Is it important to specify where I currently work on my Social Media properties?

Is it important to specify where I currently work on my Social Media properties?

What are your digital/social media properties?

Social media properties for any individual include the profiles created on various platforms or websites on social media which can rank on SERPs. The most prominent ones include your blog posts, Facebook/LinkedIn profiles, website descriptions, Tweets, images which are search optimized, etc.

Essentially any webpage which lists or is capable of listing as a result on any Search Engine Results Page can be considered a social media property for that individual. Optimizing them to ensure that the most relevant and recent information about you is available goes a long way in improving your business network and potentially availing business opportunities which you may otherwise miss.

Which of them are relevant?

LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the most relevant platforms as of now. Posting anything on Facebook or Twitter is liable to turn up in search results on those platforms as well as on Google. Any past misdemeanors may potentially turn up on these results.

Ask me why it matters today? You risk missing out any potential business opportunities if you profile is littered with obscenities or profane imagery or lewd content. Also, your future employers may turn to social media to validate the authenticity your claims/answers in the interview.

Why list your Job location/profile?

Listing your job location on Facebook may not seem all that worrying for most professionals; trust me, quite a bit of people can stalk/know about your whereabouts by triangulating your job location.


Listing your job profile on LinkedIn will help others in identifying what your role involves and what your abilities encompass while working with your current and past employers

When not to list where or what you work as?

Keeping it generic particularly helps if you are someone working in a sensitive function or if your role involves managing confidential client in formation which may be misused.

My suggestion is to go ahead with listing your job roles on as many channels as possible if your job profile involves sales or marketing or business development of any sort or if you are prepared to change your profile in the near future.

If your profile or role however entails risk of client information which may get potentially leaked violating confidentiality clauses or if listing such information questions your stability in the role, I would recommend not listing your current Job profile or location on your social media properties as they could potentially land you in a soup.

Bosses in today's age whether in India or overseas have started resorting to checking your profiles to ensure that they are getting the right signals from you as an employee

Up next: How do you respond when something goes viral for the right/wrong reasons?
Previous Post: Newtons third law of action and reaction and how it works on the social network

Newtons third law of action and reaction and how it works on the social network.

Back after a long time, I will proceed to explain how each 'action' on social tends to have a 'reaction'. This reaction can be a like, share, re-tweet, favorite, comment, etc.  So, what are the implications of such reactions.

To put matters into perspective, I will consider three different aspects of the impact these reactions have.

1. Money (Vitamin M is never too far away!!)
2. Reputation
3. Buzz OR Virality

1. Money

Anything that can add value and be monetized is monetized in today's world. Good content will automatically generate reactions be it on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, SlideShare or even LinkedIn for that matter. But, you can also generate reactions using paid mediums like Blogger outreaches and paid campaigns on Twitter/Facebook which will boost the buzz around your brand and vastly improve your reach. Another aspect to monetization is that you, as an individual can earn from being an Influencer on Twitter, Linked In or Instagram by getting paid to write about or appreciate content published by Brands. There are certain criteria like having a certain number of followers on Twitter / Instagram or a significant klout score to qualify for such opportunities. Bloggers outreach through blogging communities like Blogsadda and Blogmint.

 So, to conclude, you can pump money to publicize your brand or you can earn money being becoming one such user who tweets/ blogs through paid promotion.

2.Reputation.

Any brand or persons reputation is based on search results on Google. Branding and reputation go hand in hand and reactions on your campaigns or contests can affect brand perception and reputation. Take for example, the DBS Chilli Paneer campaign or the co-branded campaigns like The permanent Roommates (CommonFloor) or The Philips Air Fryer(Sanjay Thumma of Vahchef fame). They have proved that innovative ways to brand, create awareness and sell products on social media exist and that they can create a serious impact in user decisions. DBS is not a well known Bank and so was the case with the CommonFloor App and the Philips Air Fryer, viz, they were not well known as Brands go before the particular campaign. The campaigns managed to generate sufficient reactions enough to secure public attention, raise the brands reputation and awareness from zero to the levels that they are know today.

