BREAKING FREE FROM CONTENT SHOCK APATHY

UNLESS THERE'S AN EMOTION, SPARK, COMMENT OR SHARE, THERE'S NO CONNECTION WITH YOUR AUDIENCE.

"Who says that you must do what everyone else does? Who says that you must be a certain way to be considered ‘normal' or 'successful'? What is it that makes this so?

No-one. Regardless of your skills, interests, or talents; you are phenomenal." - Nicole Addison, The Power Within.

This quote was one of the more positive and constructive messages out of the many tweets, emails and comments I received today about where I was coming from with yesterday's post about regurgitating old content. I have to admit, it was one of the few positive responses to my questions. The vast majority shot me down immediately, claiming that I was missing the point, that it's established good-practice and that audiences change so rapidly that you have to repost the same things to be effective.

I shouldn't have expected anything else really. The majority of the negativity came from people who were more than a little defensive because they've been told posting the same things over and over again is the right thing to do, so they've always done it. Some were experts who quite obviously don't like having their methods challenged and a few were quite blatantly just looking for someone to sneer at and ridicule. You see, here's the thing, no-one likes to think they could have been wrong. But how we handle that uncomfortable feeling is the measure of whether we'll ever change, grow or adapt, on social media as well as in the offline world.

But here's the funny thing, I love the fact that they responded that way. I love the fact that social media allows an opinion to be aired, to be discussed, debated and shared around. It also proves that you can reach the right people through Facebook's preferred audience tool, but that's a story for another day. I just wish people were able to discuss these ideas in a more positive way, without all the negativity.

Again, the point is, just like it was in yesterday's post (feel free to re-read it if you missed this) that everyone has a choice about how they use social media. About who's advice they take, about whether to think for themselves, to trust their gut or go with someone who's written a book on the subject. If nothing else, I just want to make people think for a minute, about whether there's any value in always doing what they've always done. Or perhaps there might be more value in doing something very few people are trying to do at the moment.

So, a big thank you to those of you that got it, responded with ideas of your own and had the courage to tell me how you see social media working for you. Also, a big thank you to those of you who disagreed, because that's also good. We need to be challenged, we need to think more for ourselves. But thank you most of all for interacting, which was another aim of the post. Likes and reach are meaningless unless action is taken by the reader. Unless there's an emotion, a spark, comment or share, you've created no connection with your audience.

You all took action and I'm so glad you did. I really appreciate it.