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

With the omnipresence of social media, it also brings to the forefront the critical issue of transparency. Everything is shared, liked, voted, and forwarded these days! Pictures of your wedding, video journal of your Europe trip last week, footage of your baby’s first steps, declaration of your new job and title, an aerial view of your new house and your neighborhood..the list goes on!

The point I’m trying to make is, we are living in a day and age where our entire profile and lifestyle is available with the click of a button; a Google search or a Bing away. Far flung from the days where you needed a social security number to get detailed information about a person :)!

Today, you have multiple avenues to get to know a person without even meeting him or her physically. The virtual world is packed with all kinds of data and information. It’s easy to learn about a person’s likes/ dislikes, who are his friends? Where does she live? What did he eat last night? What are their holiday plans this Christmas? What are their kids’ names? What are his New Year goals?

As a global community I believe these social media tools have made our world smaller making our connections tighter. If you think about it, we are all connected to each other with perhaps six degrees of separation. However, on the flip side it comes with the threat of great misuse of personal information and photos. We all need to be responsible and draw our own lines when it comes to the question of how much is too much? Are we overindulging with perhaps sharing way too much of our lives online? What about those who like to share every aspect of their daily lives online with others? Tweeting or perhaps wall posting about when I woke up, what appointments I have for the day, how did my meeting go with that client, what do I feel like eating for lunch, where do I plan to meet my friends over dinner. Do you think we are revealing too much of our selves without deliberating on what the implications of that might be?

As much as we enjoy the privileges of these modern tools we all need to be responsible about the usage and exercise caution and more importantly use common sense! Adjust your privacy settings on each of these platforms. Do you want your personal information and photos to be visible to everybody or would you rather give access to only your friends? In the same token, each one of us need to use good judgment when it comes to revealing and sharing parts of our private life online. Agreed, this is not a foolproof method to protect your online identity but at least you are not opening the door wide to welcome complete strangers into your house. You are using some discretion and caution.

Another important point I would like you to think about is the image you project on the different social platforms.  Just the way you’d intend to ‘position’ a product or a service based on your target audience shouldn’t a similar principle apply to your ‘social audience’? Whether you are on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or YouTube identify and recognize the purpose of that medium and segregate accordingly. As authentic and genuine you need to be across these platforms, make it a point to chalk out a line between these tools as they are meant to serve different purposes.

Remember you are the ‘same person’ but there is a subtle difference in the way you’d interact with your family, friends, co-workers, vendors, future employers or neighbors. Each of these circles may get to see a subtle shade of you, so why not use the same principle when it comes to interacting with the same folks online through these different social mediums! Wouldn’t you think?

Photos by fisserman and tanakawho

I tried to analyze this using Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory. According to Rogers, the diffusion of innovation occurs when the adoption of an idea, practice, or object spreads by communication through a social system. Adoption is similar to diffusion just that it involves the psychological processes an individual goes through, during the decision-making process. Rogers defines several intrinsic characteristics of innovations that influence an individual’s decision to adopt or reject an innovation. This can be compared to give us an insight as to how we are currently adopting the social media.

Similar to adolescent peer pressure do you think as individuals, we feel internally pressurized to join such social media groups? The need to be seen on networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Orkut, Hi5; choosing from a vast pool of such social media sites. What propels your decision-making process? Is it the fear or insecurity of being left behind? Is it the need to be included as part of the inner clique being able to comment and ‘like’ the Halloween costume photos shared by your friends last night? As an organization, are you concerned about catching up with your competitors doing the social media thing? Or on the flip side is it about wanting to prove yourself and your organization as an early adopter, and be seen as a thought leader amongst your peers. In both cases, there lies an intrinsic need or desire to prove to yourself or others.

Likewise, on the other side of the bank, for those of you staying abreast of the latest trends and updates in social media, managing anywhere from 5 to 11 social handles, how do ‘you’ perceive a laggard? This is an individual who is probably still stuck with his or her hotmail id and has no clue about YouTube, Facebook or what is a tweet? What opinions do you form about this person? Do they automatically get bracketed into your grandparents’ times?

