A meaningful and learning focused social strategy

I’d love for social posts to be created with different intentions.

When they’re created with ‘engagement’ in mind, they are only successful when we see growth and engagement. When we post something without this “growth” success, many get bored and quickly move on to something else.

We call ourselves failures and don’t see the point.

But what if we saw social as something that had a completely different focus?

One way that I’m looking at it is by having my own personal learning as a social focus. What this ends up meaning is that most of the things I share result in you getting real insights into what I’m reading and learning about.

When you follow me, you are also following my learning journey.

There are a couple of tools that I’ve started using recently that have gotten me to highlight more consistently what I consume. I am currently using Glasp for public highlights and Reflect for private ones.

In addition to just highlighting things, I’m getting better at socially processing what I read more often rather than bookmarking it and never going back to read it. (As a side note, as someone that struggles with distraction, I find this helps me be more focused and active in my learning.)

I’ve added the concept of socially sharing some insights, snippets and quotes to my process. Not everything. Just what seems interesting to me. And perhaps what seems worth being reminded of in the future.

The difference is that I schedule these on social in advance. Days, weeks or months in advance. This is definitely not with a view to ‘optimize’ content (I really, really couldn’t give a toot hoots about that). I do it to remind my future self. To help me re-trigger that interesting thought. To help rewire the concept into my mind.

It will come out of the blue. It will make me smile. It will pull me back into the things I was learning. It will enable me to think of it in a new light.

It’s a bit like the spaced repetition learning technique, a method where the subject is asked to remember a certain fact with the time intervals increasing each time the fact is presented or said.

This means I will be reminded of it in intervals (when I post, when people like or comment on it). Having conversations around it through commenting also brings another layer of learning to me (and hopefully others).

It’s also encouraged me to post more questions, which is something I’ve always loved doing (but had stopped due to social media depression). Seeing my own questions often catches me by surprise too, it’s kind of funny.

I’m deep in learning and research at the moment. This type of approach really motivates me to keep showing up and sharing. Honestly, I’m pretty burned out from the hustle and repetitive style of social. I’m seeking new approaches. I want to stumble and explore and be introduced to new ideas.

I look at my timeline and it’s boring. I want curiosity and excitement to come back in. I want to learn. I want to inspire and share with others and for others to do the same to me.

But really, I’m just trying to find ways that work for me. This is me trying to think outside the box and move forward in life in a way that works for my body and brain. Most of the approaches out there don’t align with who I am, and that’s a great excuse to explore different and hopefully better ways to do things.