I’ve got to be honest; it’s taken me a while to feel comfortable and in some cases confident with the many social media platforms that exist now, and I’m certainly no expert. We’re living in a social age and there is an awful lot of blur out there that can easily distract us from our day jobs.
I’ve been advised by folk much more savvy than me in the social media arena that it’s important to know what your voice, and your long term strategies are before entering the social sphere, so that you don’t go out there all guns blazing then suddenly fall at the first ‘virtual hurdle.’
I also worry about the amount of time we spend consuming social media and the impact that has on the rest of our lives. I read an interesting exert from Scott Halford’s book ‘Activate Your Brain’ that asks you to grade everything in your life on a scale of 1-10 in terms of its value and importance. You have to mark your loved ones at an 8 (because there is always room for improvement) then rank everything else around that. The interesting thing is that a lot of us would (I hope) rate our families over social media, yet if you were to honestly look at the time you spend on a device checking and updating your feeds, the results could be quite alarming.
The point of writing this post though is that I also believe there is another thing to take into consideration when you are finding your voice to create longevity in the virtual world. That is to look more closely at your own natural thinking and behavioural tendencies.
When we are working from our natural strengths, then we are working with ease, and when we are working with ease, we create flow, which allows us to flourish. For example, if you are 1/3rd assertive you may be more comfortable, posing questions for people to consider, or if you are 3/3rd assertive you may enjoy creating debate with your followers. Whatever your preferences are, how you behave in the voyeuristic world that we now live in, will determine how others see you, and there isn’t a lot of slack cut out there before those thoughts and behaviors are shared and judged by huge volumes of people.
I love that there is room for everyone to flourish, but to make it easier for yourself; there is certainly some value in considering your natural strengths to help find a confident voice in which to grow.