JKLTip When you see a good idea on social media, something that may help someone, anyone, take the time to share it, and pass it on
If we don’t like, retweet, pass on, or share the good in some capacity, then we miss an opportunity to slide the scale of social media. We miss a chance to make it closer to something we want to see.
We often complain that there’s nothing but bad news on TV, and that social media is toxic. Many think newspapers no longer serve a purpose and Facebook is fake news. Information that goes viral often seems mind numbing, dumb, or useless. Interestingly we exhaust a lot of energy trying to fight this negativity with criticism and pushback. Complaining that gets us nowhere.
A Better Approach
First we have to ask, what would we rather in the world of media?
Alternatives to “waste of time” would be healthy, thought provoking and impactful information. Most people would agree with this. So, remember what spreads is what we consider remarkable and then share. Instead of complaining about the “crap” that’s out there, we have two things we can do about it.
One is create content we want to see in the world. This may be difficult, and if we’re not interested in overcoming whatever is getting in the way, then the second thing is something that should be easy to do. Two, we can like, and share what we want to see more of. We have a duty to society to amplify ideas, to share content that we think the world should see more of.
This is where social media metrics come in. When we post an article, or a photo, we tend to look at the likes, or the shares. Is this healthy? Well, it’s important to make a distinction here.
Analytics And Algorithms
The value should not be in vanity, but the value sure as heck should be in impact. If we post something that gets 12 likes, it’s ok to be disappointed that this is not resonating and helping as many as it could. We should also appreciate if something gets 20,000 likes that we are having at least a greater impact (in terms of reach). Depth and quality is debatable, but the bottom line is we do have a greater chance of helping more people.
With such an abundance of information overload, there’s kind of a funny threshold in how much we have to like something “enough” before we share it with others, before we retweet it, or give it a like.
But our opportunity, our responsibility is to catch people doing awesome things and promote it for them. If we want to see more real news, more beneficial, quality content, then we must share the good. We should promote it, we should pass it on, we never know who it may help, and it’s the only way for the “good” to win.
*Come Write A Guest Post: 8 Billion People
** Read Why Just Keep Learning: JKL Post