Have you ever felt lonelier after scrolling through social media? We discuss why this happens and how you can counteract it by focusing inward. Could solitude be the cure for loneliness? Join us on Mindful Bytes as we explore this compelling idea, drawing on insights from Wendell Berry to reveal how purposeful alone time can defy the pull of loneliness. Shawna discusses the fine line between loneliness and solitude, showing how choosing to be alone can offer profound mental health benefits, especially when contrasted with the false connections often promoted by social media. Olivia brings a nuanced perspective by explaining how both extroverts and introverts might navigate these feelings differently, adding layers to our understanding of social engagement.
Brian introduces us to the "Brick," a fascinating innovation by college students designed to help you manage smartphone distractions and foster a more introspective mindset, during the tech talk segment. Providing practical strategies to help you tune out the noise and tune into your own thoughts. Discover how intentional disconnection through tools like the "brick" device can help create more meaningful connections in your life.
We also discuss Instagram strategies with our savvy Millennial, Olivia, to boost engagement, emphasizing meaningful interactions over mere follower counts. As we wrap up, the conversation shifts to understanding and aligning personal goals with professional ambitions, stressing that success is subjective and personal.
This episode is packed with valuable insights that promise to help you navigate loneliness, embrace solitude, and optimize your digital presence.
Have you ever felt lonelier after scrolling through social media? We discuss why this happens and how you can counteract it by focusing inward. Could solitude be the cure for loneliness? Join us on Mindful Bytes as we explore this compelling idea, drawing on insights from Wendell Berry to reveal how purposeful alone time can defy the pull of loneliness. Shawna discusses the fine line between loneliness and solitude, showing how choosing to be alone can offer profound mental health benefits, especially when contrasted with the false connections often promoted by social media. Olivia brings a nuanced perspective by explaining how both extroverts and introverts might navigate these feelings differently, adding layers to our understanding of social engagement.
Brian introduces us to the "Brick," a fascinating innovation by college students designed to help you manage smartphone distractions and foster a more introspective mindset, during the tech talk segment. Providing practical strategies to help you tune out the noise and tune into your own thoughts. Discover how intentional disconnection through tools like the "brick" device can help create more meaningful connections in your life.
We also discuss Instagram strategies with our savvy Millennial, Olivia, to boost engagement, emphasizing meaningful interactions over mere follower counts. As we wrap up, the conversation shifts to understanding and aligning personal goals with professional ambitions, stressing that success is subjective and personal.
This episode is packed with valuable insights that promise to help you navigate loneliness, embrace solitude, and optimize your digital presence.
Join us LIVE in VR at the Killer Bee Studios by grabbing an Oculus headset. Plus, earn some reward points from Meta!
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Mindful Bytes podcast.
Speaker 2:
Today we're going to talk about what Adam Masseri, the head of Instagram, had to say recently.
Speaker 1:
The surprising antidote to loneliness and a tool that can help you stay focused and present by removing daily distractions. Let's go ahead and dive into this episode of the Mindful Bytes.
Speaker 3:
Hey, I'm Shawna. I'm your Xenial digital dinosaur.
Speaker 1:
I'm Brian, your Gen X business leader.
Speaker 2:
I'm Olivia, your sassy savvy social media millennial.
Speaker 1:
And then Ashton, our Gen Z gadget fanatic, taking the day off, so we'll have to bring some tech news in from you from the Gen X side. All right, Shawna, why don't you go ahead and kick us off?
Speaker 3:
All right. So last time I talked about the epidemic of loneliness in the US, and today I'm going to talk about the surprising antidote to loneliness. So I'm going to start with a quote by Wendell Berry that kind of sums up what I'm going to talk about. So the quote is in the wild places where one is without human obligation, one's inner voices become audible. The more coherent one becomes within oneself as a creature, the more fully one enters into the communion of all creatures. And so that's what the unexpected, surprising antidote is to loneliness is being by yourself.
