Are you Truly Social-Media Savvy?

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Emily Correa, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

What is influence? What does it take to influence others?

Influence is something that can be cultivated in two directions; in a positive, productive way, or in a negative way.

Influence starts as soon as we are born. We immediately have a strong inner power over those around us that expresses itself through our needs for survival. We cry for attention and we soon receive a bottle or meal. We laugh, and others around us smile at our joy. Moment by moment, we realize how we naturally influence others, and also naturally REACT to others.

So before the development of language and communication, before we grasp how far our actions can influence others, we are already doing so by simply being alive. We are not weak beings.

And this point, my friend.. is what a lot of people forget about as they go about their lives, our natural power. Alot of people react to the circumstances of their lives and live in autopilot.

It is a main topic of focus with my clients, understanding the effects of one’s interaction with others that causes influence in a GOOD or BAD way.

Ever heard of the “butterfly effect” or the “ripple effect“? That is exactly what I am talking about..

The truth of you is this:

You are full of incredible influence on the world.

This is based on simply being graced (by the creator above) to wake up this morning,
and explore life.

Every action you take, everything you say etc. connects to others (and life situations) in a ripple effect of influence.

Others do the same things too, whether they consciously observe their actions or not.
Because of this ripple effect, you are naturally POWERFUL. Therefore you have a choice on HOW you will INFLUENCE others.

What you must do is to recognize the power of the moment which is NOW.

Make some choices to do the truthful and the good to expand the purpose of your life.

Help others and grow your positive influence NOW.

Now the greatest influence from outside ourselves as we go from child to youth is based on our environment. Nature versus nurture..the truth is we are absolutely affected by our environment growing up.

We all know this, how outstandingly strong our environment is to positively or negatively influence HOW we see the world.

We are “taught” by society, by our parents/family/friends, the media certain “facts” about life and living that are to influence us to react to the world in their way.

In an essence, what really occurs in GROUPTHINK, and majority thinking (the psychological tendency to copy the way the majority of others think on a topic/situation because it is “convincing” and helps us feel secure). This is the start of your own loss of control over your own authentic powerful influence.

And when this happens, you start leading a life in a way that is not INDEPENDENTLY determined by your own TRUTH and inner awareness.

And frankly, that’s where my clients go wrong, keep hitting walls and remain in a state of confusion on big life decisions.

In their minds are conflicting thoughts on who they are, what they are meant to do in their lives, and and problems with making clear decisions.

And this occurs due to years of not being clear on their instincts and intuition. They haven’t had the opportunity to clear years of subliminal (hidden messaging in everything) and societal perceptions.
So to be truly influential, you have to start NOW, to recognize your power, and to cut out all the negative thoughts that keep bouncing into your perceptions through “conditioning” (habit-forming actions from repeated thoughts).

This requires finding the right environment to stay positive. It requires some healing, and probably some time with a therapist or a coach.

So yes, you are changing the world and in a sense…history by the influence of all of your daily actions which form out of your thoughts. And when you are good, that leads to connecting to good, powerful people in your network, and you truly start changing the world!

Now, some people will do bad, they are countless examples in the media, news and daily life.

It’s powerful how manipulatively influential these negative examples are on our own energies. So another layer of being a positive influence to others, is to honor and PROTECT your power from daily life.Something I coach on regarding having ARMOR and a WARRIOR MENTALITY.

Now on the topic of social media….I remember the days without Facebook, iphones, Instagram etc.

Actually I remember the days when AOL JUST came out and I was playing Oregon Trail on a PC. We had dial up, and only the good schools had computers when they first came out on the market. Times have changed, and it will only get faster and more amazingly advanced!

Social media has made each of us GLOBALLY influential if we choose to..it has broken down distance and time to information and each other.

Technology and social media in my opinion is a wonderful thing. It expands our reach to educate, inspire and motivate the world.

As someone in arts + entertainment, you MUST have amazing social media presence.
I don’t need to tell you this.

