Hopes, dreams and trending hashtag!

I’m often entertained and somewhat envious, when I see friends of mine saying that from to time they’re going to take a break from it all, and deactivate their accounts. A hiatus from social media really? As human beings do we really have zero will power to disengage from technology, and exercise will power to “just say no” to signing in or checking in?  You’re welcome to discuss and I’d really like your input.

There have been loads of studies done about why as humans, we thrive on social media validation, caring what others think of us, many that we don’t talk to in person, or maybe haven’t even met. I wont go into all of the reasons why, but the short answer DOPAMINE! 

I enjoy social media, if I didn’t I’m certainly in the wrong industry to be running a business. I probably enjoy it a little bit more than most people, as I love to throw myself into learning, go through the analysis of data but more so, look at the psychology behind how and why things trend. I’m always looking at what worked, what didn’t and using this information to adjust and tweak campaign’s and communication. All those posts and blogs you read about “the best time to post on social media at x day and time”, well guess what not true and if anything if you’re sending out when everyone else does, posts when others to do you’re potentially pissing people off and disengaging them.

Think about it for a minute. It’s Thursday afternoon, you know a long weekend is around the corner and like a rapid fire assault all of these weekly emails start coming in and it’s annoying. Sure there are some you’ll read straight away, others you’ll delete as the subject header is irrelevant or because of the time/ your mood or any other news or circumstances un be-known to the marketing team, who are all high fiving each other because they got their campaigns out. You’ve finally had enough and you’re thresholds been met. You unsubscribe.

On  any other day you’d be quite happy to sit back and read their email, maybe purchasing the hottest new trends, reading and sharing their information, but for whatever reason they’ve annoyed you. Now when you’re sending out communication and correspondence to others, these key things ought to be in your mind too.

The best campaigns are the ones where you actively look at your engagement and data and learn from it. Is it your open rate, is it the virility of a post or tweet, is it a certain # look at all of this and learn from it.  Most of the time to the trained marketing and social guru, you’ve figured out your groove so things are strategic. But even for people like myself who are ingrained in the social world, there are sometimes things that go bananas which I get a slight shock and am surprised. OR on the other scale of the spectrum things I’ve thought will go nuts fizz and fade to nothing.

Persevere, look and learn, try different things and don’t get stuck into a mindset of “this is how we always do things”, or my least favourite “but this is the day if goes out”. If you’re in a position to say “fuck it” then I encourage you do to so, but of course still being mindful of the repercussions. However know you’re one day whim might make you’re business shine and the investment on this risk might just pay off in ways you’d never dreamed off.

Don’t fear technology, embrace change and try something a little bit different, because I can assure you that’s the only time you’ll get noticed and stand out from the rest!

Go forth and # and @ and get learn what makes your world tick!  I’m still waiting for my # to go 1 and trend, but I can assure you it will happen. I’m confident of it! #dreams lol