Managing Your Social Media Self-Worth

At this point in the semester, we know a lot about the ways that a person can use social media for professional purposes. Businesses can market their products and services on social media and individuals can market themselves. We’ve also talked about our personal uses of social media, and how that personal use is becoming increasingly professional for many of us. One of the class discussions that really stuck with me was our conversation about voice and craft. We craft a specific voice on social media to persuade people to like us and agree with our message. We post photos and share content that will make others like us, literally and figuratively. But after reading a recent article on the Entrepreneur, I found myself wondering if we sometimes sacrifice our true selves for a voice that will get us more likes.

The article highlights a recent study of social media use by Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield. The duo surveyed over 1,600 participants online and found that many of us have become social media “trophy hunters.” This means that 58% of the people surveyed claimed that attempting to craft the perfect post has prevented them from enjoying life. Participants also admitted to neglecting their loves ones, driving recklessly, feeling humiliated while snapping selfies in public, and posting things that they would never say in real life. People seem to focus on crafting a voice that will gain them attention, while neglecting a voice that conveys their true personality and allows them to live their life without interruption.

This article made me consider our discussion of voice and the ways that we change ourselves to appeal to other people. When we craft a new voice, are we ignoring our true selves? Are we placing our real lives on hold just to get social points and social media likes? I definitely think there is a danger in creating a completely new voice for your social media self, but I don’t think that we’re all in doomed to lose ourselves if we attempt to appear a bit more professional online. The danger for me comes when I focus less on crafting a voice that is a professional version of myself, and more on gaining likes, followers, and favorites.

According to the study, social media is killing our capacity for happiness. I don’t think this is completely true, but I bet there is some validity to the conclusion that social media affects our feelings of self-worth. I know that I feel bad when I post something that no one likes or engages with. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I feel awkward and slightly disappointed when my posts go unnoticed. My solution to this problem? I’ve tried to stop caring about likes and social confirmation. This is obviously easier said than done, but I’ve compiled a short list of steps that you can try to avoid becoming a slave to social media self-worth.

1. Focus on your voice: Create a voice that is professional, but don’t lose your true personality. When you create a voice for yourself and focus on keeping that voice consistent, you will become less focused on pleasing your audience and more focused on staying consistent in your social media persona. If you’re spending a lot of time considering what tone will gain you the most likes, you may want to sit down and think about the message you want to send to your audience, not the message you believe they want to hear. Be the professional you, not someone else. To ensure that I’ve kept my voice on a professional account, I usually draft like I would post to my personal account and then edit to something a little more professional. Don’t sacrifice your voice for likes.
2. Do Not Check After You Post: The number one way to ruin your confidence in a post is to check on it every 4 minutes. Yes, you want your business to get noticed on social media. You want your ideas to be spread and confirmed, but if your post fails, what’s the big deal? You can post something better later. Don’t stress over a post by logging onto Facebook 20 times throughout the day to check how well your post did. Put the phone down and get back to more important work.
3. Don’t Post Excessively: If you find yourself posting to a professional account many times in one day, it’s possible that you’re posting too much. Of course, some jobs call for multiple posts in one day, but most do not. When you post many times in one day, it’s likely that the quality of your posts is steadily decreasing. You probably don’t have that much important information to share. And when you think about engagements, its simple math that the potential for failed engagements increases as you post. Limiting your posts (if possible) will limit your daily reliance on social media self-worth.

My intention with this post was not to sound negative towards social media. My goal was to highlight the importance of maintaining your voice and focusing on your likes rather than the likes of others. In order to be good professionals, we must realize that social media is just a tool for most of us. For the majority of professionals, one popular post won’t land a promotion and unpopular posts won’t end a career. We should utilize social media, but we should not compromise our lives and personalities for social media popularity.

Sources:

1. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243924
2. http://www.modgility.com/professionalism-in-social-media/ 

Image sources:

1. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243924
2. http://voidlive.com/pulse/wtf/facebook-likes-say/

Business Vibes and Social Media

Most would agree that being withdrawn from the social media world is unheard of. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, no blog, and no LinkedIn – Do you even exist? The same could be said of companies and businesses. In a 2014 study conducted by BrightLocal, 79% of consumers said they researched a company in question not only through their website, but through Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, blogs, BBB ratings, etc. Without the ability to create a positive image for your company through these media platforms, the company’s reputation is left up partially to chance and partially to consumer opinion. To add, if it’s an online-only business, it can be difficult to gain customer trust without assistance from the social media platforms. Adding social media to your business plan is one of the smartest things you could do.

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Have a plan before you start & create measurable goals.