The rate at which we adopt these innovations over time corresponds with some of the intrinsic characteristics of innovations that influence an individual’s decision to adopt or reject an innovation. Relative advantage – relates with, is it better than what we had before? How improved is it from what we had? Leading to the question, does social media help us communicate and network more efficiently in real time? If your answer is yes, you’ve crossed this hurdle.

Compatibility is the second characteristic – questioning whether it is compatible with ones values, beliefs, prior ideas, etc? How easily can it be assimilated into an individual’s current life? If it’s a far stretch and if that person does not see the value of sharing his or her personal photos on FB or giving status updates of his/her current location via the Smartphone, the person is less likely to get on a social platform like Facebook for instance. Complexity is the third and a significant factor in influencing – Is it simple and easy to use?  Simplicity speeds adoption. The easier the app. the higher the likelihood for a person to download it sooner and use it to keep up with his or her social profiles.

Observability is the fourth factor – That corresponds with the extent to which an innovation is visible to others? Can you see it in action? The more people see the effects of the innovation, the higher the chance of it creating a ripple effect with people creating either more positive or negative reactions about it. Food for thought, when it comes to how a YouTube video becomes a viral video creating either positive or negative reactions around it.

Last but not the least, Trialability determines how can we try it before we buy into it?  How much commitment do we have to make in order to use?  How much risk (monetary or emotional) is involved in the adoption? If the answer to these questions is positive, the more conducive it is to be adopted. Creating profiles in almost all of the current social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Orkut etc. is free and quite simple to use. You can choose to abandon these profiles (without any monetary loss) if at any point you find it too difficult to maintain and manage or just fizzle out.

In light of these factors, what do you think motivates or inspires you to join the bandwagon? Where in the adoption cycle do you stand, for the rest of you?

Photos by Chris Radcliff and Plakboek

The inception stage is when a firm packages a plain commodity and plants that seed initially in the minds of the consumers. The latter phase (as described by Kevin Lane Keller is his book, Strategic Brand Management) is the more fascinating one when consumers’ carry out that imagination (in their heads) and allow it to manifest into the perceived benefits a commodity can provide us. I quote, “A brand is a perceptual entity rooted in reality, but it is more than that- it reflects the perceptions and perhaps even the idiosyncrasies of consumers.” That’s the power of a brand, and we as consumers play an active role in the creation and consumption of it.

What interests me is, are we usually in control of the brand in the purchasing process, or do we tend to succumb to the brand and give in to their appeal(s)? It leads to the question of, is it a need-based purchase or a desire driven marketing package? It continues to be an interesting game to see how brands play on the psyche of a consumer.

Brands were originally created by firms to aid consumers in the decision-making process helping them choose between alternatives as a win-win marketing strategy. As consumers we like to be given a platter of choices versus being driven to pick one forcibly. It plays well into the psyche of consumers as it gives us the illusion that we are always in control and making that choice rationally. Theoretically that may sound plausible but in reality what happens is a totally different ballgame!

Branding today is so powerful that it plays into our psyche creating deep associations with what we may consider as need-based wants and trying to seemingly fill in that void. Point is, they let us believe that purchasing that brand can help make us feel more attractive, happier, more successful, more popular and we tend to give in to those fantasies, and at some point allow the brand to take over without even realizing it!

Lee’s jeans with tummy tuck technology that promises to instantly slim you, Reebok’s Easytone shoes designed as an innovative footwear solution marketed to make your butt look better. The Axe effect, a Unilever deodorant product line marketed humorously, featuring ordinary men becoming instantly irresistible when they spray on the Axe. Coca-Cola’s new advertising campaign focusing on the feel-good factor. The “Happiness Machine” video on YouTube features a Coca-Cola vending machine transformed to deliver surprising “doses” of happiness to unsuspecting college students. Voss, a Norwegian premium bottled water company has become coveted for its taste, purity and sleek packaging. The brand today, has set a new standard of luxury and style within the bottled water market.

These are examples of some of the everyday commodities we consume that’s cleverly packaged and branded to sell us much more. So point is, are we just buying the brand for its utilitarian benefits, or are we really buying into the persona and perception that brand has been able to create in the process? What’s your take on it? What do you feel?

Photo by Scbr

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