A PR’s Worst Nightmare

When it comes to putting things out on the internet through social media, or advertising in any way, I will whole heartedly admit to being terrible at it. I personally am not the type of person who likes to sit on social media outlets and broadcast my every thought to the world. I prefer to instead sit back and observe the activities of people that I follow as well as groups that hold my interest. In my opinion, the like button is the most powerful tool that I am almost always comfortable with using. This type of behavior puts me into “the hiders” category of the three common internal foes written about by Michael MacMillan.

MacMillan defines “The hiders” as ones who “post content only when absolutely necessary. Otherwise they don’t like to talk or make noise”. While in his article he is referring to groups or organizations, I myself admit that I am a hider. I have constantly been one of those people who would much rather be a fly on the wall rather than in the spotlight when it comes to social media.  I personally always find myself having the internal debate as to whether or not what I am posting is appropriate, and whether or not it could negatively impact me down the road. This situation practically puts me in an anxiety ridden state when in all actuality I’m just trying to write a post about an event I went to, or post a picture of my significant other and myself. I don’t know why posting things makes me so nervous, but it is something that I have had to face ever since I joined social media. However, MacMillan has outlined different strategies to get people like me to post.

1.       1. Get a person tied to the topic to advocate the post.

2.      2.  Get the involved in some sort of group information circuit.

3.       3. Show them evidence about the positives of posting.

I know that in some cases, posting things for other people to see can be very beneficial from a marketing standpoint. For instance, I’ve seen the power that posting on a profile can do on LinkedIn. My fellow classmates as well as I have been able to make a great deal of industry contacts thanks to the things we share and like on the platform. However, I have not been able to translate this experience to other media outlets. My Facebook and Instagram both still go relatively unused because I don’t see the benefit of actively posting and sharing on these sites like I do on professional outlets. This may seem counter-intuitive given that there is greater risk in a professional setting, but in my eyes it is more acceptable to be a “hider” on public media than professional.

My lack of posting on social media seems to have allowed me to slip into the background when it comes to those who actively check their feeds and monitor their friends and followers’ profiles. I hope to one day be as active on the more public outlets as I am on professional ones such as LinkedIn, but for now I just do not see the benefit of doing so.  I would much rather spend my time actively building and using a profile that will hopefully get me employed out of college instead of one that lets people I went to high school with know what I did over the weekend. Maybe one day my point of view will change, but for now my name is Kevin and I am a hider.