Sharing work & leisure moments at the internet.. why should I care about it?

This week I was asked [once again]: why do you share so many updates of your work activities and leisure moments? Does it make sense to share and mix professional and leisure activities?

I am asked such questions from time to time… my quick response: yes, its important to share everything you do, specially the best moments of your life - both professional and personal activities.?

It is always a matter of balance, but some aspects should be considered: (1) audience (who looks to your posts); (2) what is your intention (which message do you want to give and to whom); and (3) how do you want to preserve your best moments (saving for the future). Going into more details, a few explanations:

1. Audience:

When I look into my audience, just as anyone else, my audience is a mix of professional contacts and personal interactions. And that should be considered by anyone that uses the internet.

It is very important to understand that whatever you share on the internet, it will be available to anyone that looks for you on the web.?And that’s the best part: sharing online is something that might sound too expositive; however, its an important part of socializing and increasing presence.?And, why is it important to increase online presence??For the simple reason that today’s communication is mainly through digital platforms. And if you are not online, its get complicated to find you, and reach your audience.

The Covid pandemic was an interesting period when everyone had to change perspectives and adventure in the digital world, in a more or minor level of presence. Suddenly, business interactions, government relations, foreign affairs, teaching at universities… everything had to move to the online perspective. That turned to be, for sure, a big opportunity for eCommerce. ?

But looking into the online audience, if I look to the people I interact with, it’s interesting to see so many different audiences that have different habits, business activities and personal interests. But again, how to socialize with a diverse audience??It’s all depends on the objective, the purpose of the digital platform that is being used, and the level of exposure that is intended.?

One lesson I learned from the Covid pandemic is the importance of connecting and learning how to deal with multiple online audiences, and how to take advantage of mobile platforms. Some good aspects relate to the possibility of reaching the person you want to catch attention more directly and without the support of assistants that may decline your request to meet with the intended person. Connecting directly to the person you want to reach is something great, specially if you want to send a message to a government representative, a business person, or even a rural producer. That’s quite interesting, particularly considering that some “traditional communication methods” may not the best way to reach some stakeholders. An example of that are eMails: are they the best and only way to reach a contact person that is relevant to your business? What if he/she is rarely in front of a computer? Sometimes we are so used to our traditional way of doing business that we forget to check our audience: is my message reaching my audience? Or should I change my communication tools to reach the audience I want to reach?

(2) My intentions and objectives:

It doesn’t make sense to have an audience, and not to communicate appropriately. But the question on what to communicate is an important aspect that relates to my intentions and objectives.?I personally find quite boring if a communication channel is established only to share a certain type of information, such as only pictures of pets, or only pictures of food dishes, or only pictures of work routines. Even organizations, if they only share a certain topic of activity, its gives the wrong message to their audience. This is particularly true if the intended audience don’t get to know important information, such as achievements, best practices, performance, and social interactions with major stakeholders.?

When I look into my intentions and objectives while socializing online, I keep remembering the famous popular proverb “tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are.”?And when I move to the digital world, this famous sentence yet makes sense: with whom do you socialize? What is your background??What interactions did you have and with whom? Therefore, coming back to the initial question on the relevance of exposing professional and leisure activities online, to me is very clear why is highly recommended to share all great moments: to build perspective about myself and my business activities. That is quite interesting since frequently we check the internet to find information about someone or something, but?most frequently we forget to publish good information about ourselves that might be searchable and relevant for others to build perspective.?

Transitioning from traditional social interaction to digital socialization is quite relevant, specially to leave digital and traceable information [good information] about ourselves.?And that’s needs to be highlighted: it is very important to build online reputation and digital presence with good and positive aspects about ourselves. Yes, I agree, sometimes it can be understood as self promotion, but why should not be shared something that is nice, specially if is something that we are proud of, including good life moments? What would you prefer: to have someone looking for you on the internet and finding pictures at dubious contexts, or with relevant and prominent activities??

When I look to professional activities shared at personal social medias, the logic is the same: it’s important to have clear understanding on the intendant objective. Sharing media online may be particularly important if the intention is to increase the interaction with other people of your same business area. Therefore, giving some visual information about personal activities may bring very good results.?It’s somehow a “reputation building process” as the information shared may validate your skills, allowing to make easier the communication with people you may not know yet, but may be relevant for your work activity.?

(3) Preserving good moments

I can’t speak for others, but I feel great when I see old pictures of activities I did in the past. Or even when I see pictures of people that I once met, and other special moments.?How great is it to receive a reminder on the cellphone of a special occasion that happened six years ago??

When I look to the past, I had several great moments that were not recorded as they should have been. Therefore, there are no [or very limited] evidence of those special moments. But all those great moments did happen. ?

From time to time I get to find [or to receive] a picture from the old times: sometimes from the period I used to live in the Amazon; or from the university time in Germany and France; and also of some special professional activities with senior GOV authorities and VIPs I had the chance to meet with. But one thing is certain: I should have taken more pictures in the past.?How amazing was to meet people such as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Sarkosy, Xi Jinping, Pope Benedict XVI, Prince Albert of Monaco, the King & Queen of Sweden, and many others..?Or to fly with a hydroplane over a flooded city in the Amazon, and to have the plane stuck in the river-plants while on the ground??Where are all those pictures??Well, someone took the official pictures, but not with my camera.. a lesson learned from the past: TAKE PICTURES, enjoy the moment, share the information. Be transparent about all your activities, let people be able to search you on the internet about the good aspects and moments you had in the past.? Certainly, expect criticism, yet, criticisms might be constructive at some point, for future consideration and analysis on how to better communicate with your audience.?

Coming back to the main question, about promoting yourself and everything you do: that’s important, very important.?If you don’t promote yourself, whom will promote your skills, relationships and knowledge? ?

It may be argued that sharing too much information might not be positive. Certainly, concurrent organizations, or even people of bad temper may use information that was shared online.?And that’s true.?But just as anything in the world, everything has positive and negative aspects that need to be considered in a daily basis.?To consider only potential misconduct behaviors is too limited perception, specially if you are doing a great job, independently if is related to your work activity or if you had a remarkable result / achievement. Yet, look into the other direction: what are people with similar activities doing? Is your intention to be just another person doing exactly the same as others? Or is your intention to act differently and distinguish yourself from others??Sometimes, to play in the safe side might not be enough, with a potentiality of losing relevance along time. Specially if you don’t share relevant and searchable information about yourself.?And just as another say, “who is not seen is not remembered”. To let people see and find you is very important. And will become more and more relevant in the future. But be careful, a person without a [digital] past might not be easy to fit in the digital and global future. It’s time to leave important online traces, while communicating accordingly with your audience, generating results from the pre-established objectives and strategy.?

Are you outstanding??Does your audience knows all about you? How should they know??

You may be great, but if you don’t share outstanding activities, how will people know about your results??It doesn’t matter if you are a person or a company representative: you may be outstanding, have the best services, products and qualities.. but if you don’t share all those good information, all efforts to accomplish such outstanding results may have been in vein.

https://linktr.ee/BernhardSmid