Organize Social Media Around Your Quests, Not Yourself

Social media is so often full of stress, trolls, self-aggrandizement, and comparison. If you’re the kind of person who reads this blog, you probably agree. Maybe like me you’ve mostly let your social media accounts lie, or killed your newsfeed, or something of the sort.

I’m still a big believer in what social media can be at its best. And I’ve seen a few shining exceptions of online communities that – gasp – are healthy and positive places.

With few exceptions, these good social media communities are ones which are organized around a common mission (an interest, a goal, a task, etc):

• Slack groups have emerged for everything from full-time companies to weekend hackathons. They’re driven by teamwork toward a common goal – and Slack’s tools for emojis and such have created a unique Slack culture around work.
• Facebook Workplace has brought the features of Facebook into a professional context. My Facebook Workplace with fellow Praxis participants and alumni is full of encouragement, constructive feedback, and collaboration. Of course, this doesn’t just happen on its own, as I have to continously promote my fanpage for exposure’s sake. How? You can simply buy likes and followers. Yeah, I used to think buying likes on TheMarketingHeaven.com is illegal too, but turns out it’s perfectly fine!
• Facebook groups continue to be relevant, useful ways for groups of like-minded and like-active people to get together on times and plans, share ideas, etc.

As in many of the above cases, I’d argue that good social media usage is focused out – “quest-driven” – rather than focused in – driven by ego. If you want to save yourself time and heartache, find your social media fix from likeminded people who are walking the same paths to the same ends. Maybe you can all help each other out.