Today if someone comes over to you and say that they don’t make use of social media, and does not maintain a profile on some professional network, you would not be able to hold your surprised gasp. That person would be a like a ghost for you, his physical appearance and words coming out of his mouth would not matter to you.
What is so important to have an online presence? Why is it so essential even when we have our email accounts, and cell phones? Well, for making things simpler, the world has already gone global a decade ago, and this is all part of the package.
If you wish to enter the future with your guns sticking out, then you better be prepared with an awesome presence on the internet. Otherwise, no one would know what you do and who you are? Still there are arguments that social and professional media are the waste of time, and whatever anyone says on these media does not matter much! Well, this skepticism is wrong, because there are now several stories of success and failures, creating convincing examples.
Consider yourself standing in the middle of the room and telling a story about your first day at the school. The room is empty and you can only hear yourself talking. Your projection of the story remains with you, because there is no one listening to your voice. Now imagine the same room with one of your close friends, and you are telling her the same story. The context changes as now she can hear you, and even tell your story to her friends when she meet them.
Same effects carry a stronger message when you do that with a number of people in a conference room. This is called “degrees of separation”. Ever heard the term “small world”? Yes, this is exactly what’s happening to us when we project ourselves. People talk, the word of mouth travels. It does not matter that the words are against you or in favor; you have no authority over it to stop these.
Coming to the point,
The physical existence is restrained by the physical context of this world.
Thence, the control over the environmental, social, economical and political factors applies there in. This story changes when one present herself on the internet and creates a virtual self.
Likes, retweets, shares and comments do not matter here. Once you say something online, the world will see it. It is a 6 degree of separation science that makes it so powerful. People don’t realize that at the moment of posting something online. Each time someone views, or hit a like on your update, the thing is projected with double the frequency.
But this is all on a personal context. An individual human being can just put a limited time and resources to project their presence on the internet.
What you need to consider are the existence of businesses and organizations on the online forums and what reactions can be caused by their virtual existence. The virtual existence starts with a simple domain space on the internet, and here a website is created. Once the website in uploaded, it sits silently without making any noise. In the earlier era, people used to communicate their presence via emails, and send the links to their known friends, and from there the word gets out. Now, you do it on all the social media available, plus you do it with your own physical presence.
It is a marketing game actually. You put yourself up for sale, with proper noise and people who listen to you. Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and several other forums help in amplifying that sound. All leading to one place: Your website.
Both of these worlds coexist with each other. There is no denial in the existing of each, and the importance they carry for each other. The effect however differs from person to person and from business to business context.
A whole new ball game of personal and resource management applies here. The timing and the way a product is marketed, when and where it is marketed, and determining the right audience all matters the most and in a nick of time situation.
If you see how updates stack up on a social media site, you would understand the importance of how products are hammered. That is the reason that there is a special place for the “paid” contents, as these are on display at a fixed location, and people can click on these as per their choice. But if it is not a paid content, then a whole new strategy comes into play.
People now hire independent Web content developers, Search Engine Optimizers and Digital Strategists to project their voices in all the right directions. Analytic tools helps out the business in monitoring the traffic, who and where and what time is the best time to project their products.
Virtual existence is no more fundamental, it is the “Existence” of the world in a more powerful impact then physical existence can ever create.
Due to the degrees of separation, the content we share becomes far more powerful than our own words. It does not have the social, religious and linguistic barrier.
We need to realize this fast as the world progress itself to the future. The business market now resides on the virtual space and time. If we don’t utilize that space, someone else will.
