We are living in an era of social media. From morning to night, most of the people are glued to their smartphones checking Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, Linkedin, and YouTube everywhere at home, office, while travelling, in public transports and roads anywhere. With the increase of addiction of Internet, social media is emerging as the best mode of communication. With over 460 million internet users, India is the second largest online market, ranked only behind China. By 2021, there will be about 635.8 million internet users in India. The widespread use of social networking in India has been on the rise especially among the new generation youths.

In 2008 and 2012, the world witnessed Obama’s winning strategies using social media.  Not only was Obama the first African American to be elected president, but he was also the first presidential candidate to effectively use social media as a major campaign strategy. In 2008, American voters were sent out voting reminders on Twitter and interacting with people on Facebook was a big deal. Following his footsteps, in 2014, the BJP straight dived head strong into social media conversations. Their constant activities were aimed towards spreading awareness and having a direct connection with the voters. On a daily basis, various competing hash-tags like #NaMoInUdhampur, #KejriwalInVaranasi made debut.  Politics is a favourite topic for discussions among the young and old. The hash-tags are famous on Twitter and Twitter users get pulled into it.

Already, we are witnessing blitz of anti and pro political campaigns on our smartphones for the 2019 general elections. Advertising experts and industry leaders are betting on the overall expenditure of the campaigns worth Rs. 5,000 crore. The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party is already spending quite a bit on advancing ‘Brand Modi’ in terms of achievements of his  government in the last four years, all campaigns undertaken by the BJP and its several ministries and departments have revolved around NaMo. The main opposition Congress is also likely to spend close to Rs 1,500-2,000 crore on mass media and other Rs. 400-500 crore on digital campaign.

We cannot ignore a fact that politics and media share a complex synergistic relationship; media, politics and elections are knotted together and social media platforms have become the essential ground for the discussion of political narratives.

Recently when the Uttar Pradesh unit of the BJP met, there was one session which had a lot of outside states turn up. It was held in Meerut and attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Home Minister Rajnath Singh amongst others. The social media session was attended by BJP President Amit Shah. The message is clear:  if social media was the X-factor in 2014 polls, the 2019 it will be their main focus. It seems BJP plans to have a social media coordinator for every single booth in the election. Let’s consider each booth has approximately 2,000 voters which mean that the BJP social media team across the country would run into approximately four and half lakh social media coordinators.

As per the Election Commission records India has 81.5 crore voters, among them exist BJP volunteers and workers who are trained in social media. They all are armed with a Smartphone. What a fantastic strategy.  The 2019 election is few months away and already few lakhs volunteers are working. But, the BJP is looking for many more as they need to penetrate their campaigns in interiors parts of India which is too vast. BJP is on organizing spree of meetings to boost their social media campaigns. After the strategy of page pramukh worked well in Gujarat (one worker to be in charge of each page list of voters) it is decided to have two pramukhs for each page. Since every page has a front and a back.

However, globally some election experts have raised alarm against recent elections in some countries where social media campaigns influenced the election proceedings to such an extent that the democratic process came under threat. There is an alarming worry that outside interests can work to undermine the democratic process in a subtle and sneaky way. In April 2017, Facebook admitted that its platform had been exploited by governments seeking to manipulate public opinion in other countries during the presidential elections in the US and France. Facebook pledged to clamp down on such operations.

Many countries in the world are running election campaigns on social media. Look at the recent example – in the closely-fought election in Malaysia, former Prime Minister Najib Razak who is dogged by corruption allegations was ousted and arrested, and the election results were revoked. Courtiers such as Singapore and Philippines are actively proposing legislation on fake news, while Germany introduced a new law that compels social media networks to remove hate speech. Indonesia has launched a new cyber security agency as part of its efforts to deal with online religious fanaticism, online hate speech, nip terrorist groups and fake news on social media.

It has become big task for the Election Commission of India; they have set a panel to scrutinize the growing use of social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube. The panel has recommended processes to deal with violations. The nation has seen a rise in religious and ethnic tensions in recent times; few people are killed due to rumours spread on social media about child kidnappings, rapes and cow smuggling. Fake news and paid news are matters of concern and misuse on social media. The Election Commission of India is tightening rules and regulations to plug loopholes in the forthcoming general election.

