your strategy to not only focus on social networking, but also social messaging. And, you’ll also need to closely align your messaging with who your advocates are in what social context to ensure that the behaviors you want them to take match they social identity they wish to project.