… this was the title of an article that popped up in my newsfeed this week.
And of course, with all our collective pre-occupation with social media success combined with the fact that this was a fantastic ‘clickbait’ title, which surely meant I wasn’t the only one that stopped what they were doing to have a read.
(And yes I appreciate the irony that I’m now using the same title for my article, so as a thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my article [which is one of a million you could have chosen] let me share some thoughts with you in the hope they will provide you some value you can apply to your own life).
My intuition says that currently social media accounts (I’m talking namely Instagram here) have devolved in to places we go to convey some sort of pseudo-reality in an attempt to portray marketing image of ourselves to the world.
I also believe that we each have a clear motivation why we use social media, whether that’s at a conscious or subconscious level, we each create a ‘brand’ for ourselves in the type and theme of content that we post.
For example, maybe for you Instagram is a place to share photos of your holidays, social time with friends and generally a platform about your life outside of work. Or perhaps instead it’s strictly business, where you post work-related images to market yourself to your network with the aim of landing new clients and opportunities.
Now it would be audacious of me to pass judgement on whether this is right or wrong but it would be utterly foolish not to accept the fact that like it or not, that’s our current situation and today if you want to make an impact, social media has to be a crucial part of your marketing mix.
To me the world of marketing is absolutely fascinating and was lucky enough to be able to specialise in Advanced Sports Marketing during my studies at Loughborough University. One thing that stuck with me from my research is that everything we do, every marketing item we by or every image we post on social media is a statement about ourselves.
Ergo, we don’t buy products because one is better than the other, we buy it because we like what it says about us.
Let me explain…
… a pair of £200 jeans probably aren’t all that different from a £20 pair of jeans.
But many people are willing to buy the £200 pair of jeans because just having that logo is a statement in that firstly your successful enough to buy the £200 jeans, you’re stylish and have great fashion taste and more importantly you’re conveying a supposedly ‘better’ image to the world by wearing more expensive jeans.
In my opinion rappers don’t wear Gucci head to toe because it’s comfortable, stylish or the best product, it’s because it shows they have money, serious money.
I don’t buy Planks Ski Clothing because I’ve made a judgment about their quality and style (the fact they are amazing, quality, style and price is just a bonus and no they didn’t pay me to say this). I buy from them because they’re a brand from the U.K. doing amazing things from the U.K. snowsports scene, which if you know anything about me at all, it’s one I’m hugely passionate about and want that to be the reflected in the image I put out to the world. Therefore Planks are the obvious choice.
Of late, I’m sure much like your own, my social media newsfeed seems to be a constant stream of people talking about their own achievements, both huge and minuscule. It seems to have bceome and online soapbox where we all stand everyday and shout about how great we are to anyone willing to listen.
Now don’t get me wrong, my intuition says there’s some are hugely deserving to be posted about.
For example one of my good friends just broke two world records as part of an all female trio who have just rowed the Pacific Ocean (we’re also making a film about it, coming later this year) and being honest they’ve been really modest about the scale of their achievement and in my opinion deserved to have filled up the newsfeed for weeks on end with details and highlights of their adventure. (Learn more about them here… https://www.facebook.com/pacificterrificcrew/).
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum, nowadays there’s so many posts about tiny things that it dilutes when you actually achieve something momentous.
What’s more with social media becoming a stream of other people’s accomplishments it’s unsurprising that so many people feel depressed and unsatisfied with their own lives as they’re are reminded of it every time we log in.
Therefore from now on I’m trying to make a conscious effort of making my social media more real and authentic. That’s why this week’s post is me sat in my car writing this blog post on my phone (which I should really get my cracked screen replaced on and free up some storage on it too). I’ve messed up my work life balance this summer so haven’t achieved all I was hoping to and consequently I’m not in a great place mentally or physically.
And my intuition says that’s ok.
I hope this post is a reminder that maybe if you’re not at 100% right now and are the best version of yourself, that’s absolutely fine. Because it’s impossible for everyday to be our best ever and the good days wouldn’t feel so good if we didn’t haven’t days that were tough.
For me this whole summer has been a challenging one, and not full of glamorous instagram moments. Don’t get me wrong my life is incredible and I’m super grateful for the experience I’ll have in the short time I’m lucky to be on this floating rock in space, but I feel excited for all I’ve learned during these past few months and the mental position it’s put me in going in to the winter, where hopefully I can do bigger and better.
I’ll finish with a quote this week I heard from Elle Mills, a 19 year old YouTube star who recently went through a serious and very public burnout and after a break has come back with this new mindset, one I hope we can all take a little something from…
“I’ve just got to keep on working on improving myself every day and taking some time to enjoy the ride”*
So think what your social media posts say about you.
And I wish you every success,
Jack
This story was originally posted on www.jacktompkins.co
What I’m Currently Reading…
‘Crushing It’ — by Gary Vaynerchuk — it’s a great one! Check it out here… https://amzn.to/2t13pmR)
About Jack
I help people, brands and business communicate more effectively with their customers through visual, audio and written content.
I do this through Southpaw Sport, the sports content marketing company I’m currently building as well as on a freelance basis working for agencies and production companies.
Visit www.jacktompkins.co
You can follow me on YouTube where I post weekly vlogs sharing my experience and opinion on content production.
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/user/jackt18
And my social media for behind the scenes look at what I’m up to
Instagram — @jackwrtompkins
Twitter — @jackwrtompkins
Elle’s Video here…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glIBS8DCTiQ&t=260s