You Do You: Social Media 101
Just be yourself. Sounds kinda daunting as a social media strategy, but that’s the secret to success in this industry.
On Sunday evening in Cooperstown, NY, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inducted its newest member, Ken Griffey Jr. For those unfamiliar with the superstar, Griffey was an incredibly talented ballplayer during the 90s, and, more importantly, he was the epitome of cool.
From the swagger after launching home runs to the patented look of a backwards baseball cap, “Junior” was an incredibly bright spot in an otherwise dismal period for the sport.
After being enshrined in the hall on Sunday evening, a rather interesting stat was being thrown around that only added to the incredible legacy Griffey created. Ken Griffey Jr. is the first player drafted first overall to make it into the hall of fame.
Crazy, right? How have we had 311 prior hall of fame inductees and not one drafted as high as Griffey?
The answer is pretty simple: pressure.
Being drafted #1 overall in any sport is tough. You are transformed from star prospect to team savior overnight. You are likely given the reins of your new team and told (sic: forced) to save the franchise.
Griffey never felt the pressure. He thrived under it. He flipped his hat around and willed his way into the Hall of Fame.
You know what’s tougher than that? Thrusting yourself into the limelight and pressure cooker known as social media.
Whether you’re a social media manager and were chosen to be the face of the company or client, or you are working to improve your own personal brand, the struggle is real.
The answer once again is rather simple: you do you.
Griffey didn’t change his image for Major League Baseball. He didn’t wilt under the pressure of an era filled with deceit and cheating. He lived by “you do you” and he excelled.
If you want people to take you seriously on social media, they want to see you being you. They want what’s real and what’s truthful. They want to see that backwards cap on your head when everyone else’s is facing forward. Be who you are, not who you’re dictated to be.
Make your tweets real. Create fun, exciting and genuine Instagram posts. And most importantly, don’t be a Facebook troll. I’m following you because I want to hear, see, experience what you’re all about. I’m not looking for some metrics-generated post that is statistically proven to increase your impression rate.
I know it’s hard. In fact, I wrote all about that. Baseball is also hard. Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t win a World Series Championship once in a career that spanned three decades. Did that force him into altering his image? To stop being “Junior”? Absolutely not.
Does being true to yourself guarantee greatness? Nope. Not in life, baseball or in social media. But it does guarantee authenticity, aka the core of social media.
Social media is about the grind — day in and and day out (and nights too). You need to put yourself out there across various mediums and provide people with genuine content that they will enjoy and interact with. Letting the pressure overcome your true goals of social media success will only hinder that process. Putting on a mask also doesn’t make that any easier.
Griffey Jr. played from 1989 to 2010 and maintained his image throughout. As a result he was chosen to the Hall of Fame with 99.3% of the vote (another record) on his first year of eligibility.
Junior was real. On social media, you should be too.
Casey Neistat said in a recent vlog, “As human beings, we like connecting with other human beings.”
We’re not looking to follow robots on Snapchat or Twitter. We want you. So be like Griffey and just do you.
