Just like the Matrix our virtual online world is growing in leaps and bounds given the instant access and power to connect with millions with the click of a button. New age gadgets, smart phones and digital apps have enabled us to become digital journalists and evangelists in our own right. But just like Uncle Ben would constantly remind Peter Parker, Spider Man’s alter ego, this is a constant reminder to us too that “with great power comes great responsibility”.

Whether you are in-focus in front of the camera or behind the lens using your smart phones, it’s important to watch how you portray yourself in front of others. With our increasing participation as an invited speaker or as an active audience member we ‘all’ have a role to play particularly while attending corporate events and conferences. Here are some quick and easy dos and don’ts to keep in mind.

Don’t let your Surrogates get larger and overtake you. (I’ve hyperlinked to the movie wiki incase you’re now curious about this movie.) But getting back to the point, keep the decorum and maintain your tweeting etiquette especially while live tweeting at events. Be your own PR proponent and try not to get yourself in the foot-in-the -mouth predicament.

Easy tip – Unlike Vegas, what’s stated on Facebook or LinkedIn travels all over the digital world and back! So keep it professional, friendly and informative.

People do judge a book by its cover – Let’s face it, we live in a multi-tasking era with “time” being a precious commodity than ever before. So why waste time in creating your first impression that would detract away from ‘who you are’ as a person. Make it easy on others and dress appropriately keeping your end goal in mind.

Easy tip – While attending formal events, don’t dress per your mood or climate, dress per the occasion. Leave your guests with a positive lasting impression vs. a haunting impression!

Don’t ever lose track of the limelight – Yes, when it comes to participating at corporate events, you do have a role to play. You are a brand ambassador for your company no matter what your job title states. A lot of factors contribute towards how a company’s brand image is created. Their ‘people’ play one of the largest roles as it has a direct correlation to a good customer experience.

So project yourself in the best possible light, both literally and more importantly figuratively. You never know when you are being watched and by whom, especially when most of the events these days are being livestreamed and posted on YouTube.

Easy tip – Stay away from inside jokes and gossip instead stay cheerful and project a positive image.

Stay mindful of these easy tips and you’d be a superstar at any given event! Can you think of any others to add to this list? Let’s hear from you!

Photo by Hamed Saber

There are the fashionable French expressions we all like to use when it comes to food, fashion and travel. Bon appetit literally means good appetite and used commonly to state – enjoy your meal. A la carte (literally means ‘on the menu’ that we often see in restaurants). Café (as in coffee in French or coffee shop that we commonly refer to in English ). Tres chic (literally translates as very stylish).  It is used to express ‘stylish’ or ‘smart’ as an element of fashion and the counterpart of posh. Haute couture (literally meaning custom-fitted clothing and typically used to express trend-setting fashion). Adieu (meaning goodbye that we commonly wish each other at the time of farewell). Bon voyage (literally meaning good journey, that has been adopted to express, have a good trip!). And don’t we all know what it means when someone exclaims – c’est la vie! Meaning, such is life! It has evolved to mean things like ‘It is what it is’ and at times used as an expression to say that life is tough but that one must accept it for what it is with an optimistic demeanor.

Then ofcourse there is some of the Asian influence, borrowings from Sanskrit, one of the ancient languages from India that we see being used commonly like Guru (Sanskrit script गुरु, meaning a teacher, as someone we revere and respect for his or her knowledge and wisdom). These days, we use it to describe someone who is an ‘expert in something’ in the modern context.  Avatar (अवतार, which means manifestation, and refers to the human incarnation of God per the Hindu mythology.) In modern usage we see it as the graphical representation of a user especially in the social media context. Then ofcourse, most of you are familiar with James Cameron’s Oscar winning movie Avatar in today’s context. Cashmere (originates from Kashmir, the Himalayan region of Northern India where this fine wool is derived from the undercoat of the cashmere goat).

Karma (कर्मा, which means work or fate). We see it being used commonly as bad karma (which refers back to the philosophy of, you reap what you sow). Mantra (from Sanskrit मन्त्र mantra refers to a holy message or text typically used as ‘spiritual chanting’) whereas, in the modern context the English language borrows it to connote what is the code you live by? Such as – what is your life’s mantra? Or in a marketing jargon it could imply the mystical formula to coin their mission statement or as trendy buzzwords for eg: Nike’s mantra is ‘Just Do it’.

We are in an interesting age today where we have not only borrowed from or introduced new words but evolved to a time where we’ve started ‘verbalizing’ in interesting ways. We’ve come a long way from the Greek and Latin origins of words, and today’s influx of social media has a lot to do with the infiltration of that lexicon. We have not only started using social media terms in our daily dialogues, but have created ‘new verbs’ along the way! Highlighting a few of our common ones.

Did you google the term? The word ‘Google’ which is the name of a famous search engine, is a play on the number ‘googol‘. A googol is equivalent to a 1 followed by 100 zeros and is indeed an extremely large number. This term reflects the infinite and ever-increasing volume of information that is currently available on the Internet.

