In the mood for social media

Does social media ever bring you down?

by Melanie Mackie

Social media is a connection to the outside world, particularly during the dark, cold winter months and even more so for home workers.

However, if you are having an off day or in the midst of a confidence crisis and feel that your business and work isn’t where it should or could be, it can also trigger feelings of inadequacy. Everyone else seems to be doing so much better, is always on the up and happy and jolly.

The truth is that this isn’t always the case and it’s rare, particularly with social media business accounts, that people are entirely honest about their own reality all the time. They tend to share only the good positive stuff.

Most social business users avoid wearing their hearts on their sleeves and over-sharing their innermost thoughts. I believe that is a good thing on the whole, as social media isn’t the place to air personal dramas and events and more often than not it makes very uncomfortable reading for followers.

It doesn’t create a professional impression when there is incessant moaning and poor me tweets. On the whole most people tend to shy away from sharing their innermost thoughts and come back when things in their world have improved.

But we all have ups and downs, good days and not so good days. And when the down days hit, which inevitably they do for everyone, comparing yourself to others via social media isn’t going to make the situation any better or boost your mood.

One way to help is to create some favourite accounts to follow, those that lift your mood and give you a feel good factor to help perk you up and motivate you again. I have my favourites on Twitter and Facebook that seem to share the right advice just at the right time or a simple quote that helps me bring things back into perspective when the social comparison kicks in. And I make an effort to avoid the others that don’t.

However, there are times to zone out from the online world of social media completely and take stock privately with trusted friends off-line. This is the time to step away from the computer, spend time doing other things and activities you enjoy and give yourself a break.

Social is social for a reason and the majority don’t share the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s worth remembering that you never really know what goes on in the world of others. They may be keeping up appearances and not being entirely open and honest about what’s really going on underneath the positive tweets and posts.

Melanie Mackie runs Scarletta Media, a social media marketing consultancy. She shows business owners, solopreneurs and SMEs how to be social and integrate social media marketing into their business.

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