Relationships with Social Media

The role of social media in both my personal life and professional life has been on my mind a lot lately. Has it been on yours? Personally, I know I am “scrolling” way too much. Professionally, I feel this constant underlying pressure to “be relevant” by doing all the things that people “should” be doing to promote their business on social media: creating content and live stories, taking really good photos, constantly thinking of what to share about your life (enough, but not too much), learning all about the functions and settings, comparing what you are doing with others in your industry, and on and on...

But the irony of it is that staying relevant on social media takes a lot of time and effort…time and effort that could be better used to work on more important things, like your business. I’m not saying that social media doesn’t have a time and a place, but I do think that it can definitely perpetuate an unhealthy relationship with social media and your phone, and I feel that I have been moving in that direction.

A couple of days ago, I was listening to a great podcast called “Being Boss” about “Word of Mouth Marketing”. It was a reminder that I don’t need to excel at marketing my business on social media; I need to excel at serving my clients.  Because if I continue to do a great job serving my clients (which is the whole point), they will be the very best “marketers” I could ever ask for.

Then, just today, I listened to a podcast from The Feed Good Effect called "Want to Break up With Your Phone? Here's How". Catherine Price, an award-winning science journalist said something right at the beginning that stung a bit. She said: “I don’t want to be staring down at my phone while life passes me by”. Ouch. Isn’t that the truth? This was just after I had posted a short article about perspective this morning on my blog.

All this is making me realize that I have been spending far too much time on my phone and social media. I am not going to post just because “it’s been a couple days” or “just to be consistent”, because I will remain consistent where it matters most – with the service I provide to my clients. Instead, I will post as authentically as possible; when it’s relevant; and when I WANT to share (and not because I feel I have to). That just feels better to me, a private person at heart anyway.

I strongly encourage you all to listen to these podcasts too. Our phones and social media really are affecting us, and we have to make some choices regarding how much of them we want to allow into our lives. They serve a great purpose, but they are also purposefully designed to keep us addicted.

I love social media for a lot of reasons: seeing people on amazing and fun trips, celebrating moments, seeing other kids grow up, learning interesting facts and enjoying jokes and videos. I just think that lately it’s been more negative for me: a way to compare, to feel less than, to feel FOMO, and to feel pressure by all the “SHOULD’s”.

So if you don’t see me as much here, you’ll know why. I intend to spend more time smelling the flowers, playing in the trees, and I plan to focus my “growth and engagement” in my REAL life: where it actually matters.