by Caroline Leach | Sep 29, 2020 | Social Media, Work/Life
Are you feeling out of sorts right now? I know I am.
Sometimes I wonder why. Then I remember there are five major reasons.
First, we are in the middle of global pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 200,000 people in the United States.
Second, we are experiencing the financial fallout of an economy closed down to fight Covid.
Third, we are in the midst of an important drive for social justice and equality.
Fourth, we are experiencing climate change more intensely with extreme heat and widespread fires.
And fifth, we are in the midst of a most unusual political environment, punctuated by a very odd presidential debate this week.
Our ‘Surge Capacity’ is Under Siege
Simply articulating those reasons brings relief. These are major issues to contend with. And it’s exhausting to do so, day after day after week after week after month after month.
In the words of Tara Haelle, writing on Medium, our “surge capacity” is depleted. Our ability to deal with an intense and ongoing crisis has reached a low point.
Ya think?
And yet …
And yet, hope lives on. As I often recount the many seemingly horrible things that happen on any given day while I can’t help but doomscroll through my news feed, I’ve found a positive practice.
A Powerful Daily Practice
Each day, I write down at least one good thing that happened. Often, there are many more than one. They often become obscured by the heaviness of everything else that’s going on in the world. But when I consciously call up the positive moments, I’m reminded of the importance of making progress every day, no matter how small the step seems.
It’s a concept articulated by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer in The Progress Principle. What motivates us most, they say, is the powerful feeling of making progress every day toward our most meaningful goals.
What I realized is there’s a great deal of progress happening every day. Those days add up to weeks and months and some really significant milestones.
For example, I’ve completed more than 100 coaching hours this year and a certification (next month) to go along with that. My husband Kevin opened a new restaurant last month, fulfilling a lifelong dream. Even though we’re limited to outdoor patio dining of about nine tables, people are loving the experience. My son is making progress toward his college degree through online courses. I’m fulfilling a dream of my own by teaching in an MS program for communications.
Good Things Take Time
Not only do these milestones indicate progress, but they also demonstrate the importance of patience. Often, good things take time. Here are just a few examples …
- My coaching certification process: 1 year
- Starting to teach at the graduate level: more than 1 year
- Beginning work with an exciting new client: more than 1 year
- Kevin’s restaurant: 2 years (really 23 if you count a snippet of a conversation from long ago).
Life goes on during a pandemic, during economic upheaval, during civil justice, during climate change, and during political campaigns. What are you doing to make progress in your life right now, every day?
Those are the actions to celebrate and to motivate you to carry on and make change. Those are exactly the sorts of things you can share on social media, to inform and inspire others.
What steps will you take today?
by Caroline Leach | Aug 6, 2020 | Careers, Change, Social Media, Work/Life
Three aspects of Covid-19 stand out in August 2020.
First, transmission of the coronavirus is largely airborne through respiratory droplets, when people talk and interact.
Second, wearing a face covering and physically distancing are our individual best defenses against the virus.
And third, we’ll probably need to spend a lot of time at home as the virus rages on for the better part of a year.
Wow. Let that sink in. A year of remote work (and life), for those of us lucky enough to be in a profession that can be done outside of a physical office.
In my case, writing, consulting, coaching, speaking, and teaching can all be done remotely. The first three were already remote work activities. But how about speaking and teaching? Thankfully, they’ve both moved online to Zoom.
Since the pandemic sent us home in March, I’ve spoken (remotely) in several graduate school courses on digital communications and marketing. A highlight this fall will speaking in an executive education program. And a few interesting developments are happening in the teaching space, which I’ll share more about soon.
One question seems to loom large. Simply because an activity can be done remotely and online, does that mean it’s of the same or higher quality? Many people might say no. However, I disagree. Why? It’s an opportunity to innovate, experiment, and iterate. As we do that, it will be on a scale none of us has ever experienced before.
From Surviving to Thriving
For those who love to play in ambiguous spaces, this is a dream come true. Yet the uncertainty and capriciousness of the pandemic has pushed even me to crave a bit more structure and concreteness.
And while this might seem to be a matter of survival, I’d like to do more than simply grit my teeth and get through it. How about you?
As the renowned internet commentator Mary Meeker says of this pandemic period, we’re in the process of, “getting to the other side.”
What is the other side? And how long will it take to get there?
There’s no way of knowing for sure. So rather than feeling like a rudderless ship being tossed about in a storm, I choose to captain my own ship. I choose to create my own environment, to the greatest extent possible. I choose to thrive, rather than simply survive.
This topic of thriving is one I’ll explore in my upcoming writing. For today, I’ll couple this with my focus on boosting your career through social media. How do the two interact? It’s a topic I’ve written about this year on a few levels — from How to Pivot Your Personal Brand on Social Media to How to Engage People with Your Social Media Content.
With an eye toward thriving in a stay-at-home world, here are three ideas for making the most of your social media time.
Create a Learning Environment
Now is the time to experiment with social media. Within the bounds of respect for all people, it’s an ideal moment to try new types of content. See what resonates with your network. Use new features you may not have engaged with much before. Rarely share an Instagram story? Give it a whirl, play with the features, and see how people respond. Or use the newly announced Instagram Reels video feature. This can be your own personal learning environment. In fact, I gave a TEDx talk on the subject. It’s called How Social Media Can Make You a #LifelongLearner. Check it out for more ideas.
Follow New Voices
The move toward social justice through the Black Lives Matter movement and others can present an opportunity to seek out new voices and perspectives. It’s an ideal time to actively listen. On Instagram and Twitter, a few accounts I’m now following are Black Lives Matter and PrivtoProg. LinkedIn has a great feature in “My Network” where it suggests Black voices to follow and amplify. Mellody Hobson of Ariel Investments, Carla Harris of Morgan Stanley, and Karamo Brown of Netflix’s Queer Eye stood out to me. Mellody’s TED talk called Color blind or color brave? is excellent. Carla has leadership motivation for the ages in a talk she gave about how to own your power.
