The good news is, in the age of social media, we all have the opportunity to do just that. Whether you have 100 or 10,000 connections across social media, you have the ability to positively influence the outcomes for those around you. of course all social media platforms have “super users” who tend to be attention seeking causing some to shy away from participating in the medium. The word influencer itself has developed a negative connotation, usually associated with the most vane among us. But that doesn’t need to be the case.
For years, we have friended, followed, liked, and linked our way to a growing presence across the various social media, with growth being the primary objective. With the growth stage now behind many of us, we are left to wonder what’s next. A lifetime of passively gazing at friends and loose connections seems uninteresting. The other options are fully retreating from the medium or becoming a “super user” as described above. Recently, we’ve seen the rise of the “motivator” - one who has developed unique insights, expertise, or tools which they hope to share with the masses in order to gain attention. It’s a different hustle, but similarly self-serving like the “super user” just with more explicit commercial intent. This trend will continue.
There exists another option - a world where we develop deeper relationships within our established networks and seek to deliver value specific to each individual. Importantly this done with zero expectation of receiving anything in return. It’s not business, it’s an artform. Those who are able to switch from “leveraging” their networks to generously serving as the lever within them have always had an immense competitive advantage in life. Why? Because selflessly producing better outcomes for others puts you at the center of an engaged community. It’s fun. And by being the connector, you are connected. Platforms like FB, LinkedIn, Instagram hold immense potential for those who are willing to strengthen their existing networks, but are difficult to use in this manner.
If social science is correct, we have developed enough relationships to accomplish almost anything in our lifetime. Many of our networks are dense enough to also help someone else accomplish almost anything in theirs. So why not focus all of our efforts there and be the kind of influencer, we’d all like to become?
What we need are tools focused on the development of personal relationships versus sales - PRM vs CRM. I have some ideas.