Speaker 3:
And when I first started reading about this I mean that doesn't make sense, right, that's counterintuitive. But the difference is, you know, loneliness comes down to feeling the difference between how much social engagement you want and how much you actually have. So like, if you feel like you know you want to be hanging out with people more and you don't have the opportunity, then you, you feel like you know you want to be hanging out with people more and you don't have the opportunity, then you can feel alone, you know or if you want deeper connections with people and you don't have the opportunity, then it can make you feel lonely.
Speaker 1:
So I can definitely see how social media can play a huge role in that, because a lot of people want more followers and they're they're kind of looking at followers as hey, like this is my, my community or my tribe that's following me, and when they don't have that that large of a following, they feel maybe they're not that as, not that as important.
Speaker 3:
Definitely, and imagine what it would feel like. And maybe you've even felt this. I think I've felt this definitely. But you know, I have what 5,000 friends or something like that on Facebook and yet sometimes you can't find someone to talk to. You know what I'm saying Like. So those numbers can trick you into thinking, oh, I have like a big friend group, but then if you actually need something and you can't find someone to listen to you or to talk to you or to help you, then that's a big gap, you know. And it's because we're made for deep connection, we're made for intimacy and for friendship and for deep relationships and for the most part, you don't really find that on social media.
Speaker 3:
We saw, during COVID lockdowns and stuff like that, a lot of people suffering from loneliness because they literally could not get out and do the things that they were used to doing. The difference in solitude is number one, you choose it and number two, you use it purposefully. You know, right now in our culture, we're seeing that we're losing the ability to be able to be by ourselves, to be quiet, to be unplugged, and that's hurting us in a lot of ways unplugged and that's hurting us in a lot of ways. But one of the ways is that you start to see addictive tendencies with social media and things like that. I mean, we've seen it for years, even with TV and the internet and things like that.
Speaker 3:
But if you're feeling lonely sometimes it will seem like a natural thing to try to reach out online. But we know that those aren't always quality connections that you're making you know in those ways on social media or whatever way you're using these technologies. So by taking time to be by yourself and if you, by the way, if you couple that with being in nature, then the benefits just compound. It's so much better for you even if you're alone out in nature, and some of the reasons for that is when you are unplugged and you have time to be alone with your thoughts, your stress level comes way down, you're able to hear your own thoughts, so you get to know yourself better, and all of these things make you better able to connect with people.
Speaker 1:
When you are with people, I love that you point out that it was that solitude time allows us to start hearing our own selves think, which when we're so caught up in all the busyness and stuff and today's culture, it's hard to find that time to really hear your own thoughts. So I feel like that's very interesting. Libby, do you have any thoughts on this so far?
Speaker 2:
yeah, I mean, I was also wondering if there, you know, is more of a difference between like an extrovert and an introvert and like feelings of loneliness, because I feel like I've changed in my life, where when I was younger I just wanted to be around people all the time, and this and now I'm more introverted and I don't want to be around a ton of people all the time. So I do find it easier to take time to. You know, sit with your own thoughts and go on a walk and think, and you know, solitude to me is enjoyable, versus, you know, when I was younger I'd be like this is the worst. Yes, exactly yeah.
Speaker 3:
I was exactly like that too. I hated to be alone when I was younger, and I think that shows you that it's a skill that you can build. You know, because you might think people might think they don't need any time alone, but that's not healthy. And so you know, if you start to build like that ability to be alone, it's so good for you. But it points out that's an interesting thing you pointed out, olivia is that everybody has a different balance, so everyone has to find what's right for them, what makes them feel, you know, healthy and whole.
Speaker 3:
And you know some people need like our son, ashton needs a lot of social interaction. Like he goes for too long without hanging out with his friends or going out and doing something, he starts to feel kind of sad, he starts to feel kind of lonely and he has a high and he has recognized that in himself. He'll say like you know I forget how he words it exactly, but basically he's saying like I need some like social interaction. And interestingly I don't know if this is normal for Gen Z, I'm guessing it probably is Ashton did not get into social media very much, for one thing, we didn't allow him to have it till he was over 18. So now it's not a source of social interaction for him, like he doesn't even keep it on his phone because he just doesn't, you know, he doesn't get anything out of it.
