How to protect your reputation

Like a leaf fallen from a tree, can never return back as a leaf of the tree, the words that we speak are also like the arrow that left a bow and can never come back. Hence choose your words carefully. Be lavish with praises and frugal in criticisms. Don’t take your emotions everywhere. Keep them under control. Or else you may say or do something that may prove detrimental. The future is unknown, but the past is present as an open book for all to read. Entire history of your past is recorded in a timeline fashion in the modern contraptions. Thus you are quite exposed to the world, although you may think you are not. Hence you have to be that extra careful. Your comments on various websites, your identity on some and in general, your activities on all social network together make up your persona. It’s available for everyone to read and assimilate. Besides these, those documents that you created for a company, your plans and schedules in your company computers have a chance of being hacked and exposed.

Similarly, all your actions cannot be rolled back. You may have an alibi, but it does not negate the action. Hence, do not do anything distasteful. Do not resort to actions when you are feeling angry as you may regret the same. The best thing to do in any situation is to stay calm, no matter what. And it’s not just you. Others may write about you or say something to malign you. Your reactions to events are something that you have to control. If you find that somebody has flamed you in any way, do not react in a fit of rage. Know that your actions and reactions can cause grave damage to your reputation, if you travel on the wrong side of the road. Everyday we are confronted with situations, which thwart us towards some actions. And we cannot avoid them. The best we can do is be level-headed and act out in such a way that does not cause any harm. It’s like a CCTV is always watching you.

You may think I’m paranoid. No. I have heard  so many tales of people who have been affected by various inconveniences. For example there are many people who write about the products and services that you sell. The people who write negative reviews about your work will do so if you haven’t done your part. Then there are some eternal pessimists also. These people always crib on the websites. Remember not to flame them in return. You could really ask them what went wrong and what you are doing about it. Please assess the facts and mention the fact-filled details to a negative rant. This is the best you can. But remember, most of the people will go ahead and post an affirmative, if you have satisfied them. Always endure to satisfy your customer and be in their good books. The bad atmosphere has been created by some pranksters who have duped people. Unfortunately it has started affecting the genuine people also.

Another thing to do when you are online, is to surf anonymously. This ensures that your machines do not get cookies from different websites that track your activity. Do not click links without thinking. There are many sites which install backdoor viruses into your machine. Do not five away your email addresses and fill forms without being careful. Some of these sites sell this information to third parties without your permission. When you comment on a website  be precise and meaningful. If you are irked with a product or a service, mention the facts. Do not extrapolate. Never get into an argument. Whenever you are on chat or a social website, be sure that they are recording every single character that you type. The list goes on and on. But my last tip to you would be stay positive always. Take full responsibility of your actions. Send positive vibrations out and you will get them back in return.

To your image,

Guru30

My thoughts on Twitter

As you all know that Twitter is a social platform to send tweets (thoughts) of not more than 140 characters to a group or an individual. These tweets are nothing but messages that flow in a Twittersphere. It essentially is a publish/subscribe mechanism, wherein people who want to subscribe to different kind of ideas (that they like) do so by subscribing to a channel (a user or a company). In turn whoever publishes a message on his channel is assured of distributing the message to those who are subscribed to the channel. In addition there are #tags. These are other groups active in this ecosystem which also receives the message once somebody makes a mention of them using the #tag in their tweets. To complete it there are also @mentions, which is used to target a user or a company that you want to be cited.

You know the thing about Twitter is that it allows us to be precise as there is a limitation of the number of characters we can type in a message. Further, the message gains its power when somebody re-tweets it. By the simple act of re-tweeting, the message is sent to all those people who are subscribed to that sender and so on, it multiplies. As any other thought, these messages have the capability to affect us in a positive or negative way. Shouldn’t be saying negative, because there is no such thing. The right term would be less positive. Let me clarify. Is there any such thing as -2 apples or -2 $ in the real world. The world designed by God is positive. Yes there can be an absence (zero) but no negative. Thus we can definitely say that Twitter is a positive influence. And if you philosophize a little bit, everything is.

What seems to be negative is nothing but a thought with very low power. You might be knowing that bad (for the lack of a better term) things do not last, as much as good ones do. Twitter is an experience in brevity with the power to change the world. But as of now, there are only about 250 million Twitter followers. The more it increases (as it will), the better. The whole planet must get connected. On an average a human being gets 60,000 thoughts in a day. And the messages flowing in this ecosphere is just a fraction of that. Like any thought, the message is powerful. Thoughts trigger emotions. And hence these messages have a role in our well being. As long as someone is listening to the messages, they become contextual. The meaning wipes off the moment the message doesn’t reach the intended audience.

Sometimes the message is in real-time when the sender sends it first-hand. But nowadays there are ways to tweet at scheduled times when it is more effective. (so that it reaches the maximum number of people) Also there are bots (machines) which automatically reply to messages. These messages can also be instrumental in causing effect. Which is to affect the receiver in a way or two. However, I doubt the authenticity of the same. Sometimes machines do not respond the way we do. But technology is getting better. And the gap between the two is slowly narrowing. But whatever may be the source of the message, it still is a message. The intent of a message can be under doubt depending on the source of it. The way to verify the sender is limited. We really cannot distinguish between the two.

Despite whatever limitations or features, Twitter still represents a powerful platform of social exchange affecting millions of lives on this beautiful planet.

To your best always,

Guru30