Say No to Negativity
With all the polarization in America, it has sometimes felt to me that I shouldn’t retreat into my own echo chamber of similar voices. Often, I kept people in my feed in the name of listening to a variety of perspectives. However, that doesn’t extend to negative, disrespectful, or incorrect information. It has become increasingly important to consider the source of information, whether it’s scientifically based, and how healthy it is. It’s okay to unfollow people, or to simply mute their content. There’s so much negativity in the world. Why perpetuate it by tolerating people’s feeds who are insulting your deeply held values?
In Closing …
People are spending more time on social media during the pandemic. Increased usage has plenty of downsides. However, with a slight shift in how you view social media, it can become a force for good in your life. With a spirit of curiosity and innovation, you can get playful and have some fun with it. I shared a few ideas here. How are you using social media to help you thrive and transform during this time?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 20, 2020 | Leadership, Learning, Social Media
What are the best content types to share in our stay-at-home, pandemic world? What do people most need right now? What are they seeking?
A place to start is with content that resonates with you. What are you looking for when you scroll through LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter?
Another consideration is experiences you’ve had or observations you’ve made about leading and navigating through work during a global pandemic.
Two hypotheses emerged for me.
First, people are looking for helpful content that informs them on topics of interest that solve a problem for them.
Second, people are attracted by inspiring content that motivates them to take action amidst difficult circumstances.
To test these hypotheses, I analyzed the last 60 days of my LinkedIn posts. I’ve been known to gather my own data on a spreadsheet and analyze it for unique learning.
If you post content regularly, I encourage you to do the same. It creates clarity about what’s resonating with people. In addition, it gives clues about what will be engaging in the near future.
Before getting into the data, it’s worth noting that views, likes, and comments are considered by some to be vanity metrics. Why? It can be difficult to link social media content to specific business outcomes. As I reviewed the last 60 days, though, it was clear that one-third of my new clients were people who saw my content on LinkedIn and reached out to me as a result. That’s why these metrics are valuable to me as a solopreneur. They may be helpful to you as well, depending your goals for social media in boosting your career.
My average was one post a week. Views ranged from 4,692 on the high side to 86 on the low side. Likes/reactions went from 113 to 3. Comments went from 34 to 0 (yes, zero; ouch!). In addition, by clicking on the number of post views, more data is available. This includes organizations, titles, and geographic areas of people who engaged with a post.
What did the two lowest-scoring posts have in common? They were both shares of someone else’s content. That was a valuable learning. From now on, I’ll make a substantive comment on content I find share-worthy. However, I won’t share it. Instead, I’ll create an original post on the topic, crediting and tagging the creator.
Looking at the top half of my posts, five themes emerged.
Big Brands
The post with the most reach was a farewell meeting as my my three-year term concluded on the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors, representing the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. With 60+ people on the board and more than 400,000 living alumni (Patrick Auerbach can always quote the exact number), potentially a large number of people might be interested. This post got more than 4,700 views and 113 likes. Thanking various people and tagging them, as well as including relevant hashtags, probably helped this post gain more exposure.
Giveaways
Thinking about what could help people right now, I remembered I had several copies of my book, What Successful People Do on Social Media: A Short Guide to Boosting Your Career. Why not offer some free copies? In a book giveaway post, I tagged the book’s editor and cover designer, along with people who gave the book 5-star ratings on Amazon. In under an hour, five people claimed their books, which were mailed out the next day. Others could still get a free workbook, Your Social Media Success Roadmap, with 50 questions, actions, and ideas about career building on social media. This post got more than 1,700 views. It had the most comments at 34. A few second-degree connections commented, and we’ve since connected with each other.
Media Quotes
As a result of commenting on U.S. Chamber of Commerce posts about marketing ideas for small businesses, I was interviewed for a few articles. Of the three I posted, the most engaging one was customer communication tips during Covid. Here I tagged the article author and the other contributors, in addition to connecting on LinkedIn with everyone involved. This post got more than 1,460 views, 22 likes, and 8 comments. My theory is this one performed the best because it had the most people tagged. And it was for an appropriate reason, because they were all quoted in the article as well.
Podcasts
A fellow grad-school alum, Randa Hinton, contacted me this spring for an informational interview. She introduced me to another alum, Anika Fisch, and we had chatted as well. A few weeks later, Randa and Anika invited me to a be a guest on their new podcast, Opportunity Unknown. They teamed up to share the journey of their job search in the middle of a global pandemic. It’s an excellent podcast, BTW, for anyone who’s looking for work right now … full of actionable advice and inspiration. This post got 1,379 views, 34 likes, and 4 comments.
Black Lives Matter
As a white person who wants to contribute to social equality and justice, reflect on and adjust my own behavior, and amplify Black voices, I struggled with how to engage on social with Black Lives Matter. Then I read a poignant op-ed in the LA Times by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I shared his article, along with my thoughts. This post got more than 1,240 views and 26 likes. Of my recent posts, however, this was the only one that got zero comments. Hmmm. I’m not sure what that means. Perhaps people didn’t know what to say? Why do you think no one commented?
What’s Unique to You?
For the most part, these posts focused on what I’ve been doing in my consulting and coaching business. No doubt you are working on important projects, learning hard-won lessons, and achieving celebration-worthy victories with your colleagues. Your experiences might help someone else solve a problem or feel inspired to keep going on their own professional journey. What will you be sharing in the coming days? Please tag me so I can check it out!
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