What I Talk about on Social Media (And Why!)

One of the biggest things people say to me concerning Social Media is, "I don't know what I'd talk about..." or "I don't have anything interesting to say..." On the contrary, I believe that every human being has something interesting to say and there is a tribe of people who want or need to hear it.

Over the past couple of years, I've come to realize a valuable perspective about the whole "Social Media Presence" thing. Here's the big revelation that has changed the way I view my social media presence.

Who I am Online is Simply an Extension of Who I am.

Period.

I think of my social media presence on Twitter & Facebook as nothing more than an extension of who I already am. Social media is personal. It's meant to be the virtual mirror of who you are in real life. Nothing more. Nothing less.

(Parenthetically, that's why Next Level Church doesn't have a twitter account. Because in my opinion, twitter is supposed to be personal... like really... a person. Our church has a Facebook page and we use that to do 3 things. I'll share those next week.)

But when it comes to my personal Twitter and Facebook accounts...

My One Huge Filter is:

"If you and I spent a day together, what would we talk about?"

If you spent a day with me, there would be 4 things we'd talk about throughout the day. Therefore, I tweet about the same 4 things I live and breathe and talk about in my everyday life. It's that simple. My goal is for my Online Presence to look like 25% - 25% - 25% - 25% in these 4 categories. I don't always get this perfect, but as a rule, this is the aim.

My 4 things:

1. Personal.
     If we spent the day together, I bet we would spend about 25% of our time talking about family, wife, kids, house, baseball, vacations, fishing, etc. You would ask me about my personal world, and I would ask you about yours. I let my social media presence reflect that.

2. Promotional.
     If we spent a day together, I bet we would spend about 25% of our time asking each other about "What's happening big in your world?" Or said another way, "What's coming up that you're excited about?" It's not bad to promote on social media as long as that's not all you do. If all you do is promote, then you're just an interruption marketer and people will tune you out and unfollow you. Let promotion be about 25% of what you talk about.

3. Spiritual.
     If you and I spent a day together, I bet we would spend about 25% of our time talking about what God is doing in our lives. We would share verses, and then talk about what they mean to us personally right now. I wouldn't just quote a verse and not tell you what it means to me personally. That would be weird. The same is true online. More people will be challenged to read the verse you're tweeting if you share what it means to you.

4. Leadership.
     Finally, if you and I were going to spend the day together, I know that we would spend 25% of our time talking about Leadership, Life Principles and Helpful Quotes that are inspiring us right now. Therefore, let 25% of what you tweet be about Quotes or Links to articles that have been helpful to you. Think Value Adding. The more value you add to those who want to hear from you, the more valuable your online presence will become.

Our Social Media presence should simply look like our everyday life. Thinking in terms of these 4 categories will help you be more balanced online.

? How do you think about your Online Presence?

#AddingValue

@MatthewKeller