Speaker 3:
So that's an interesting thing. Like from a young age, I feel like he learned like, okay, I feel like I need some interaction. Let me, you know, go make some friends, you know. So, anyway, all of that, just to say that it's a balance and everybody has to work out for themselves what they need. What I want people to think about is, if you find yourself feeling lonely, start to see the ways that you're trying to meet that need that are making it worse for you. So if you, if you go straight to Facebook and start scrolling and you notice like this is not helping me, I'm still feeling lonely, think about what you can do to fill that need and not just make it worse. And start with having some time to yourself and you know, listen to what your, what your thoughts are saying, and that helps you understand yourself better, be more confident and, you know, be able to walk through your life in a healthy way.
Speaker 2:
Something that I've kind of seen from like a younger perspective, and it is from social media. But I think you know that Gen Z and even younger, they again look at definitions of things differently because they grew up with all of that stuff. So a big thing that I'm seeing now is specifically with women, but they are like taking themselves on a like a self care date, so they'll like go to a coffee shop and just do all their favorite activities, um, and that's something that they're finding to be enjoyable, which I think is a good thing, oh, me too, I think so too.
Speaker 1:
I liked how you point out, too, about really looking at how are you trying to meet that need when you feel lonely. When you talked about going to Facebook, I mean I can say in the past there's probably been times where I've posted on Facebook because I felt lonely, but then there's no responses and it's like that just makes you feel more lonely, Like something's not, like nobody's listening, and it makes me wonder are there deeper questions? And I think that's why it's important how you bring up about going out and choosing solitude to hear your own voice, Because it's like well, why are you craving, Like why are we craving that attention? Is there something deeper there that needs our attention, Like mental health wise? Is it because you don't feel good enough? Is it for your important right? Those are things that may be we could hear and hear. I don't know if that's the right way to say it, but maybe those thoughts will come out during that time of solitude to help us be aware of maybe some deeper things that's going on inside of us individually that we can seek out. I know you have two articles you said that you want to share that that support. This, too is people want to read more about it. So we'll make sure we put those in the show notes. So we want to hear your guys' thoughts too, so make sure you click that link in the show notes that says Texas. We would love to hear your thoughts and we'll talk about those later on in a future episode.
Speaker 1:
Now, I think that there's probably people listening right now that's wondering okay, hey, this sounds great Solitude. Yes, Okay, I could see this, but I'm just too busy, I don't have time, I can't. We have too many distractions, which I think is a great, great place to transition into this piece of tech that we're going to share with everybody. It's nothing. It's nothing high tech. It's called the brick. So, right here, this is called the brick and the this little thing is pretty, pretty amazing. Shawna sent it to me a while back ago to check out because I don't know. Olivia Shawna, have you guys ever found yourselves like where you're? You're always constantly like maybe you find yourself looking at your phone when you really didn't want to be looking at your phone? Have you ever struggled with that before?
Speaker 3:
I have definitely.
Speaker 1:
Or those, those phantom vibrations like where you have. You guys both experienced that before you think your phone's vibrating Constantly All the time.
Speaker 3:
It's not even in your pocket or in your purse.
Speaker 1:
It's like in the whole other room. It's weird.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, like my butt vibrates in my phones when I'm in there and I don't know why.
Speaker 1:
Well, we'll talk about that off the podcast.
Speaker 2:
That's a whole different podcast.
Speaker 1:
Shawna, you sent me this link to this device where I could check it out and I can tell you guys have you guys used devices before to try to help you stay focused? Have either one of you Olivia and Shawna? No, olivia hasn't. I'm not surprised.
Speaker 3:
A millennennial hasn't done that yet.
Speaker 1:
Hold on. I'm waiting to see if she gets a little sassy here. Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:
Here comes three. I don't need a device to help me get focused, Brian.
Speaker 3:
I do, I really do, and I've tried the timers on my phone. It doesn't work. Within one day, my finger is already trained to be like 15 more minutes.
Speaker 1:
I think if Ashton was here, he'd probably remind you. It's like a dopamine hit or something like that. When you do that, it's like, ooh, I just rewarded myself another 15 minutes. I did nothing for it, just clicked a little button that said give me 15 more minutes yeah, I've tried those. I 15 more minutes, yeah, I've tried those. I've tried those. I've tried different apps as well, but you can always turn them off and there's no consequence for anything like that.
