How Do You Use Your Social?
Photo by Charles Etoroma
Have you taken a minute to stop and notice how much content in the digital world is thrown at you on a daily basis? If you haven’t, take a quick second to think about it now. I’m sure that, today alone, a heck of a lot of content was thrown at you but how much of it was actually valuable?
Better yet, how many pieces of content actually inspired you to talk to someone new and form an actual, real, or meaningful conversation? Maybe you’re like me as I personally see things like this too often on my social feeds: “Buy this…” “The Kardashians did what….” “Kanye is broke..”And on and on and on.
I’ve been involved in social media and marketing for a few years now and each year the landscape changes 10x more than the last year, but I have noticed one glaring thing. The one thing that most brands and people forget when they use social media is, it’s about the “social.”
I mean, the social part does come before the media literally and it should figuratively as well. These individual channels — Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. — were all built on the idea that the connection of people, from all walks of life, was the most important component.
Now, let me pause here and bring to light this point in the physical world. The past few months I have made it a point to keep my camera on me. Literally everyday and everywhere I go it is with me.
A few things have happened as a result, but the most important being, it has become a hot topic of conversation in my everyday life. People will stop to talk to me about it or I will see someone walking down the street with something I want to photograph and talk to them — I’ve even documented a few of my stories on my personal Instagram account.
Around this one piece of machinery I have formed lasting human connections and with each day that passes I feel better and better getting to know people.
It’s not just about the pictures that I take — it’s more than that…it’s the connections.
It doesn’t matter what they look like or do. Their stories are the only things that matter.
I say this to say that, as humans, the most important things that we have are human connections. At the end of your life you won’t remember the money or the fame, but you will remember the memories you shared with friends and loved ones.
Social media is akin to that camera of mine. It’s a medium. A medium that, when used in the right context, can help bring people together. It can help form lasting relationships that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
I’ve witnessed, firsthand, the lack of attention that is paid to genuine interaction on social media. Everyone wants more likes and more followers. They want bigger numbers to help, in some small way, validate who they are. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with that.
However, it isn’t only about that, the numbers. It’s about connecting with people and putting out content of value.
Once you, I, we, start putting more of a premium on just the meaningful interactions and content then we will see the value of social media reach new heights.
There are a lot of things that can go into this topic but I wanted to keep it fairly light and complete this article in under an hour. If you have any comments on the social landscape, I would love to hear it.
How do you use your social?
What problems or solutions have you found in our journey to navigate the digital landscape? Drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you.
FROM THE EDITOR
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