Why less is more – 3 criteria to choose a social medium and why its always LinkedIn for me

Technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the past 30 years. In India, 30 years ago, having a landline phone at home was a convenience. Now, homes have mobile phones for each person in the family – sometimes more than one phone and even dual sim. In this era of consumption, whether it is data or media, there is so much to consume that quality can many times take a back seat to quantity. The same is the case with social media – from Orkut to Facebook to Google+ (however short lived it was) to Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and so on, the next communication medium is staring at us from the horizon. And for most people, joining the next social network is a case of when. Not why. Or if.

In my opinion, this overload of social media and blurring of boundaries has created parallel universes for many of us. And the energy and effort needed to maintain these parallel universes can become a problem for brands – whether they are corporations or individuals. There is enough and more about social media strategies and recommendations for corporates. An individual’s innate brand can also be nurtured through social media. If you don’t think you as an individual have a brand with intrinsic value and strengths, you are selling yourself short in today’s world. The fact is as the world’s attention span shrinks from 3 page essays to 140 character statements, it is all the more important to understand the best way to identify a social medium that is best suited to your voice.

Align the social medium to your goals 

An individual brand is less about what you are now and more about what you want to be. When I entered my corporate career, my mentor told me to dress for the job I wanted, not the one I had. I then asked him for his tailor’s address – the point here is that the right social medium can amplify your voice and make it heard by the people you desire to reach. If passing short comments at social / political / technical issues is your strength, choose Twitter. If you aspire to position your visual and creative talents, go for Instagram. For me, LinkedIn provides the perfect medium to share my thoughts on careers, goals and hyper growth. 

Find people that match your interests but also those that differ 

Social Media is all about finding like minded people whether they match your hobby, career goals, passions or even your country of origin. But from a career perspective, some social media work better than others. Many do a good job of finding people that are similar to you – that’s what all the fancy algorithms are for. But, the risk of entering a bubble is exactly that. It’s a bubble and you are dealing only with like minded people. Many times, hearing an opposing thought is exactly what one needs to hear. One of the things I learnt early in my career is the value of having diverse characters in my team. While hiring for my team, the only rule I cared about was whether they could do their jobs well. After that, it didn’t matter what language they spoke, what their background was or what their political inclination was. 

To me, LinkedIn, at this time, is the only social medium that provides me the opportunity to find leaders that I look up to but also leaders that are engaged in activities and domains that are far removed from my interests. The opportunity to lead comes from the interest to learn. And in its current avatar, LinkedIn provides that to a career professional more than any other social medium

Define the value that comes with social media interactions

I have this internalised metric of measuring the value of any transaction or activity or engagement. On any working day, one can aspire for 100% productivity but the likelihood of that happening is low. This is because in the world we live in, distractions are plugged into our lives. Every time a social media transaction happens, it reduces productivity. That’s the nature of the beast. What I have strived to do is assign value to these transactions – any social media engagement that leaves me with a net positive when I compare time spent to useful knowledge / information received is good for me. Checking out an Instagram post may make me smile, but at the end of the day, if that doesn’t help me achieve my goals, then it's not worth the time spent. Same with a sharp tweet. However, again I have seen that LinkedIn posts that pop up on my feed tend to push me in directions that I haven’t thought of – a post from a person I respect or an entrepreneur who beat the odds or a VC that exposes some of their thinking behind a funding gives me a mental boost that is well worth the time spent. 

In  summary, it is up to you as a professional to manage social media interactions. There is no one medium that is markedly different or better than the other. However, it is important to know what works for you, what is more aligned to your mindset and aspirations and use it effectively. Use social media as a mechanism to grow your inner you towards the path of professional and personal success.