Speaker 1:
So Brick was designed by two college students who noticed that there was a problem, a problem of constant distractions that they were dealing with every day, and it was with their phone, their phones.
Speaker 1:
Like right here, this thing right here was causing the distractions, and they saw it with people all around them. So their mission behind developing the brick was to make smartphones less distracting and to help increase productivity. And I could definitely see that, and I think that this device right here can really play a huge role in improving even like what we're talking about right now this loneliness and finding some time for solitude to get out and hear our own thoughts and be open to asking ourselves those deeper questions about ourselves, like why do I feel this way? Why do I crave this. I think it's interesting and you guys share your guys' thoughts. Isn't it interesting that these devices like these phones or social media that have been developed to bring us closer together, to help us connect more, with too much of it, it seems to take us down the route of doing the total opposite and it's causing more of a disconnect.
Speaker 3:
You know, I guess it comes down to money. Now, it's all being, you know, designed to keep us on there longer, because our attention is for sale. So the longer they can keep us on there, then the more likely we are to spend money, buy things. I mean gosh, those Facebook ads are so tempting.
Speaker 1:
How about those TikTok ads? I'm sure there's probably a lot of people buying stuff off TikTok, right, Olivia?
Speaker 3:
Let me just say I'm not oniktok, but I have used some tiktok products because some people I work for have bought things off the tiktok store and or what's called tiktok shop, tiktok shop yeah yeah, uh, excellent mops, let me just say yeah, exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:
Oh, I was just gonna say I wonder if this it's the smart, it's the smartphone aspect. Right, if we still had just plain old cell phones, like when we all first started them, that was a way to keep you connected, but then they morphed into these smartphones. That I think it's the smartphone aspect of it, absolutely. Had they stayed their old way, I think they would have been a way for you know people to let each other know that where they're at, or whatever it may be, but then they morphed into this monster.
Speaker 2:
If you will what Shawna spot on, what money and all of that um having I think you nailed it there.
Speaker 1:
I mean, yeah, I think you know the smartphones are making us dumber really is what it comes down to. The smartphones are not making us that much smarter, and I remember last episode we talked about having a responsibility as millennials, as gens, as Xenials, to help remind the younger generation coming up the different ways to create more meaningful connections. You guys remember talking about that, yeah. So I think that this brick thing is a good way, a good tool that I think we should bring to their attention is because I think if we can turn off those phones at certain times, it can play a huge role in our lives and create positive change for us. But it also just like you talked about choosing solitude, it has to be a choice that we're willing to do. To tell you a little bit about the brick itself, it's very easy to set up. You just you get it, you scan it with a QR code, it's set, downloads the app. But what's cool about it is it's this little thing is magnetic, so you can stick it on your refrigerator stuff like that. You can throw it in your purse or put one in your car, you can. You can get multiple ones, but each one you can use for multiple phones, so, like our entire household can use this one brick. But what's cool about it is you literally create modes for it, so how you want to use it, and you can choose to either allow apps or block apps. I've learned that it's a lot easier to set it up to say, hey, I'm just going to choose to block these apps. So I've created different modes. Like I created a work mode, I created a checkout mode which is like, hey, you know, I'm going out and going out, maybe it's a date night or something. I have a a touch grass mode which is like, hey, this is my time to go reflect. But yeah, I've created these different modes that whenever, like whenever I'm checking out from work, like, hey, work's over, I want to go check out, I go tap my phone on it. You just tap your phone and then it puts it into that mode and you can block those apps. So I can say, hey, after work hours, I do not want to be able to check my email, I don't want to be opening up my calendar, I don't want the things I have to do with work. So I can really transition from work to my personal life. Or if I'm going out for a time of solitude. Well, we know the challenge of that is, if you're stepping away for solitude, you're going to have notifications going off, just like we've had during this podcast episode. My notifications are going off and they're distractions, so you can go and say, hey, during my solitude time.