Today, individuals and organizations need to have digital presence; having a digital presence simply means that you occupy space online. Few years’ back digital presence meant an organization having its own website. Today most of the individual have digital presence because of boom in social media. Connectivity is the mantra. The question is does your online presence matter? If you run a google search of yourself, do you see anything written about you? If yes, what do you see? Is it good? Is it something wicked? Whatever the result be, it is the reputation you have online. Your online reputation is your brand. And your brand is what employers and professional bodies are seeing before you even step into the room for an interview. Today, employers don’t go by what your resume mentions, they check your digital presence and that’s one strong barometer they depend on. That’s the first impression they make about you, even before meeting you.

With the constant and rapid advancement of technology in all industries, online has begun to play an increasingly larger role in the world of business, and it is one of the most vital element that companies look at their current digital presence. Similarly for individuals also, it is a vital element in their professional and personal life. Our world has changed vividly in only a few decades. Organizations and people previously accustomed to face-to-face meetings, pencils, and paper have migrated to predominantly digital communications. Digital presence also portrays an individual’s social intelligence.

Our personal and professional lives are interweaved in the digital world. One must ask himself/herself: what kind of personal or professional brand he/she wants to establish. For establishing the kind of brand, choice of worlds, choice of activities, choice of photographs and choice of acquaintances all need to be given a thought. These are just some of the things one needs to consider while living and working online.

When it comes to social media and your career, one of the most important things you can do is make sure that your online profiles are engaging and specialized, particularly with LinkedIn. The detailing of your job history, your job related skills, your qualifications, your achievements everything needs to be mentioned. And, yes, let them be backed by some endorsements relating to your career accomplishments. Remember, to make sure your name and snaps are consistent across all of your social media profiles. That way, whenever potential employers or professional bodies come into contact with your accounts, you will be more easily identified by them. If possible, include keywords related to your industry, as that may make it more likely that you will come up in search results for recruiters.

If possible, make social media networking part of your daily activity. Follow companies in your industry you are related to on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. You will be notified about open positions, company news and other relevant info.  You may also get the opportunity to interact with major players, if you re-tweet or share their posts. Be smart in establishing relationships with the right people, even without having to meet with them directly. That’s the best part of digital relationship! We rarely meet them in person.

Position yourself as a thought leader on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn by helping others make connections through introductions, and sharing content that is insightful and applicable to your industry. People appreciate interacting with contacts who give, rather than just take. Yes, and this is a fact. Digital presence showcases your personality. It is advisable to keep many things under the wrap, be as professional as you can on your social media accounts. The world out there wants pleasant and affable personalities. Employers are always looking for people who’d fit the delineated profiles and fit in their team. So use your imaginations and ideas, your soft skills to be digitally present. Share your view points, share articles, videos, jokes, snaps, your hobbies, interests or other aspects of your personal life. Be choosy about what part of your private life needs to be public.

Don’t put false things to boost your presence, show the real you. You get easily caught if you’re put false things about you.  Bragging makes you seem less impressive, not more impressive. If you are doing something worth bragging about, others will brag for you. When people aren’t ‘real’ the world ignores them. So post the ‘true’ you.

We are living in a digital world, and my dear friends, no matter how you look at it, every day more and more people around the globe are becoming better connected to the internet. So don’t try to escape it.

Every day we are showered with umpteen advertisements; they are in newspapers, on billboards, hoardings, banners, websites, newspaper insertions and TV. Whether we like them are not – we are exposed to about hundreds of them on a daily basis. Majority of the time, we ignore them because we are used to tune them out.  Today’s consumers need a lot of flexibility, independence and ease while consuming any content. They don’t like to be dictated in what, when, where and how they should consume any content. Advertisers are facing a big time challenge to understand the consumer’s mindset on when, how and where they spend their time, and adjust the advertising patterns accordingly.

Among the topnotch media vehicles TV ads historically were and still are the advertising platform of choice for brands seeking to maximize their reach; in past the next choice was print media and outdoor platforms. But today, internet advertising has already overtaken and left other media vehicles behind. As per the latest trends TV ads are complimented by internet ads and this is getting the advertisers required results. Advertisers today are using internet as a platform to accelerate user engagement. Leading advertisers are stitching together offline and online consumer experience while they are creating persuasive, inventive and interactive internet experiences.

Advertisers cannot ignore some of the glaring facts while designing strategies for ad campaigns.

