What I try to do as a person first, and then as a writer; is to be very mindful of what I’m portraying in and out of the cyber world. With everything we do online today, being only keystrokes and a click away; we have to pay especially close attention to what we are saying online, without us actually saying a single word.
Although you may never have the opportunity to meet that person in Dublin, Ireland that you did a hangout with on Google+, or have brunch with the young lady that you tweeted and thanked for the #FF; it’s highly recommend by the many social media gurus out there, that we be very mindful of the energy and/or message we’re sending out when someone decides to visit our profiles.
Just like many face to face, first impressions we tend to have, it only takes one post to be shared or one picture to be uploaded that can cause your social media death, so to speak.
In life, outside of our cyber lives, we are very selective in who we attach ourselves to and who we allow to attach themselves to us. Normally, we don’t seek out the most negative people to call them “friends”; nor do we tend to call our friends in the real world, followers. While there are obvious differences in how we live online and offline; there should be some things that we consider doing similar if for nothing else than to protect ourselves from getting that awkward response from that questionable individual.
There’s a lot of nutcases out there just waiting for you to turn your head slightly to slip a tracking device in your bag, steal something of great importance to you out of your possession, or something worse, like the perfect opportunity to stab you in your back when you least expect it. OK, maybe some of those were a bit far-fetched, but I’m sure you understand what I’m trying to say.
The cyber-world and blogosphere is in no way different than the “real world”. What we send out into the airwaves determines the type of traffic we attract, and the type of people we connect with and those that will connect to us as well. Of course there’s always the chance of some good apples getting away, as well as bad apples getting through. Such is life though, right?
People are going to be people first and foremost; it’s what we do best. As time continue to proceed on and society continues to get further and further advance in social media technology what we will see is an increase in the App’s, and functions on the various social media platforms that will allow for us to give ourselves even more of our own personalities in the cyber world. As it becomes more available for us to do so, my only advice would be for us to make sure that what we want to be portrayed online is being portrayed through our shares, our +1’s, and our tweets.
Sending or sharing the wrong message has never been of greater importance than when you are giving yourselves an online presence. So before you push Share, Send, or Tweet, think about who exactly your profile will be attracting.
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