Speaker 1:
On that mode, I want to make sure that I don't get Facebook messenger notifications. I don't. I can't open up the Facebook app, I can't open up Tik TOK, I can't do Instagram. You can do turn all those things off. So all you do is tap it. Now the interesting thing is the only way to unlock, to unbrick your phone is to go back and tap that again. So I think that's where it's very interesting is like if you stick this on your refrigerator and you're going out, you have to drive all the way back home to unlock it. Now, I have done some tests to it. I see, I see the millennial, or I just got really big. Like what? Okay, first, let me stop here, olivia, what are your thoughts about that? Uh, yeah, that does not sound great to me at all. What, what would be, what would be, what would be the one thing that that makes you hesitant to do something like this.
Speaker 2:
I don't know, like just hearing you say that last part that you had to like physically, like tap it or whatever, and if it's at your house and you're out, I just started to get like shaky or something. I don't it's a bad sign. Probably I'm having withdrawals.
Speaker 1:
I get it. I mean, when we first started using it, I admit like I thought it's not going to be no big deal at all. But then when I bricked my phone after work, I did not realize how many times I would try to go and open up my email again or look at LinkedIn. Like LinkedIn, that's a work app. So I blocked it and I didn't realize how much, how often, I would actually try to go to that after work hours. But I love that, even though it doesn't feel good, doesn't sound good, you're still being aware of. Like that's not good, probably. So that's the good thing about this is I know we've talked about the apps that you've been able to. You know, hit ignore, give me 15 more minutes. They're used to have the Apple used to give you a notice every week of how much time you spent on applications.
Speaker 2:
I don't really see that anymore. Oh, you still get that?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it is. I love that response. It is, that was perfect.
Speaker 3:
That was a great response.
Speaker 1:
Well, I did test this with the brick. Like when I bricked my phone, I thought, okay, this is great, but can I get past it? Like? I want to know, can I get past it? Because if I can figure out a way, I'm going to do it, because the tendency of like I want to do this, now you're going to do whatever you got to do to open up that app, and I wanted to really prevent that Like, is this really going to take it to the next level? So the first thing I did was I locked, I bricked the phone, and then I held down on the app and I said delete the app. I deleted the brick app and, of course, it unlocked every app. So I'm like see, this isn't going to work.
Speaker 1:
What's interesting, though, is I reinstalled the app, and the further I got into the settings, I noticed that there's a a little toggle that says emergency on brick strict, strict mode, and I'm like well, what's that it says? I have four left, and I started reading and what that is? Well, what's that it says? I have four left and I started reading, and what that is is that is, if you turn on strict mode, what that does is if you go. If you turn on strict mode and you brick your phone, you cannot delete the app. It will not allow you to do that.
Speaker 1:
But you can say use an emergency unbrick and it unbricks it. So if you're out somewhere and you have to get in there, you can do it. And I thought, well, that's such an odd number. Four, well, I guess that's an even number, but four, why would you choose four times? But they actually do give you five. They actually do give you five unbricks. But it recognized that I deleted the app to unbrick my phone and it took away one of my emergency on bricks. So I'm guessing that when you run out of emergency on bricks, the only way to unlock your phone is to unlock those apps, is to go back and tap the brick. So you have some freedom there. Olivia, maybe that helps a little bit to test it out, but you only get five total. So you got to really use it sparingly. And I am I still don't know this. Uh, we need to install it on Shawna phone because, uh, she could probably block some apps like instacart and stuff like that from us ordering, do you not?
Speaker 1:
want to eat but you don't want to maybe block it.
Speaker 3:
Like it like at nine o'clock we're like you know what sounds good ice cream well, instacart doesn't deliver after nine, so it you have to block it from like seven. It's usually. It's usually 7, 30 when brian's like you know, I'd love some ice cream.
Speaker 1:
I'm like, let me just go right here on instacart we could probably save a lot of money bricking things like the amazon store and stuff like that at certain times, like when you purchase more.
Speaker 3:
For yourself.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, for myself.
Speaker 2:
So you can still talk and text on your phone, right?
