Hard, Not Difficult: Thoughts on Social Media

“Oh man, this test is SO hard,” one student complained. “Wrong. THIS, is hard,” replied the professor, tapping his knuckles on his desk. “The test is difficult.”

At some point we’ve all been presented with a difficult situation; something that is seemingly insurmountable. The goal ahead appears to be beyond our means or capabilities. We place artificial limitations on ourselves and believe a task is too difficult, when in reality success is one step away.

The problem is that usually those limitations only exist in our own heads.

There is no better example of this than the world of social media. People think they’re too old to understand “the Twitter machine” or become frustrated with trying to grasp the latest platform like Snapchat or Vine. Social media just seems too damn difficult. Amirite?

The reality, though, is that social media isn’t difficult at all. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not hard.

Look at it this way. Playing basketball in the NBA is difficult. I can get the concept and the flow of the game, but will I score against LeBron James? Can I dunk on a 10-foot hoop? Nope and nope.

Playing basketball in general isn’t difficult. I can grasp how to dribble, shoot the ball into the hoop and run down a court. But getting better at it and beating another team? That’s hard. That takes work.

It’s tough at times to dive into social media. Even if you do understand it and have already embraced it, the notion is daunting. However, the reality is that all it takes is a head first dive — and the continued (and oftentimes hard) pursuit towards success.

Does it surprise you to think that there’s a major medium in the world right now that people find too difficult to excel in when it just takes a little hard work? It shouldn’t, because the world that created and feeds the entire concept of social media is one that lives on instant gratification and success. We don’t want to work for likes or upvotes while we constantly crave them.

No, you won’t become a YouTube sensation overnight. But assuming you will is as ridiculous as thinking you can wake up one day and beat Michael Jordan in a 1-on-1.

There is no inherent skill involved in social media success. No one is born with extra-tweetable creativity, or a keen knowledge for the perfect Instagram filter. It just takes a lot of work. It’s hard. Did your favorite YouTube and Twitter personalities put in endless hours of hard work, just like professional athletes? Count on it.

You can, however, embrace the idea of “One is Greater Than Zero” (1 > 0) — an incredible notion from media superstar Gary Vaynerchuk. The idea is simple: every like, follow, subscriber, retweet is important. Every minute of video you upload or every 10 views on those videos matter and, more importantly, they add up after time.

You don’t need (and won’t have) 1,000,000 followers/subscribers by tomorrow — you just need to keep striving towards reaching your goals by doing bit by bit.

Yes, social media success is hard — I am certainly not satisfied with my personal statistics — but that doesn’t mean every little bit isn’t helping.

Once you fully embrace that social media isn’t as difficult as you think, you’ll be well on your way to success. Granted that you’re willing to get to work. Hard work, that is. But I guarantee that if you apply the hard work involved in social media you’ll start seeing results.

Understand the difference between difficult and hard — and start embracing the hard. It’ll take you places you never imagined you could reach.

Follow me on twitter @adam_h_davis