Here’s how to use social media

Across social media, we are experiencing a flattening of the experience we are expected to have from platforms. Everyone wants the same type of engagement, and the favored experience is that of the influencer.

As a result, across the board, we expect to get 100k followers, 10k likes, 1k comments. That isn’t terrible in itself. In fact, it works when you want to be a “social media influencer”.

Getting the influencer-type engagement on social media is crucial and it gives us the platform to shift mindsets and change culture. And to be able to set the agenda with our words and creative output is a powerful thing to have.

But not everyone needs and will get the culture defining engagements and following–especially not at the start of the journey of sharing our work or perspectives publicly; especially when you have a voice, a perspective or topic area that isn’t mainstream.

There’s a reason why some topics are more saturated than others. I remember at one point on Twitter, a couple of years back, it was easy for someone to be primed to be “savage” a Twitter word for disrespectful. The reason? It was easier to get people talking about you when you are “savage”. Not sure if this is still the case on the platform (I hope not).

The pursuit of engagement is a powerful draw. On LinkedIn, for example, I know what works to get 100k impressions on one piece of content. But from experience making content on the platform for the past 5 years - it’s mostly vanity metrics. These are metrics without clear benefits. On the other hand, I know what kind of content will move the needle for my career. It often requires sharing a deeply specific insight or story that focuses on a narrow area. This kind of content will not get huge engagement because the target audience is not the average reader. It will probably not get an immediate result but demands consistency. Even more, it requires my vulnerability. Because others will connect to that piece of content, and these others will be people like me.

While most influencers might create for the average audience, people like you and me create for a more specific person. One optimizes for greater counts of likes and comments, and the other optimizes for interesting conversations and opportunities.

You should worry about attracting the right people, not getting more people to click follow. But, remember, they cannot engage if you are not creating the content that reflects your work, fears, successes, challenges in the real world.

So, the right way to use social media, is to attract the right audience, not simply to increase the followers.

For young changemakers, we must share our narratives on social channels to inspire others, open more doors, and elevate our work - not feed our egos with vanity metrics.