I tweeted it to my friends. Twitter (verb) originally is described as – to make high-pitched sounds, as of birds. In the social media age, Twitter today is commonly known as a social networking and microblogging site that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters.

You must unfriend him after what happened! In today’s context, it refers to our digital relationships such as our Internet friendships. Unfriending here is to remove from one’s friends list on a social networking site eg: the Facebook friend list.

I blogged about today’s news. Blog is a word that was created from two words: “web log”. It refers to today’s digital diary and serves as a shared on-line journal allowing your voice to be heard and shared with your vast online audience. It empowers users to reflect, share opinions, and discuss varied topics digitally. (E.g. of some of the current blogging platforms -Blogger,Tumblr, WordPress, SquareSpace, Posterous).

I digg it! Unlike the traditional context of digging in your garden, today social media relevancy is all about social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet. You get to submit the link and users get to vote and comment on submitted links and stories ranking it in popularity!

I like it! ‘Like’ today has a whole new connotation for a Facebook user. Instead of writing a comment for a message or a status update, a Facebook user can click the “Like” button as a quick way to show approval and share the message with others.

She poked me and I poked her back. Poking as we know it typically is seen as an action of tapping and/or softly jabbing another person with the tip of one’s finger or a sharp object. A poke today is a small application on Facebook that are just little reminders or ways to say hello on Facebook.You poke someone if you just want to say a quick hello, want him/her to look at your profile or just letting them know you’re thinking of him/ her.

The list goes on! What are some of the words like this you’ve been using in your daily jargon? Let’s hear it.

Photos by jovike and GRwitters.

Merriam Webster defines lifespan as – the average length of life of a kind of organism or of a material object especially in a particular environment or under specified circumstances. That implies it could be the amount and duration of time any data or information lives and is considered new, recent or relevant at that point in time.

Come to think of it, it’s incredible to see how the lifespans of what we consume as information these days is constantly changing and evolving with our times.

Here’s some food for thought-

The mediums of disseminating information have evolved through the times and how we consume and preserve this data has concurrently changed with it. Originally, our primary source of information came from books. We depended on those hardcopy books to refer about all things under the sun and they monopolized our attention lingering on as a living document for several years. They had the longest lifespan and served as our single most relevant source of gathering data and assimilating information. With changing times, our sources for gathering information diversified, creating myriad absorption avenues and each constantly competing for our attention.

Consequently, what we consider as hot, current or relevant information keeps condensing and their lifespan shrinking. We tend to absorb information from one source and swiftly move onto the next source that wins our attention. The technological advances have been instrumental in defining how and for how long a document lives and is considered relevant by its audience.

For better or for worse, we are living in an age that’s constantly engulfed by competing information. The constant stream of data never sleeps! Turn on your Twitter handle or browse your Facebook Wall at 2am, the stream of information flows ceaselessly. When you dip your feet in the Twitter stream at 2am, you automatically start participating in what is considered hot and current at that point in time. Interestingly, what is considered relevant now becomes passé fours hours later. You have now moved onto the next new thing!

What does that tell you about how we consume information in this day and age? Is it this information overload that is causing their lifespans to shrink? Has our attention span decreased or have we become more impatient wanting to move onto the ‘next thing’ as a result?

What do you think, what are your viewpoints?

Photos by Steve Bailey and Andreas Lunde

We have come a long way from that definition and social media has played a catalytic role in this process. Every morning I wake up to ‘Morning Express’ with Robin Meade on CNN’s HLN (Headline News). Apart from getting my daily dose of news, what interested me was their tagline “We give you the news. You give us your views”. I realized that the power of agenda setting has shifted gears. Social media had permeated its way into the broadcasting industry revolutionizing how news is created and disseminated today. They too are adopting the new social media strategy of listening and engaging versus the old fashioned dogmatic methods of push strategy when it comes to news and information.

News channels today are opening the doors to their audience asking them for their opinions. They share the worldly happenings with their public and welcome them to give their feedback regarding it. They are interested in knowing what the people think and have to say regarding the events of the day and encourage them to reach out using the social media channels. These days we can, not only pick up the phone to call the news stations but have myriad resources at our disposal to communicate back. We can choose to email back, tweet about our thoughts (on Twitter), leave our comments on their Facebook fan page, blog about it or even publish a YouTube video sharing our opinions. This then becomes a reciprocal process of action and reaction based on live and instant conversations. We as an audience today get to choose and decide what is newsworthy and play an active role in that process.

So what does that mean? How does that affect us? It affects us at a very fundamental level. It allows the layman to have a voice and more importantly be heard. It gives us the opportunity to get involved and be engaged in the news making process. With the ability to participate in these conversations through these social media sites, the viewers start taking deeper interest, become more socially aware and become active gatekeepers in their community. Look around, current instances of any breaking news many a times are foremost gathered by a witness who just happens to be there. Be it the initial images of a tropical storm, live relay of a plane accident or a humorous celebrity faux-pas moment, is first witnessed by a viewer who captures it on his camera phone and streams it on YouTube or iReport on CNN.com. Soon enough it is picked up by several news channels making it a newsflash breaking news. Content is no longer the fiefdom of the powerful few but is becoming more egalitarian. And its people like you and me who get a voice and hold the reins to what we define as news today!