Mobile has become the center of marketing: From cell phones to smart phones, tablets to wearable gadgets, the progression of mobile cannot be ignored. It has become one of the prime features which influence the advertising and marketing world. As the focus is shifting from the TV screen to smaller screen, and the fact that mobile is considered a personalized gadget for each individual, brands will be able to strike up a more personalized relationship with their customers by using the influence of the power of mobile.

Customers are looking for stronger ties with brands: Already, customers are seeking more commitment from brands. They seek transparency and ethical behavior from the brands. This trend will persist as customers are becoming more demanding in their expectation of transparency. They will buy and be loyal to brands which offer ‘what they promise’ – the ones that create real value. This simply means that brands which will not make their customer dealings transparent will doom automatically.

Good content will always be welcomed: Good and evocative advertising content has been, is and always be appreciated by viewers.  Predominantly visual content will rule the perch in the online marketing world. Quite often we come across an advertisement that’s so clever, you instantly stop and appreciate it. Advertisers need to evolve into various forms at times some may disrupt the conventional marketing models. But, they need to adapt to ever changing market changes because the speed at which a brand can create amazing content will play a part in their success. Last year in the tax season, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance created the Tax Monster, a character that personified the much-hated taxes to build awareness for its Fortune Gain and Future Gain schemes. During a three-month campaign, the insurance brand sought to debunk common tax issues and talk about how insurance is great to save tax. The brand chose a content-driven strategy where fans were fed with information in a fun, interactive manner, using which they had to defeat the tax monster. The ad was appreciated by masses.

User generated content helps brand recall: The smart marketers have realized the power of user-generated content. The customer’s feedback and their opinions will surpass branded content as brands begin to surrender control of their own brands’ marketing to their customers. Customers interact with each other online through their reviews, experiences, comments on social media, blogs, and discussions. If the brand is appreciated, impact will be positive. However strong the advertiser’s content is, the co-creation between brands and consumers call the shorts. This has indeed become a popular trend.

Social media has become an integral part of the promotion. Its impact has grown stronger and hence most marketers have adopted a transition effort to social channels.

Brands will survive because their loyalists:  Today, in the management of marketing, the future of the brand depends solely in what customers are talking about a brand. The customers’ responses and feelings toward the brand will dictate future campaigns. Fundamentally, if the customers are happy, they will gladly wear the marketer’s hat and do what is needed to bring their favorite brand in focus.

Marketers need to understand that they cannot rely solely on demographic parameters; for example depending solely on the millennial; a product which is targeted solely at “youth” segment is bought and consumed by older generations too.

Personalized data and accurate analytical tools will help marketing efforts: Marketers will have to rely on customer’s personalized data and focus on relationship building. The data collection will need to be rightly captured and measured scientifically. Many ideas are hypothesized, but few are practical. The need of the hour is better analytical tools to help marketers determine the success of their campaigns.

The Oreo biscuit by Nabisco, an American company created a social and digital campaign for their brand by teaming up with ad agency 360i of 100 days in 2012. The campaign was creative and whimsical visualizations of “America’s favorite cookie” from June 25th until October 2nd. Each day, Oreo shared an image of a cookie portraying thinkable and unthinkable events of the day capturing important milestones or current events.

Using milestones is in general a great way of creating engagement, both through location specific celebrations and worldwide events. In India Amul is famous for it. Such campaigns click because a large number of people can easily relate to it.  Oreo’s 100 days campaign engaged  fans with the “Daily Twist” campaign as people became curious and wanted to see what comes next? The campaign was driven on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbir and Pinterest.

Some events are of course more predictable than others, such as the Olympics, Labour Day and the beginning of new school year, but most of the celebrated events were surprising, such as Talk like a pirate day, Elvis Week and the Mars Rover landing. Even though some of the cookie designs were obviously planned ahead, you could sense that the Oreo design team monitored trending topics and enhanced current events, such as the premiere of Batman “The Dark Knight Rises” and the release of the iPhone5 ensuring that the content was always relevant and timely.

The campaign finale took place at Times Square with the last “Daily Twist” cookie design created in real-time in a pop-up agency, based on ideas from consumers suggested through social media or from people showing up on Times Square for the finale.

So, today’s advertising trend is that the brand needs ‘two-way conversation’ wherein the consumers participate in the advertising campaigns. Previously it used to be ‘one way’ in which a brand dominates the conversation or outputs information without really engaging the consumers. Two-way conversation is a strategy that a brand uses to radiate a human quality, showing and practicing that they care about what consumers have to say. Instead of broadcasting, they’re engaging.