There’s no point in using a social media outlet if you don’t measure its effectiveness. A report published by Texas Tech shows that businesses who engage on social media channels have higher customer loyalty than those who do not. Learning about each one of these individual channels is the first step to creating a successful social media plan, and realizing how each one can be put to use in terms of your business goals is the ultimate outcome. You don’t need to be on absolutely EVERY social media platform out there; just the ones that can benefit you the most. In fact, being active on too many platforms can be detrimental, unless you have the manpower to maintain and update all of those platforms everyday. Starting simple is the easiest way to get involved, so a goal such as “gain 45 Twitter followers” is very smart and realistic.

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Be consistent and be a good social citizen. 

But don’t rely on one application of social media! Each outlet has its own strengths and weaknesses, so pinpointing those qualities helps to create a continuous message across all of your platforms. Keep your message on target, stick to your brand, and stay business-focused. If you make a mistake, always apologize for it. Multiple times, and across multiple platforms. If you publish something incorrectly, fix it, but make a note of it. And above all else, make sure you thank your customers for supporting your business!

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Give great content; be engaging.

Use creative techniques to engage your audience. Make it personal, because one size does not fit all! Communicate regularly via each and every platform with your networks. Do NOT spam your social sites with tons of advertisements and blatant marketing techniques-consumers can see right through that. Instead, use the information you’ve learned about your audience to make a connection with them. Find out common interests and post relatable topics to your platforms. For example, if the business is a bakery, post a link to a blog about how to create awesome fondant designs instead of talking about the bakery’s product. Furthermore, programs such as Engagor give brands and businesses the opportunity to interact and engage with more people in real time.

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Listen and interpret.

Persistence can most often be mistaken for pushiness. While it’s important to reach out to consumers, you don’t want to overwhelm them. Instead, try listening to what your network is telling you. In reference to customers, many will tell you, “they don’t know what they want!” – This is partially true. But if you listen closely enough, you can interpret what they’re asking for into something useful for the company/business. This is where research comes into play and where we can see its level of importance. Research allows the business to see where its customers are coming from and what they are asking for. Social media platforms make this about a thousand times easier (ok, not an exact number-but you get the point). If you know what your customers really want, they’ll never be unsatisfied.

Search Engine Optimization

Essentially, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) determines how website behaviors impact search engine results. When certain words and phrases are searched knowing SEO will help improve your sites ranking in the search results. For businesses that don’t want to pay for their sites to appear first (paid results) using SEO will boost the site visibility in organic or unpaid results. This post will discuss the theory behind SEO and then recommend different strategies to improve a site’s optimization or its visibility.

According to Michael Martinez, president of a web marketing and consulting company, SEO has four laws:

1. For every searchable ecosystem, there are three sets of arbitrary criteria that determine the outcome of any search operation.
2. The result of any search function is determined by the inseparable union of the three perspectives.
3. Search engines seek or tend towards optimum use.
4. A search ecosystem transits through states of diminishing conflict towards perfect agreement.

At first these laws seem like a bunch of nonsense, but essentially what you need to know is that there are three perspectives to what Martinez calls the “Searchable Web Ecosystem”. Any of the three members or perspectives, Publishers, Indexers, and Searchers, can influence the content, quality, and outcome of search engine results.

We can master SEO by understanding the algorithm search engines use to sort through all of the different webpages that exist. The algorithm focuses on five different aspects of websites: words, title, links, words in links, and reputation. The algorithm analyzes the words and title of your site and connects with similar search queries. Search engines use the official title or the coded title of your page and not the public title. Links help with optimization by driving traffic to your site because they usually exist as a recommendation. Search engines notice when other sites have links to your page so the more links you have to your page the higher your ranking. The algorithm also uses words in links to connect pages with search queries. For example, linking the word “Pittsburgh” on a website will contribute to the site appearing when a search query includes that word. A site with a good reputation will have a higher ranking. To have a good reputation a site needs new and engaging content regularly.

Social media is essential to improving a sites SEO because it functions to promote content. In her article for HootSuite, Kristina Cisnero describes five ways that social media contributes to optimization:

1. Search engines use Twitter stats to organize sites. For example, Google uses content from Twitter that generated a lot of traction when indexing all of the new content that appears hourly online.
2. Just as links to your site that appear on other sites improves your SEO do does social sharing. Every time someone shares a link to your site, they contribute to your sites SEO.
3. You can boost your authority and establish credibility for your site with a strong social media presence.
4. Although no one really uses Google+ (check out the infographic to the right), Google loves people who do. Spend some time improving your Google+ page and Google will reward you. 
5. Search engines don’t just focus on keywords on websites anymore. Google is looking at the content you share instead of the number of keywords you can include into a post.

And here’s a fun infographic with tips for improving SEO in 2015:

–Raechelle Landers