How to Grow on Social Media: Personal Growth on Social Media
Updated: May 24, 2019
Social media plays such a huge role in our everyday lives. It can be such a good thing, but it can also turn into such a bad thing almost instantly. It is actually crazy the amount of times I have had a fabulous day, until I opened social media and became envious, jealous, or compared myself to other people, then I’d close the app feeling like a pile of nothing! After that, I’d get over it, get bored, open it again, and do the same thing! It’s SO crazy how a piece of technology can affect us so heavily! Social media was originally created to help people maintain and create new relationships, so how did we let an app have such a negative affect on us? Now this can be reversed completely and rather than self pity on social media, we can create self development and personal growth. I have come up with 6 way to Personally Grow on Social Media.
1. Create Meaningful Connections:
For those of you who thought this title may have been click bate, here’s the secret. Instagram came out with a Press Release that said the Instagram Algorithm is based on relationships. How you interact with the people you follow, and how they interact with you. They actually care about how long a person spends on your photo and how long you spend on theirs! So rather than being a self serving platform, why not make some friends!? Read the captions, get to know people, DM People who inspire you, and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and make relationships! Social Media can help us close the distance gap. You can make friends from anywhere and keep up with each other! Never be intimidated by the number of followers that someone has. At the end of the day, no one is better than anyone. People are just people, and we are all trying! Let Instagram be a place to really connect with people and allow them to connect with you as well.
2. Unfollow Anyone Who Makes you Feel Bad About Yourself:
If you feel insecure when someone’s photo pops up on your feed, if you feel jealous, question what you’re doing or who you are, it takes 2 seconds to change that. Unfollow. You do not “have” to follow anyone! Even if your sister’s posts are getting to you! It’s okay to take some time for yourself, plus, you can always follow them back when you are in a better headspace! Sometimes you just need to take a break from any negative thoughts that you, or anyone else is sending your way! Now for the flip side, we should not take it so personally when someone unfollows us. Who Cares. If I’m honest, this week I needed to unfollow some people. I just felt myself getting negative every time I opened the App! I even took a break for a few days just to give myself some time to remember who I am and why I really do love me. I think that is perfectly okay. Do whatever you need to do to make you happy and to keep you going. If that means unfollowing me, great! You have my full permission and I will not be offended. Take steps in a positive direction by getting rid of the negative.
3. Follow Anyone Who Makes You Feel Inspired:
Once you get rid of the negativity, replace it with inspiration. Follow people who inspire you to do better, be better, and push you forward. Follow people who share inspirational quotes, who make you laugh, who you can relate to, and who have amazing content that inspires you to be more creative! Follow the positive people, the people who are learning to make something positive out of something hard, people who love the world, people who have dreams and goals! If you want your time on social media to be filled with personal growth, follow people who genuinely uplift you. Also who cares if they end up following you back! Follow people because you feel great about what they have to say and don’t get so caught up in the who follows who aspect of it all.
4. Strive to Inspire Others & Yourself:
There are millions of people who take good photos, there are a million Pinterest funny puns that people are using for captions (myself included), there are soo many people on instagram, so how are you going to stand out? Serve a purpose. How will you use your influence for good? I use this platform to share my story. I want to help anyone who may be struggling, to feel like there is someone out there who can relate. Do you think that was easy for me to do? Absolutely not. But the amount of people that have reached out to me because they are struggling with something similar, has been so rewarding for me. I actually feel fulfilled by being able to use this platform as a source of help for others. Share your story. Why is body positivity important to you? Why is creating a community so vital? How did you create your own success? How did you deal with your divorce? Why is conserving energy so important? Share the things you are passionate about and see genuine growth from people who genuinely care about what you are talking about. Create relationships and friendships that you never new were possible by being more open with who you are.
5. Forget the Ones That Bring You Down
This one is a personal reminder to me. I cannot even begin to express how discouraged I got this week. I literally just wanted to hide in my room and never come out. I won’t go into the details, but who I was, everything I stand for, and what I was doing, was put into question all in about 20 minutes. I took a hard hit and spent way too many hours crying and stressing over it. At the end of the day, not everyone is going to agree with what you are doing. Not everyone is going to accept you for who you are. You need to remember that those are not the people you are putting yourself out there for. There is a reason we have all been through a specific struggle, it is to one day be able to help someone else. Not everyone is going to understand, but the people who need it will understand perfectly, and those are the people that you are doing this for. Remember that when someone is trying to bring you down.
6. Spread the Love
You chose every person you see on your feed everyday. For one reason or another you are following them. You clearly love them enough to follow them, so why would you withhold a like or a comment? We should be supporting each other! Read the caption, give a heartfelt comment, and a quick like! It takes two seconds and it can totally make someones day! Not to mention, like a said earlier, it actually helps your own growth on your social media account. Instagram encourages relationships and wants you to engage with people! Truly engage with people! That doesn’t mean just liking and swiping through. Spend time with each post like you were face to face. Not only will your account do better according to Instagram, but you will feel like you are actually connected with people. Spread the love and feel love in return.
I promise you, if you treat this app the way it was intended to be used- to create connection, then you will grow physically, emotional, and your numbers may boost as well. Rather than a daily dose of self defeating thoughts, you will be continuously inspired throughout the day to become your best self, and you might even create some amazing friendships along the way. If you need a friend or a little boost when you are feeling negative on social media, send me a DM and let’s chat! In the meantime, I have a FREE checklist to actually help you grow your numbers on social media when you subscribe to my blog! Check it out and be the first to get A Little Piece of Bri Elise next week!
xoxo
Bri Elise