This is an era of social media. From morning to night everyone is glued to the mobile phone checking Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, You tube everywhere at home, office, traveling, on public transports and roads anywhere. With the increase of addiction of Internet, social media is emerging as the best mode of communication. Popular social media vehicles include Facebook and Twitter and WhatsApp. India has 118 million active social media accounts. Of this the more operated social media accounts is by the tech savvy youth. So it seems that the more influenced by the social media is today’s younger generation. Social media is used differently by different people for different purposes. One of the wide usages is by the politicians who harness the power of social media for achieving their political agenda. It is not an overstatement to say that social media is playing colossal role in political games.

What keeps people so engaged on the social media is rumors, false alarms, gossip and snoops.  It just takes few seconds to click the share button with others; but how do you know what you are reading and sharing is true? Today people get so swayed by the posts they receive that majority of them share posts without least checking. By doing so, they deceive themselves and others.  Its miserable, hoax items such as celebrity deaths, chain mails which previously used to be sent from emails, is now a hot item on social media because it spreads faster. Items such as election results, falsities about social network such WhatsApp will be charged, so and so or Facebook will not charged etc, scandals, and social experiments are the ones making rounds on social media.

Some false alarms lead to serious realities; as in September this year, in Uttar Pradesh a rumor took life of a person called “Akhlaq” in Greater Noida’s Bisada village. The 58-year-old handyman was attacked by a lynch mob that set upon his residence after rumors that a cow had been slaughtered there and the family had beef in the house.

This photo did the rounds on social media a few years ago, and the people in the snapshot clicking photographs made it seem more authentic. However, this image is nothing but a product of Photoshop as the two extra heads were copy pasted. This news made terrible rounds on social media saying “king cobra with three faces found on national highway” The people in the frame were clicking photos of a regular king cobra. This is height of stupid rumors.

This story broke on Whatsapp and Twitter with the Delhi Police apparently warning consumers from drinking Pepsi or Frooti as the blood of one of the factory workers who was HIV positive had accidentally mixed with a certain batch of the drink. The message claimed that the story was reported by NDTV as well. But both Delhi Police and NDTV denied those reports. In fact, HIV cannot even spread via ‘infected’ food.

Yo-Yo Honey Singh was one of the victims of the celebrity death hoax with a photo of the rapper lying in a hospital bed doing the rounds. But the photo was from his music video ‘Bring Me Back’ and a message was soon sent out from his Twitter handle that Yo Yo was safe and sound. Similarly despite what you may have read, Jeff Goldblum, Natalie Portman, George Clooney, Britney Spears, Harrison Ford and Rick Astley are alive. Some pervert minds enjoy spreading false news about other’s deaths. God alone knows, what enjoyment they get by doing so.

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. They conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research. The centre does not take policy positions. One of the Pew research study in December 2012 established that nearly 45% of the Indian web users connect on social media to discuss politics. People particularly youth are staying updated with the news through social media. By the exposure to the abundant information every day, the youth are getting more engaged in politics. They are debating, expressing their views on politics through social media. Many of the politicians are staying close to people through social media.

Young minds are vulnerable. They get captivated towards new things and happenings around them. Earlier the political discussions were limited to middle aged and old people but now youth is also involved in political discussions and social media is a platform for all the youth to share and express their views.

Rumors don’t spare even Gods; due to heavy insistent rainfalls in November this year, the Tirumala Tirupati shrine in the interests of safety of pilgrims had diverted the vehicular traffic through link road near the second ghat road. The management of the shrine kept 24 hours vigilance on the traffic, engineers and forest officials worked day and night in regulating the traffic without a mark of incident. In spite of smooth management, rumors were spread that the shrine is closed; devotees cannot take darshan of the Lord. The Joint Executive Officer of TTD, Tirumala, Sri KS Sreenivasa Raju strongly denied the rumors spread on social media about the closure of Tirumala shrine following rain havoc, which he termed as “baseless”. This shrine has never been closed for a single day and will never be closed ever.

