Break Out of the Social Media Prison

  • 1 min read

This is a direct response to Carlos Miceli’s post on Owl Sparks: Prison, Fear, and Personal Branding

You know that feeling you have when you first meet someone?  It’s that feeling that you have to put your best foot forward so that you can make the best first impression. We have this feeling at networking events, job 221868712_0216d8aecbinterviews, and when we finally get the courage to talk to the girl we like.

When we put our “best foot forward,” are we really being ourselves?  Or are we just putting up a facade of a “better self” that we think people would like to meet?

When it comes to the social media world, personal branding has taught us that we need to constantly showcase our best selves so that we consciously brand ourselves the way we want people to view us. But in doing so, are we losing our real selves in the process?  Does your social media brand match your real life brand?

Ways to break out of the prison

1. Stop agreeing with everyone

2660481273_dc8b0851b6

For the next week, I want you to ONLY leave a comment on a blog IF you completely disagree with the author’s point of view.  No more agreeing with blog posts!  Comments that disagree are not only more interesting, but they generate great discussions and debates on the blog post that usually lead to new ideas and concepts.

2. Trim the fat

Take a good day to sit down, go through your Facebook and Twitter profiles, and un-friend/unfollow people who you are not close friends with. If you do not have an intimate relationship with the person, then there is no need for you to be friends with them on Facebook or to Follow them on Twitter.

Doing this is not only liberating, but you’ll begin to build closer ties to the people that matter in your life.

3. Write a controversial blog post

frustrated_computer_userThe best debaters are able to argue their opponents argument better than the opponent himself.  Find a topic in your niche that is HOT.  Find one that is very biased towards one side of the argument and write a post arguing for the other side.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t agree with the other point of view, as long as your argument is well thought out, coherent, and makes people want to debate with you.

You’ll not only stir up a great conversation online with your post, but you’ll drive more traffic to your blog and gain a new readership.

Be yourself online

Try these three exercises and let me know what you think.  The more you practice them, the more comfortable you’ll feel about being yourself online.

Author:

Jun Loayza is the Co-Founder of Viralogy, the Social Media Rank, and the President of SocialMediaMarketing.com, a social media marketing agency.  You can find out more about Jun at his personal blog – Young Entrepreneur.

Picture of Jun Loayza

Jun Loayza

Jun Loayza is the President of Reputation Hacks. In his entrepreneurial experience, Jun has raised over $1 million in Angel funding, sold 2 internet companies and lead social media technology campaigns for Sephora, Whole Foods Market, Levi's, LG, and Activision. Jun currently lives in San Francisco, CA with his girlfriend.

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

Thomas Stanley and William Danko mailed 3,000 surveys to American households and found that among the 1,115 replies, 385 came from actual millionaires, half of whom said they had never spent more than 399 dollars on a suit, 140 on shoes, or 235 on a watch.

Thomas Stanley and William Danko mailed 3,000 surveys to American households and found that among the 1,115 replies, 385 came from actual millionaires, half of whom said they had never spent more than 399 dollars on a suit, 140 on shoes, or 235 on a watch.

Global English Editing
The more the women in one survey prized happiness, the lower their well-being, though only when life was less stressful, and reading that happiness pays made a gold-medal moment land flatter

The more the women in one survey prized happiness, the lower their well-being, though only when life was less stressful, and reading that happiness pays made a gold-medal moment land flatter

The Vessel
An AI company built specifically to replace vanishing local reporters in news deserts nationwide shut its entire operation down in 2026 after journalists discovered it had been copying, nearly word for word, stories those same reporters had already written

An AI company built specifically to replace vanishing local reporters in news deserts nationwide shut its entire operation down in 2026 after journalists discovered it had been copying, nearly word for word, stories those same reporters had already written

The Blog Herald
Many women in their seventies say the decade feels better than their thirties, forties, or fifties, not because there is more time now, but because they finally stopped needing a thesis defense to justify disappointing someone with a simple no.

Many women in their seventies say the decade feels better than their thirties, forties, or fifties, not because there is more time now, but because they finally stopped needing a thesis defense to justify disappointing someone with a simple no.

Global English Editing
Writing a list by hand forces you to choose what matters — typing lets you skip that step

Writing a list by hand forces you to choose what matters — typing lets you skip that step

Global English Editing
A study testing more than three million people’s cognitive skills found that while raw processing speed peaks in your late teens, the skill of accurately reading other people’s emotional states from a photo or a tone of voice kept improving for decades longer, quietly overturning what many people assume about their own minds as they age

A study testing more than three million people’s cognitive skills found that while raw processing speed peaks in your late teens, the skill of accurately reading other people’s emotional states from a photo or a tone of voice kept improving for decades longer, quietly overturning what many people assume about their own minds as they age

Global English Editing
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore