SOCIAL MEDIA STARTING POINT: Know Your "IN PERSON" Story 1ST

When I speak to students, adults, and organizations as a whole about social media & digital impressions, I think the expectation is that I will just dive right into a discussion about apps, impact, negative elements, etc…. RIGHT AWAY.

I sense sometimes that they are caught off guard because I spend the first 10 minutes of my presentation discussing with them the understanding that social media and technology in general, is a connected story telling machine.

As soon as you created a social media account, you started writing a story.

Every time you post, you are adding another line, paragraph, or page to that story that is potentially being read & consumed by tens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people.

That’s a pretty massive idea to fully wrap your head around.

But, the entire goal for me, is to get people to start thinking about what they want their “in person interaction” story to be first.

What thoughts do you want people to walk away with after an interaction with you?

What’s it like being on the other side of you?

What are 3 value points that you would want your conversation to be about when someone asks – “hey, what do you think about this person?”

Your personal story is the foundation of any starting point for social media usage. I don’t believe social media is supposed to be a Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde thing, but rather, a way of helping to communicate, educate, learn, and drive your values further into all areas of your life.

Some people may see this as weird, but if you’re solid in who you are and what you want to be as a person every day, then it should be pretty easy for you to strategically consider how you make sure those beliefs are coming across in your social media interactions.

You have a brand.

In Person & Online.

It’s developed through your interactions.

And it’s fragile, and needs to be well taken care each and every day.