The situation is calling attention to the changing state of the news media: as information online moves faster and comes from more sources, it’s more difficult to verify what’s true and what may be shockingly false and people get influenced so easily. Social media has given rise to spin doctors. A spin doctor is a person (often a political aide) responsible for ensuring that others interpret an event from a particular point of view. It also means a person who publicizes favorable interpretations of words and actions of public figures especially a politician.

Research shows that people who gossip the most have very high levels of anxiety. They are generally are not popular because they cannot be trusted. They are mentally sick. All said and done, I would say that social media has given rise to nothing but rumor madness.

In today’s complex marketing world, defining digital marketing is a bit difficult. On the contrary I will put it like this – in today’s complex digital marketing era defining marketing strategies is no longer a simple job.  Digital marketing is the promotion of products and services using one or more forms of electronic media. Thus, digital marketing is promotion of brands on electronic media. It is different than traditional marketing which involves the use of channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what isn’t.

Digital marketers help in promoting and building awareness, providing research to prospects, and driving qualified prospects to conversions. Their job is not all that easy because there are too many newer platforms emerging and each one comes with its complexities. It involves huge volume of data and streaming process of the data which contains diversified buyers, diversified marketers and a range of marketing channels. Sending the right message to the right buyer at the right time is a big responsibility. And let’s not forget the customer has exposure to more than data he can chew.

Digital media is so invasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want it. It is therefore a tricky thing to use segmenting, targeting and positioning. The marketers cannot promote only what they want their customers to know. Digital media is an ever-growing resource of entertainment, news, shopping and social interaction, and consumers are now exposed not just to what the company wants to say about their brand, but what the media, rivals, friends, family, peers, etc., are saying as well. And they are more likely to believe them than the marketer. People want brands they can trust, companies that they know of, communications that are personalized and relevant and which is offered in tailored formats to their needs and preferences.

Using digital marketing without a strategic approach is still customary. Many of the companies use digital media in a good way by using email or social media marketing on their own. But larger organizations need better governance and strategies while using social media; smaller companies can manage on their own.

The larger companies need creation of digital plans in two stages. Initially a separate digital marketing plan needs to be created. This is useful to get conformity and buy-ins by showing the opportunities and problems and map out a path through setting goals and specific strategies for digital including how they would incorporate digital marketing into other business activities. At a later stage, digital becomes integrated into the firm’s marketing strategy which is a core activity – a usual business process that does not warrant separate planning, except for the strategy.

Some companies which use digital marketing very well are:

Nike: This Company used a major sporting event to surround their social media campaign. They skipped the high profile athletes of the 2012 Olympics and instead featured the average Olympic athletes. Nike gained 166,718 Facebook fans during the London Olympics. Nike has been able to evolve its global presence through the careful selection of international sponsorships such as its previous long-standing relationship with Manchester United.  Although sponsorship spending could be fairly unpredictable demand costs surged due to triggers like championships and tournaments. Nike has used such events to capture the attention of a global audience.

Similarly, Heinz primarily, uses Facebook to launch new products, like their 5-bean blend. They created a game where the person answered a series of questions, which was like a personality test. The results were given in types of beans. Personalized beans were sent to five winners every hour. If you shared the app with ten people, you received a goodiieeie bag. Coupons were also offered.

Digital marketers examine things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, sales conversions, what content works and doesn’t work, etc. While the Internet is, perhaps, the channel most closely associated with digital marketing, others include wireless text messaging, mobile instant messaging, mobile apps, podcasts, electronic billboards, digital television and radio channels, etc.

The thumb rule in digital marketing is that it’s not enough to for a company to just know their customers; they must know them better than anybody else so that they can communicate with them where, when and how they are most amenable to their messages. To have the customer’s profile and what they like and dislike the marketers need a consolidated view of customer preferences and expectations across all channels. These channels are web, social media, mobile, direct mail, point of sale, online sellers etc. Marketers can use this information to create and anticipate constant, coordinated customer experiences that will move customers along in the buying cycle. The deeper the insight into customer behaviour and preferences, the more likely the marketers can engage them in lucrative interactions. It requires hand’s on experience of buyer behaviour.

While keeping its overarching branding consistent, McDonald’s practices ‘glocal’ marketing efforts. It used digital marketing to know the local taste.  McDonald’s brings a local flavour, literally, to different countries with region-specific menu items. In 2003, McDonald’s introduced the McArabia, a flatbread sandwich, to its restaurants in the Middle East. It uses digital marketing to the fullest of its worth. And, Domino’s is not far behind either. It used digital marketing to reach out to customers in China where dairy wasn’t a big part of their diet until lately. Domino’s changed just its toppings to suit the taste buds of Chinese.