Speaker 3:
Yes, you can do whatever you want. So you decide what you want to brick or not.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you create your own modes and you choose each mode what apps you want to block.
Speaker 3:
So, like for me, I wouldn't block email because I don't care about my email. I never check my email. Brian is, you know, like, semi-addicted to his email, so you can just decide what is best for you.
Speaker 1:
It is a really cool app. The only thing question, though, with the emergency bricks is I'm wondering like I want to get it on your phone, Shawna, so we can see do we all get five or do we all share that five?
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
And I could see it even at workplaces. I mean, if you have workplaces and you don't want people using certain things during work, you could use a brick, like have everybody tap the brick. I don't know. We were just talking last episode about the Siri thing, being able to hear, and you know, with chat GBT, could you make people tap their phones at some point and turn that off so you don't have to worry about trade secrets getting out? I don't know. So I would love to know, before we go to the next topic which we'll be switching over to, olivia, what apps would you guys even consider blocking?
Speaker 3:
Okay, Olivia, you can go first. Remember, it doesn't have to be blocked all the time, just for certain times.
Speaker 2:
None, it all has to do with control. I have control issues and that makes me feel out of control, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Interesting.
Speaker 3:
But what if you reframed that and looked at it like you're actually more in control?
Speaker 2:
Hmm, how about that? There you go.
Speaker 1:
More control of the things that More control, olivia, of the things that are important to you in life.
Speaker 2:
Okay, maybe I would consider blocking my Amazon app for a little bit, but other than that, yeah I got an interesting thought on this little twist.
Speaker 1:
What if we asked our spouses what apps we should block?
Speaker 3:
oh, go get nate olivia he would say tiktok 100 I would I mean for myself.
Speaker 3:
I would block Facebook because that is the only app that I don't feel like I'm in control of, like I was telling Brian the other day. You know, sometimes I'll pick up my phone to look at I don't know the date or something, and then I just click right into Facebook and I'm scrolling before I even realize what I'm doing, or you know, I will look up. This happens all the time. I'll be like hi, I wonder what the weather's going to be. And then 10 minutes later I'm like what am I doing on Facebook? Like I don't even realize I'm doing it. It's such a habit, so I would. That's what I will use it for.
Speaker 1:
Well, I would love to know in the comments you guys let us know if you're listening to the podcast, click that link in the show notes and let us know what apps would you block and would you even consider using something like this brick? It would just be helpful to you. Let us know, send us a text message. So all right, olivia, let's go ahead. And let's go ahead and jump on over to this instagram updates. I would love to hear what's going on there all right.
Speaker 2:
Well, unfortunately I cannot tell you because I blocked Instagram with. The podcast is over. Okay, so recently the head of Instagram his name is Adam Masseri did an interview or sometimes he does like Instagram lives, things like that but he answered some questions that a lot of people had about Instagram and none of this stuff is like groundbreaking to most people. It might be to some people, but it just kind of like reiterates, kind of like the things that we've been talking to our clients about. So it was just good to hear them literally out of the head of the mouth. Who kind of controls the algorithm and all of that sort of thing? So, um, I'm just going to go ahead and dive into these um things that he said and if you have any questions or whatever, feel free to interrupt me.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so number one he said that you should respond to comments on your Instagram posts for up to a week. So going back to your old posts for an entire week, he said, helps it to get reboosted again in the algorithm. So, just thinking about it, almost like you know those little um heart things, if someone codes and boom, that's what you going back to comments are, you're bringing your posts back to life. So another thing which we've been teaching our clients for a while is just how valuable carousel posts are, and he once again reiterated that fact. But he explained the reason why being people are so busy. So when you have a carousel post, say, for example, bring it back to that person's feed to let them fully look through your entire post. So basically, the carousel is giving people more than one opportunity to see the post.
Speaker 2:
So I've noticed that you're not doing carousels, definitely add those in and really make your first two slides like the ones that are, you know, have the biggest punch there. So he said one of the important metrics that the algorithm looks at on Instagram is actually shares, but with Instagram it's not even he's not even talking about like shares to your story. What he means by that is sends slash DMS, which, if you're what? Basically what they're trying to do, right? If you're not super familiar with TikTok, that is the number one way for you to share on TikTok is by DMing people, and we all know that they're trying to do whatever they can to compete with TikTok, to compete with TikTok.
