Cracking Social Media with 4 Easy Hacks

This article first appeared in the #CultureCubicle bi-weekly column I write in SheThePeopleTv.com and appeared here

Social Media is an imperative to our existence: We spend upwards of a few hours on it (Depending on your digital addiction levels), we discuss over dinner and coffee what transpired in conversations on it, we exhibit behaviors to conform to social media (food pics before eating, selfies before activities etc.). 

In a digitally connected world, your personal brand on Social is the subject of much attention nowadays and deservedly so.

1. Recruiters look up social media profiles of candidates during the hiring process
2. Your Digital footprint determines your subject matter expertise or lack of it
3. In a highly competitive workplace, differentiation is a challenge. Reading up-Keeping Current- Providing a thoughtful opinion is prescribed as a magical pill to getting noticed and progressing swiftly

There are very few who have escaped the lure of Social Media completely and most of us on it feel exhausted keeping up and worse FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is real and it can actually make you sick. Anything in extreme is bad and like our grandparents told us, balance is the key.

Most women I mentored and discuss Social Media with tell me they use Social for being connected with friends and family. But there is a bigger opportunity for your career, businesses and yourself that you are have not tapped into namely to connect with new people, keep up with the latest and greatest in your area of work and find new opportunities, maybe even a passion you didn’t know you were good at. Hence, here are 4 easy hacks that will get you started, overcome your fear of Social Media use for your professional needs

1. Log Kya Kahenge (In English translated as: What will people say)

People don’t pay your bills and opinion and advice comes for free ergo it’s doled out to anyone who’s willing to pay attention (or not). The fear of being judged for having an opinion via a blogpost, a well worded tweet, and comment on a LinkedIn group discussion can only enrich your abilities to express and be recognized for an opinion and that’s all that matters, really!

 It’s liberating to escape the clutches of others’ judgement, when our own debilitating voice can be killed to achieve great, why will you allow others negativity impact you?

 Think about why you are on Social– Shut the noise out- Put Blinders On- Keep Focused

 2. Birds of a Feather flock together

Interaction with people with common interests is not easy: how do you find them, how do you converse with them? Simple: start by following subject matter experts/friends/colleagues you know and look up their follow lists to determine their network and voila: you now know many more people socially online and it’s easy, isn’t it?

 3. Buffer Now, Post Later

I do not have time to be connected in the now

I can spare only xx mins a day during lunch hour or when the kids are in bed

That IS better than none and here's where auto schedulers for social media comes handy. They can even optimize the scheduling time for you so that you get maximum engagement and you never have to worry about being present online all the time to post. You buffer your post and it posts on your behalf.

 4. Pocket It

I come across so much material to read, I spend more time than I planned for

I can’t keep up with the constant information overload

I can’t remember what I read

Sounds familiar? Having filters is a must-have while you browse through content on your timeline. It comes with experience and is handy given we are all content creators: good or bad is left to judgement but it is still content. Use Pocket to save interesting links to, tag them, and read them when you have time: on a flight, while traveling and being stuck in traffic, with coffee and some me time maybe?

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About me: This article expresses my personal views, and not those of any of my employers?—?past, present or future.

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