Photos by ABC Archives and Kino-eye

However, the same power if used carelessly can cause more damage than you can imagine! I was compelled to write this post after watching the news today on how social media played a role in the tragic demise of Tyler Clementi, a young freshman at Rutgers University. The 18-year old accomplished violinist, tragically committed suicide after learning that that his college roommate had surreptitiously video recorded him during his private moment and broadcast it live without his consent. The otherwise considered shy and distinguished musician’s last words were left on his Facebook page “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” Unfortunately, nobody could save this young man’s life in time.

This may be one such tragic case that surfaced online, but it comes as a huge warning and wake-up sign for all social media users. This is a glaring example of invasion of privacy and taking social media to the other extreme. We all at some point in time may have video recorded some incident perhaps at a party, and shared it jokingly with our friends. We may not necessarily think twice or make much of that supposedly funny incident except to share a few laughs while forwarding it to others. However, as a society, we need to be more conscious and bear some social media responsibility!

In this digital age with ready access to technology and the ability to disperse information instantaneously, has blurred the line of privacy converting most things into an entertainment value. Lesson to be learnt is that we don’t become puppets in the hands of technology! Hiding behind an ‘avatar’ does not give us the permission to act irresponsibly. We need to constantly remind ourselves that there is an actual person just like you sitting behind that computer that deserves the same respect as you.  Be it sending out a tweet on Twitter, updating your Facebook status, uploading and sharing photos on Flickr or forwarding a YouTube video to others, we all need to exercise proper judgment. It is important that we recognize the repercussions of our actions versus falling victims to our own making.

If everybody does their bit and acts responsibly using good judgment, social media’s positive impacts can be that much more amplified.

Photo by AJ Baxter

Key is to push your blog, but not all the way to annoyance.
It’s like walking a tight rope; you want to introduce your new blog gracefully with others but not yell and scream from the rooftop to get attention. Nobody likes a pushy salesman forcefully selling you his product without your consent.

Piecemeal it based on your comfort level.
Share your blog initially (via email) with your inner circle of peeps you feel most comfortable with, and can trust. Your family and close friends! Then, as you get more comfortable extend it to others – your community, colleagues, boss, sports buddies etc. and your circle expands.

Tweet about it on Twitter. But don’t get into the copy-paste mode!
Share your new post initially by tweeting about it. Keyword being ‘once’. Don’t sneak in your post by re-tweeting it in regular intervals thinking people won’t notice! Newsflash, people do! Imagine this noxious guy at the party yakking about himself non-stop the entire time. Yeahh! You don’t want to be that guy. If your blog is worth its mettle, people will carry it out for you by RT’ing it. Remember to thank them promptly when they do!

Think bigger and leverage your LinkedIn.
You can promote and advertise your blog by updating the ‘post an update’ feature under the ‘edit your profile’ section. You can take it a step further by downloading the ‘Wordpress’ application and synching it your profile page. That way, it will show regular updates of your blog on your LinkedIn page. This is especially useful if you are using WordPress for your blog. This enhances your visibility with your larger professional network of colleagues, senior management and even potential recruiters.

Are you in for the long haul? Then, its time to create a Facebook fan page.
Create a separate Facebook page for your blog under the brand, product or organization category. Customize the tabs and ensure that your profile and description is similar to what you have on your blog, including your blog title, logo and profile picture. This helps in creating a continued brand experience when people move from your blog to your Facebook page. Use this page wisely to optimize your blog goals. Bear in mind, this is one more thing to create and manage regularly. So get into it only after you think you are ready for it.

Let your work speak louder than you!
Remember, content is still king! If your writing isn’t authentic or appealing, people will roll their eyes and interest will fizzle out no matter how hard you try to promote it. So focus on the quality of your work and readers will come back.

Recognize that your blog at some level is an extension of you.
So be socially responsible and conscious of what you put out there. Portray your blog in the same light as you’d like to be portrayed and perceived in person.

Don’t be afraid to give link-backs if you are contributing to a particular topic.
Always try to give shout-outs and track-back to the pundits out there. Don’t be a narcissist! It’s a reflection that you are not living in your own kingdom, but making an attempt to read your fellow bloggers’ works. This will help in giving your work latitude making your content richer and multi-dimensional.

Most important, and crucial…Patience! Patience! Patience! (Have patience!)
Yeah! Doesn’t it have the same ring as location, location location?! Basically, building your profile through your blog takes time. It’s certainly not a viral or overnight process. In this day and age where we are inundated with never-before-seen information, people click and choose their time online. Respect that it is people’s personal time, so don’t try to encroach it forcefully. Politely welcome them to your blog, and let your work speak for itself!

Check out Chris Brogan of New Marketing Labs and Andrea Bartz and Brenna Ehrlich from Netiquette, CNN who offer further tips on promoting yourself online.

What lessons did you learn about promoting your blog?

Photo by Mr Ush