Social media, you, me, future

Want to be humbled quickly? How about 4 to 14x a day? Remember high school? Can you even handle it? That's social media for you - yet I would argue social media has allowed us to be more connected as a human collective than ever in our brief history. But why do so many shun it? i.e. not participate - post, comment, like - but will continuously scroll? Almost every conversation in the past three years with friends and strangers alike starts something like, “how was (insert blank).” ‘They,’ already knew aka saw what I had posted even months earlier we had not talked till that in-person talk.?

Every time I ‘post,’ I get a rush of anxiety.?

“Shit what are my investors going to think?”

“Is this the post, that one high school friend is going to make fun of?”

“Is this going to go viral and turn into an internet meme?”

Anxiety even as far as…

“Is something I posted months or years ago going to haunt me later in life?”

Still I post to most social media platforms today. Why? Simple - I believe in the power of human connection.?

If the business adage, people do business with people - what better way to not sell but connect? Here is an inquiry that came in the other day…

Hi XXXX, saw your post on LinkedIn - love cats too. I am the Director of Retail Marketing at BRAND. I think we might need DevHub. Do you have time to talk?

Cats? = opportunity? How the hell? I’ll tell you - because it is human. A commonality that is relatable creates the comfort to engage.?

This is one example of a slew of conversations, friendships and opportunities that might have never happened otherwise.

The window that social media as we know it today are: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, YouTube Shorts, BeReal, Snapchat, Twitter, Clubhouse, Discord, Community, Whatsapp. These platforms will only further fragment and so will human attention. Today the opportunity is largely across 10 or less platforms. Over the next few years more platforms will come to market - do you have a talent? Share it.

With a lot of the career executives especially the 45+ crowd the tendency to share is to only re-share the most polished of press releases, new hires, fundraising rounds - and besides the congratulatory likes, comments little depth beyond. Where is the video of you walking to work? Pajamas? Coaching baseball? Something, anything human.??

Finally, this post is really for my buddies out there who are wildly talented, more talented than me. Let’s build something big together, but it has to start by you being on social media (at least reserve your user name ;)

Talk soon.

Mark Michael

@gliderceo

#digitalmarketing #humanconnection #gliderceo