Leave aside the business community; the Governments of many nations have started using the digital marketing. Their work isn’t just about delivering a public service. Increasingly, government leaders are determined on giving citizens a more personalized and customer-focused experience. In India, the present Government’s digital experience can meet, and even anticipate, the needs of citizens. The present NaMo government relies on digital tools and strategies that are flexible enough to adapt with rapidly evolving technology. By taking a customer service focus to the work, agencies are building customized services, emphasizing efficiency, engagement and security. A digital-customer facing experience is now built-in to many of the outward-facing services of government. The idea of putting the customer first can really help agencies stand out in the digital sphere.

Same is the case with hospitals, entertainment businesses, services such as electricity; income tax, water supply, municipal corporations, banking etc are slowly adopting digital marketing to woo their clientele. Good for the customers!

Though digital marketing and its associated channels are important exclusion of traditional channels does not work. Also, digital marketing comes with certain challenges:

• Explosion of digital channels: Consumers use multiple digital channels and a variety of devices that use different set of rules, specifications and interfaces and they interact with those devices in different ways and for different purposes. Hence marketers need to be alert and vigilant in keeping up with customer’s choices.
• Digital marketing intensifies competition: Digital channels are relatively cheap, compared with traditional media, making them within reach of practically every business of every size. As a result, it has intensified competition in all business spheres. It is difficult to capture consumers’ attention.
• Exploding data volumes: Consumers leave behind a huge trail of data in digital channels. Hence it’s extremely difficult to lay hands on all that data, as well as to find the right data within exploding data volumes that can help marketers make the right decisions.

Lastly, if your company is going to thrive in the digital marketplace, it will be as a data-driven organization.

Social media gives everyone a chance to express their feelings. While many are vocal about their feelings, there are quite a few others who find it difficult to express themselves in words. They are shy, rigid to some extent while expressing their real inner feelings. It need not be physical fighting anymore, these days most people have taken to social networking sites to vent out their frustrations. However, what’s worrying is the impulsiveness of these vents; it just takes a few seconds for people to voice themselves on this platform. Here’s how this platform has lately generated a marathon of impulsive outbursts and why.

Salman Khan’s tweets on Yakub Memon’s death penalty recently did not go down well with the public. A few hours later, he was forced to delete them. Why are some people so impulsive to tweet?

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has seen many surprises. In July, even as the topic of immigration heated up between candidates, Trump re tweeted an offensive comment about the former Florida Governor Jeb Bush that said, “JebBush has to like the Mexican Illegal’s because of his wife.” Neither Trump nor his campaign commented on the decision to delete the tweet.

The point is tweeting or face book is a simple process. It’s the easier way to vent out your feelings, you can write as much and whatever you wish to, without mentioning who it is for. With new age connectivity, your outbreak will be in public in a fraction of seconds. It’s become so simple to connect with the world. One need not sulk in a cocoon.  The person can have a good experience; so many people want to rush to the sender’s aid. Social networking has a wide reach. Everyone from your close friends to acquaintances to friends of friends as well as others across the globe can see your post and get a fair idea about the state of your mind. Many of these contacts want to rescue you, do well to you. Why not take a chance?

But, while the response can be gratifying:  the response to your outburst can be so flattering that you feel triumphant about the situation. You’ve been empathised and sympathised with as well as garnered a lot of praise for being so courageous. This encourages you to rage an online war anytime. But on the flip side: once posted, the world is given something to gossip about what you are going through. That’s not all, this being an impulsive outburst, is obviously not backed with reason and thought. The words that come to your mind immediately after a argument might change later on. After you are cooled down, you might have a different angle to look at your problem.  However, the damage is already done; in spite of the ‘delete post’ option, the post still remains in the database of the people who responded over it, in their inboxes and notifications at times. Finally, although an outburst of a temporary state of mind, this action causes a permanent damage, if the person is of concern to you.

Friends, social networking is alike a match stick in hand: if you use it properly its fine else it burns your goodwill. We tend to take our digital personas lightly at times, than we present ourselves in reality. We can mask our personas on social media but in reality.

