The Inner Game of Social Media

I think most of us know how fun it is to go online, post or share content and connect with others who share our interests.

If you really look at those who are successful at building actively engaged audiences, it's pretty evident that they truly enjoy what they do. Social media gives them a chance to share their perspective. They can show others who they are and what they do best.

The other day, I posted a tweet about how some of the most recognizable names that we hear on the internet are actually kids- like Justin Bieber and Tavi from Style Rookie.

Kandee Johnson is a popular make up artist on You Tube. She joined You Tube in January 2009. As of now, her videos have received 41,611,838 views. And she has 255,950 subscribers.



In the grown up world, we think of mom bloggers as examples of powerful influencers Marketers love to connect with them because they have a lot of engaged followers and they are able to invest time in quality posts.

On the business side, the question is always, how can we build a massive audience of loyal "users" and be able to monetize these efforts?

With the examples I gave above, I don't think these people really approached social media from the same angle as business professionals. I just can't see them fretting obsessively over their ROI and traffic stats on a daily or weekly basis.

What is common to all of them is that they are passionate about specific areas of interests and enjoy sharing what they do. And if you don't like the examples I gave, by all means, feel free to pick your own. Either way,you will notice the same dynamic as well. Top online influencers invest most of their time and energy on their interests, with the sincere desire to share this with others.

Harnessing the power of social media for business brands would not follow the same dynamic through stringent and overly organized efforts (I'd like to emphasize the word "overly." While being systematic and organized is a good thing, going to extremes can be stifling). The results are often artificial and contrived.

As much as people love to think that social media successes are the exclusive result of having the coolest, most sophisticated technology around, I will take the stand that social media is ultimately more of an inner game, where you need to harness the fun energy and balance it within a business framework.

Unless you are in a position of not having to worry about finances at all, you still have to create an organized system of action to channel your passions and interests in a given area. Being able to tap into the joy of wanting to share, create and communicate is something that is not easy for many people to accomplish at will. Oftentimes, the fears of not being able to meet certain goals and objectives becomes the driving force of many social media campaigns.