It’s not you, it’s me…
Social Media is a great way to stay connected, be entertained and informed and promote your business.
But it can also be a massive time suck and bad for your self-esteem. Like most things in life, it’s about balance. You might need a Social Media sanitise.
If you’re feeling bummed out after scrolling, you’re NOT ALONE!
But there’s some things you can do to spruce up your accounts and get a better experience from Social Media.
“A couple of weeks ago I unfollowed over 600 people. They were just random people I was sick of seeing on my feed.
I wanted more friends than acquaintances.”
–Joe, 26
Unfriend
Do what I did and go through your Facebook friends on your personal profile. If you haven’t done it for a while you’d be surprised how many names you don’t even recognise.
I only had just over 400 friends, so it’s not like I had been collecting them, but still some people were added to gain access to their accounts for Social Media services years ago, didn’t work and the client company anymore and had got married and changed their last name.
If I need my detective skills to figure out who you are, you don’t need to be here.
And it’s not as if these people were annoying me with their posts – those ones get flushed out in real time, but evaluating each friend and how much you’d be willing to share with them in real life can really make your feed feel more welcoming.
I thought to myself “if I saw XXX in the shops, would I keep walking, just wave, say hello, or stop for a chat” I found it helpful to have a scale.
Unfollow
Same concept, but with your other accounts. As Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Instagram are all less personal than Facebook (not sure why, maybe because it was our first?) it’s fine to not recognise your followers or the people you follow – especially as your accounts grow.
“My Insta feed constantly changes because I’m always following and unfollowing different accounts, like I’ll get obsessed with a TV show, follow all the stars and then a few weeks after I’ve binged it I don’t care about them and I’ll unfollow. “
–Alana, 26
So there’s less at stake – unfollow anyone who makes your feel bad.
Someone you compare yourself to that makes you feel like you come up short, your sister, whoever. It doesn’t matter who they are. If it’s unhealthy, leave.
I don’t want to go into the ins and outs of mental health, I’m not qualified to do so except in terms of my own anyway, but there’s healthy competition and then there’s stuff that does damage.
Some posts might inspire you and spur you on. Others might make you feel inadequate. That’s the danger zone.
It might not even be what this person or business posts – it could be you’re not receiving it in the manor it was intended, but if it’s making you feel bad UNFOLLOW. You can always check back with them when you feel up to it.
And it’s important to remember that just because someone’s great at curating a perfect Instagram aesthetic doesn’t mean they are happy in their life.
They likely have the same securities the rest of us have.
Follow & Connect
Find people and accounts who inspire you. And I don’t mean the hashtag blessed Insta-babes that pat each other on the head about everything. Unless that’s what you’re into…
I mean accounts who make you feel good about yourself.
Work out who they are and find more of them. Follow their followers.
Connect with like-minded people. Interact with stuff you’re passionate about. Tell the social algorithms what you like, and they’ll do their best to find you more of it.
Share more
This sounds hard, but the more you put yourself out there, the more of your people you’ll attract, and you’ll be so busy engaging with them you won’t even notice you forgot to look at your old bosses account this week.
You do you boo!
Switch off
If you need to take a break, take one!
I think one of the hardest things is to recognise when, so if you thrive on a schedule, schedule in your Social Media times.
Take the apps off your phone and log in through the web browser.
Use the stopwatch to set a specified scrolling period.
Charge your phone out of reach, or simply switch off all your notifications, or your phone (if you can – some people need to be on call)
Don’t forget – you are in charge of what you see on social media, you don’t have to just see what’s served to you. Go make some positive changes, it’s a new year after all.
There’s so many ways to improve your Social Media experience, I’d love to hear how you do it!