Moral of the story: Reactions determine and quantify your Brand's reputation on Social media

3.Buzz or Virality.

You can google about the Maggi Ban and read up on a lot of information about why the product was banned along with the comments about the same on twitter using the #tag #MaggiBan. Any incident good or bad has the capacity to go viral if shared with the right audience. You can post content about Radhe Maa or any other self styled godmen and it is bound to gain buzz around the same with a significant number of the general audience because that is the sort of content they are on the look out for. Similarly, campaigns with good intentions, like Axis Banks #Share4Green in Q2 2014 or relatively small initiatives like the #RiceBucketChallenge which went viral on social media solely because of the intentions behind the campaign, i.e. a good cause. Other initiatives like Social Banking through Kotak Jifi or #Hashtag Banking by Kotak Mahindra bank which are genuinely new digital initiatives can boost a brand's reputation and generate reactions in form of likes, shares, inviting friends and colleagues to participate. These reactions go a long way in generating Brand Recall and creating awareness among audience hitherto un-reached. Generating positive buzz and reducing negative Buzz around the Brand is the need of the hour for many brands and they usually turn to digital agencies specializing in Online Reputation Management to achieve the same.

Key Takeaway: Your gateway to generating Buzz or going viral on social is through generating reactions which can be achieved by creative content and curating negatives on search through expert advise.

Up next: 3. Do you really need to specify where you work?
Previous Post: 

Why should you be so careful about voicing your opinion/posting pictures on social networks?

Why should you be so careful about voicing your opinion/posting pictures on social networks?

Why should you be so careful about voicing your opinion/posting pictures on social networks?

While it is universally agreed that you are free to express you opinion as and when you feel so, why then should we exercise restraint while posting/ tweeting? Posting pictures on social media is also universally agreed on similar lines. You definitely have the liberty of posting or tweeting with photos of your choice., however, being a little more careful than usual always helps. Want to know why, read on.

Well, its simple, while you are entitled to your opinion, it is not necessary that the whole world agree on it, particularly if it is about something controversial or sensitive. Expressing your opinion publicly can land you in a spot of bother unless you believe in it and know of ways to justify your views.

To put this into perspective, if someone decides to post his personal views on the  incident gratifying/condemning it, your opinions appear professional unless specified on the Bio, also your employer gets thrust into the limelight as to why someone with such radical views is being employed by the organization. This can be averted by carefully going through the minute details of your organizations social media policy if it is available, or else, follow the general guidelines and you should be fine. The use of social media for resolution of complaints/queries and as a crucial touchpoint to reach out to the masses is something every MNC has considered and is ready to leverage to increase their reach. So any personal comments in the wrong sense can highlight your employer in the wrong light.

With pictures, while it may seem harmless uploading pictures on Twitter or Facebook, bear in mind that these pictures can be used by anyone and everyone.
A new trend has emerged with recruiters particularly going through social media profiles to ensure they do not hire the wrong person for the job. Given the amount of information available in such social networks, it does help if you do not have embarrassing pictures of yourself partying excessively or breaking traffic rules on your profiles.

Up next: Newtons third law of action and reaction and how it works on the social network.
Previous Post: Social Media Etiquette

Social Media Etiquette.

Social Media today is an essential way of connecting and networking with a lot of people. In the past, such a tool was not available and hence etiquette on how to behave on social media is not understood by most users.  Even, the existing etiquette which is for specified for face to face conversations or written communication through emails/ business correspondence is not necessarily understood  by everyone. So, what you would consider a major "faux pax" would be trivial for someone else.

Why then is it so important for us, humans as a social being to understand, what social media etiquette is and what one should  look to desperately avoid while posting or commenting on micro-blogging sites like twitter or on the social network, viz, Facebook.

Well, it is no rocket science if you ask me, as I keep it down to very simple rules which I have formulated from my observations.

1. Why should you be so careful about voicing your opinion/posting pictures on social networks/
2. Newtons third law of action and reaction and how it works on the social network.
3. Do you really need to specify where you work?
4. How to respond when something you posted goes viral/wrong?