Individuals who are more impulsive and get distracted easily may be drawn to social media for anything and everything. For some time they do get solace; their experience with these media then encourages them to jump quickly from one event to the next, further developing their tendency to respond impulsively can be reduced if only they decide firmly.  Let’s not treat the social media as garbage box. Stop for a moment before you want to wash your dirty linen in public.

How letter writing was important once upon a time

Letter writing was a basic element of everyday life for most people throughout the 19th Century and also few years of the 20th Century. The afternoons were speared for letter writing by women and older people in the households. Letter writing was the only way one could keep in touch with relatives and friends. During good and bad times people would wait eagerly to receive letters from their near and dear ones. During wars, floods, famines, people kept connected with their families by writing letters. It is indeed an art – I call it an art because it is submission of expression of human creative skill and imagination while writing. Letter writing started declining as early as the middle of the 20th Century. I guess it was because of introduction of good quality in telephone service at cheaper rates. And, then came in the computer, which made us so lazy that we stopped writing and got hooked on to the computer keyboards. We started electronically typed correspondences.

How letter writing helps

When we write with use of paper and pen that is when we hand write, we need to use our brains – we need to concentrate more because we write the script without aid of spell-check and grammar-check which is available on computer. We need to focus on every world that we write. It requires concentration, world power, syntax, and forming sentences from mind. It has a magic. Try it and see how refreshing you feel. We have lost the fine art of letter writing to the musty and stale electronic typing. I think since then we have also become a society of shallow and condensed minds. A handwritten letter shows all the emotion and personality of the person who writes it. Handwritten letters allow us to immerse in the drama of love, hatred, tragedy, anger and loneliness. Most important – they are tangible!!!

It is only because of some preserved letters in historical galleries, attics, closets, and basements throughout the world about millions of men and women who have fought wars, who have served nations as civil servants, freedom fighters, great doctors, lawyers, accountants, scientists and politicians – in short people who brought some kind of revolution, the world is exposed to truth. Many of these letters are extremely significant, offering eyewitness accounts of famous battles, historic events, or encounters between prominent people. These personal letters show us heartfelt expressions of affection, hatred, anguish or words of support and encouragement between some great people which today offer valuable insight into their personalities. They need to be preserved.

Recently, some correspondence by Paul Cezanne, P.G. Wodehouse and Christopher Isherwood add nuance to their influential lives. Few unpublished letters of Isaac Newton have thrown light on his profound research on spectrum of colors. Some letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi and Sardar Patel throw light on their ideologies and the reality of how India’s political landscape was getting shaped up. During the Margret Thatcher years, the special relationship between Britain and America was elevated to heights which were never achieved before or since. She and US president Ronald Reagan came to power at a critical time in world history and united to bring an end to the Cold War and change the face of international politics. Few letters written by them reveal how they helped each other to suit strategies to shape their respective nations.

Did you know about first-hand account of the moments the Titanic sank written in a letter supposedly by a French maid

It seems a tormenting first-hand account of the moments the Titanic sank in April 1912, has been uncovered in a letter supposedly from a French maid who survived the disaster. The hand-written in French is dated 8 August 1955. It was the woman’s maiden voyage. This French woman’s name was Rose Amelie Icard. It describes scenes of “horror” and “inspiring heroism” as passengers tried to escape the sinking vessel. The letter, written in blue ink, is addressed to a woman believed to be called Madame Austin, although the name is slightly unclear and no one of that name appears in the list of survivors.

Tragically, many of these correspondences are being thrown away, lost, or irreparably damaged. Saving these letters is not difficult, and it is an excellent way to learn about national heritage and history. Different letters need to be cared for in different ways. It’s an art of preserving letters with scientific support.

How receiving a letter is important?

There is nothing better than receiving a letter written by some close one in which that someone has put a lot of work into with earnest expressions. Though languages keep changing from time to time, but the way we open and close letters has stayed very much the same. A simple welcome/salutation – such as ‘hello’, ‘hi’, ‘dear’, ‘dearest’ can lead to a million budding and potential associations. And, adieu, such as ‘from yours truly’, ‘yours lovingly’, ‘sincerely’, ‘affectionately’ ‘with best wishes’ and so on, can create magic between the reader and the sender. This is a humble appeal to one and all – let us cherish the art of letter writing. With paper and pens being so readily available to us, there’s no better time – the present, now, this moment to recreate the magic of writing letters. Let’s fall in love with the art of letter writing again.