Pictured above is the first post Rachel Hollis of “Girl, Stop Aplogizing” fame liked of mine. She went on to like a number of other posts. She was able to view them because I used the hashtag Rise Business (htat I attended) which allows anyone to scroll through any post with that hashtag. She hasn’t liked a post of mine since Day 2 of the conference. I feel so used! I’m kidding of course but some people take social media way too seriously.
Social media is great. I’m a big fan of it. I got on the Facebook train fairly early in 2008. I signed up for Facebook and MySpace on the same day. Poor MySpace…lol. I have had an account on Instagram for years but just recently started using it on a regular basis. These outlets along with Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube are great tools for my business. It’s also a huge time suck and can keep me distracted for hours. Especially after I first make a post. I check back constantly to see if anyone has responded to it. And I don’t know if you know this but if you have a business page of account it will show you how many people have seen it. So, I’m not necessarily just looked for “likes” or “comments” but also how many people the post has reached.
So, I have to choose my time on social media wisely. I have to make sure I am not wasting too much time. When I was working every day in an office, I had Facebook up the entire time I was at work. It was very distracting at times. Sometimes I would be live on the radio and I would see that little notification light up and it honestly sometimes took everything in me to not see who said what. That is taking it way too seriously! I needed to bring it down a notch. Some people follow a schedule when it comes to social media. Check out Facebook for 15 minutes or so in the morning and then not again until lunch. Then not again until after you get home from work. You get it.
The other major issue with social media is how it makes you feel. It can make you feel like the most wonderful, beautiful person on earth but it can also make you feel like a total loser. There is always some bad with the good. And honestly there are just some really hateful people out there. People who love to stir the pot and make people feel bad. You need to just keep scrolling. If someone says something hurtful to you either ignore of slap back but don’t take it so seriously. I used to get into these political debates with people on Facebook. When I would post something my heart rate would go up. I would get really nervous about what would be said back. It was like I was in a fight but online. I had all the same physical feelings of being in an actual fight. So, I finally stopped doing that. It was unhealthy and honestly, stupid.
But I just got yelled at by someone on Instagram for using a hashtag they thought I shouldn’t have used. As I mentioned earlier, when it comes Instagram the use of hashtags put your posts in places they wouldn’t normally show up. Exposing you and your content to a whole other audience. I had been talking about a fat cat named Cinderblock in one of my podcasts, so I used the hashtag when I promoted that episode. Some guy ended up asking me why I was using the hashtag. I told him I discussed the cat in my podcast. He responded by telling me that was a shoddy reason and I’m ruining IG. Ruining it? Now, that is a guy that is taking social media way too seriously. I actually had to laugh because it was so absurd. The thought that I was ruining IG because I used a hashtag about a fat cat that someone didn’t like is ridiculous. I may have gotten really upset about something like that in the past. But I’ve learned to realize it’s not a big deal. In fact, I considered the first hater of “The Hopefulist” and it got me really excited! You know you are making progress when you have haters.
As my girl, Rachel Hollis, said over the weekend. Even the most beautiful, amazingly talented people in the world get horrible comments on their feed every day. She said to go look at some of the most followed celebrities and there will be hateful comments on every post. Then she mentioned Taylor Swift who actually turned off for commenting for the majority of her posts. This way it doesn’t affect her. You handle it however, you would like to. But please don’t pay any attention to someone who is being negative about your post. The person is probably a jerk if they are being hurtful so ignore them. That is what would hurt them back the most.
It’s Taco Tuesday y’all! Grab a taco and take your social media use down a notch. Just a notch. You will probably have time for some more “real life” experiences! Now, go make it your best day yet!
Please check out my website. It’s your one stop spot for everything “The Hopefulist”. Hopefulist.com.
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