This is a guest blog entry from Karin Gerber.
Social media connects us in ways we have never experienced before. For most of us it is just an extension of email and instant messaging to help us stay in contact with family and friends. For the folks with millions of followers it is not uncommon for a tweeted picture, random tweet or Facebook post to go viral in some way or another. Those folks are used to getting thousands of visits, retweet’s and attention.
How about all of us everyday folks who just cruise along in our social media existence? If we were to go viral would we be ready for it?
I ask this because of a couple of events over the last week that really got me thinking about this very situation. What if you were to take a picture of the Space Shuttle launch from an airplane or maybe live tweet the recovery of your stolen laptop to your followers? Maybe you snapped a shot of a US Airways airplane in the Hudson River and uploaded it to TwitPic.
When that event, image or tweet goes viral are you and your social media profile ready for the attention and scrutiny that will come with it? When you are suddenly appearing on the front page of mainstream news sites, tech blogs and social media sites people are going to click on your Twitter timeline, your Facebook page and your other tweeted pictures.
What will they find when they click on your social media profiles and sites? If it is you and your good with who you are and how you conduct yourself on these sites no problem.
If it is a persona and not the real you then that might cause issues – then again maybe it won’t.
Maybe those profiles show you in situations that you did not expect to have half a million people see you in because you were just tweeting to your family and friends.
Whatever the case I think it is important to be aware of the person we are online because you never really know when the spotlight will be directed at you.
As long as your ready to have it shining on you and your social media profiles then press forward but realize sometimes that light can be very bright.
What are your thoughts on this? Will your social media profiles represent you the way you want them to?