I presently have a Facebook influence of 5,000 friends + 1,965 followers, over 3,300 connections on Linkedin with 12 recommendations..2k on IG which is fine by me, I’m a Facebooker.

So here are my 10 tips for a positive social media influence:

-Understand your branding and messaging first; as I have shared, you are extremely influential, and people do observe everything you post on your social media! You will be surprised, and I have been many times on my own work.

-I advise this all the time with my clients; know straight out the bat who you are and your potential before you try to promote or share with others. Because NOT being clear, sure or accurate on this part will NOT make you truly influential in a way that gets you the success you desire. Things will not be aligned in your life or fall into place efficiently.
-Choose the amount of social media you CAN HANDLE and balance it “with your real life”. You only have so much time in a day to engage virtually with others. You can’t waste time on social media all the time when you should be focusing on other areas of your life like health, love, work…

-With the social media you do have, do not be sloppy about it! Every message will be seen and judged by others, I promise you. Make sure you are NOT: complaining about life, being too TMI 24/7, being rude or unprofessional, partying too much, showing off or bragging too much. Fix those parts of you with a coach, and don’t serve these negative qualities on a platter for the world to see. This includes typos, long story messaging all the time, too many selfies, etc. though once in a while is fine and entertaining!

-Keep it interesting! Post a variety of messaging to others; not just selfies all the time. Make it one selfie, then an article, then a quote, etc.

-Don’t be self-centered, reach out to others at least 50% of the time! Focus on others social media messaging too! You can greatly expand your networking skills by commenting and reacting to others social medias FIRST, then just focusing on your own.

-Recognize the best times to post: which seems to mean morning, lunch time, and around 2pm, maybe 6pm. These are the times my google analytics say people are chilling on their FB or surfing the web. Also no one reads stuff Friday, Sat and Sundays hardly (well in NYC) we are all busy and probably working a second job or partying!

-Don’t post irrelevant posts! No one (successful) has time to read that! If you’re not a positive influence and simply want to post the MUNDANE details of your life, please just don’t post at all. As a life coach, I can’t stand people who post complaints or the details of their recent trip driving to work or making dinner. Find a new hobby!

-Success-seeking people are not reeled in with time-wasting details that do not:I NSPIRE, MOTIVATE, EDUCATE or PERSUADE. It’s basically MARKETING PSYCHOLOGY. You can be turning off good potential business connections in your network because of this behavior. Success-minded people are on a whole other level of influence and they take what they read (and the use of their time) VERY SERIOUSLY.

-Make it VISUAL if the messaging is important! There are three types of learner preferences (for the collection of information) VISUAL, AUDITORY and KINESTHETIC. Visual learners are almost all artist/creative types and most types of people in general population.

-Auditory are more the music people I interact with. They care alot about “what they hear” and the tone/subtext of words (the sound of the writing). Kinesthetic people need to “move” or do some action to learn or collect information properly. Most people have two top preferences; I for example am a strong visual/kinesthetic combo.

-The point is if the messaging is important, stick a graphic, image or selfie with it! It will attract the mind first, and make your power messaging stand out!

-Filter out poor connections and time-wasters on a regular basis! Do not waste your time on those games or invite others to play. Read books on being successful instead like I do! Be careful with suggesting quizzes. Also, get rid of connections that post negative stuff!

Like I said everyone is influential. You don’t want negative people in your news-feed/network and influencing your thoughts.
Actually you should seek to expand your network with success-minded, ambitious positive people on a regular basis! Cut out the bad, bring in the good. Lastly, watch out for hackers (fake profiles) and be careful when you are job searching, as 90% of potential employers stalk potential employees with fake profiles! (This should be illegal!)

Too many video posts, Instagrams, daily posts etc. will harm your online reputation. My personal opinion is: 1 post every other day if possible, and only up to 3 in a single day! Give other people the spotlight!

What makes an influential social media presence at the end of the day is a combination of good branding, smart messaging and a positive “authenticity”.
Make your influence on others worth it!

With Inspiration & Light,

Emily Correa