Speaker 2:
So basically he's saying that they're seeing if your post is being privately DM to your audience, like to your followers. So it's Shawna sending a post that she likes to Brian, or a reel or whatever. That's basically like the highest compliment. You want your close circle to see these things. So that's something to keep in mind when you're creating content. I wouldn't like just be, you know, blatant and spammy and be like DM this to someone but like sprinkle that in there in your strategy and, you know, let people know that you want them to privately DM it to someone.
Speaker 1:
Does that count if you DM other people about your post? Because I've been honestly like I've had people DM me their posts like crazy now and it drives me insane.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, I am not in the camp of doing that. I think it feels very spammy and icky and I don't like it. So I don't think that that is like. I know it's something that now they even have at the top of Instagram when you post Do you want to share this with your? Or do you want to DM this, or whatever? That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about content that you know someone really likes, that they share, or you know. So, yeah, be mindful of that Like when you're posting something. Again, asking thing.
Speaker 2:
But another thing that he said, kind of going along with this, is that they care about engagement rate more than your number of followers. So, not to say that your follower number isn't important, but that's not the thing that they're looking at as a successful account. So if you have, you know, 10,000 followers but you're getting five comments per post or whatever to Instagram, that's not a success, right? Because someone else who has 20 followers could also be getting five comments and that's a higher percentage, that's a higher engagement rate. So, again, I know, since the beginning of social media, it's always been about how many likes do you have, how many followers do you have. But that, if you're still measuring that. I hate to say it, but you really do have an old school mentality when it comes to social media, and it's time to to update that thought process.
Speaker 1:
So um, yeah, I love that, and then you know anybody that's listening. If you're wondering, like, well, how do I figure out my engagement rate, we actually have a free calculator that you can use on Killer Bee's website, so we'll post a link to that in the show notes. You can use it for free. I know it's hard to do more meaningful connections on social. You know we're all learning this. You know those of us that have been doing this before social and now we're in here embracing the digital more and more. But I think it's a great thing to point out that engagement is so crucial because that's a more meaningful connection when it comes to digital, on a digital aspect, when it comes to a metric compared to how many followers you have, because that's just the followers represent.
Speaker 1:
It can represent a huge crowd, but you know, at a concert, if you're at a huge crowd, you're not connecting with all those people. It's the people that's close to you that's engaging with you. That's really the more meaningful connections on that side of it. So I love you pointed that out, Olivia.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and I think that, um, you know, just with all of this information that has come out again, so many people feel like I can't be successful or whatever on social media anymore. It's pointless for a business. But they tell you what to do, and I think a lot of the businesses or people that are like social media is dead I can't get X, y and Z anymore. If they really took a step back to see what they're actually doing, a lot of their content might be valuable to them, but is it really valuable to other people? So that's something that you have to keep in mind as well. Social media is not dead. It's evolving, but you have to be giving valuable content.
Speaker 1:
So, olivia, I noticed a few things that you said there. As we get ready to close, I want to encourage people to be thinking about this, too. When you're talking about a lot of people are trying to feel like they feel like they can't be successful on social media stuff like that. I want to encourage anybody that's listening to ask themselves what is success to you? What is success? We can fall into this trap and, like you're saying too, they tell us what to do, they do, they will tell us what to do and Olivia is amazing at paying attention to these things, so we can get the most out of these platforms.
Speaker 1:
But it's important that we always remember that their goals are different than our goals. It's different than your goals, what you're doing, their success is different than your success. What is success to you, what is important to you and what is your goals? Because we can fall into that trap of chasing things that really are just pulling us away from what's really important to what we're doing and what we're here to do at the jobs that we're at and the positions that we're in. Be more mindful about that as well. With that, I want to thank everybody for tuning in. Make sure you check out the links in the show notes and make sure you text us. We want to hear from you if you have any thoughts or anything that you would like to add to the conversations, and if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to click, follow and leave us.
