Social Media

For the past two weeks, I refrained from using all of my social media accounts. I stopped communicating with my mentors, and even with my team. I shunned conversations leading to my previous competition because I was afraid to admit that in spite of rehearsing for a long time, I still committed a lot of mistakes. However, earlier this morning I received a letter from one of the organizers announcing that I had won the 2018 International Broadway Performing Arts Acting Competition that was held in Florence, Italy last month!

To tell you honestly, I never expected to win. All of the competitors added flavours to their roles and committing just a pinch of errors, whilst I did otherwise. I cannot imagine how I finished my performance but I can vividly recall how my team has helped me through my struggles during the play.

To my mentors, whom I call my “guardian angels” and the Broadway International organizers, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of you. Thank you for making me recognize my own talent and molding it to become one of the instruments to achieve my dream —being one of the youngest members of the Broadway Performing Youth. I am very thankful for the opportunity, awards and the Les Mi?erables Talent Scholarship (I indeed gave justice to the character of Fantine! Didn’t I?)

To my parents, thank you for supporting me along the way. I know that it was not easy for the both of you to let me go to new places alone nor let me make decisions for myself, yet you still allowed me to do so. You deserve my warmest hugs as you are most patient and understanding.

To my co-actors and friends, cheers to us for making it this far! Our teamwork has led us here and I know that we will reach new places through hardwork and perseverance.

Last and most importantly, to the Lord our God, my Saviour, thank you for saving me, for being my motivation during the times of difficulties; of wanting to quit; and wanting to stop searching for my passion. My Lord, all that I do is for the grace of Yours. May You continue lighting my path towards excellence.

To others that are reading this message, continue pursuing your dreams and trust what Psalm 27:14 states, ” Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart; wait for the Lord!”

Social media presents a valuable outlet for free expression. However, users of social media tend to go beyond the mere act of expressing their freedom to posting insinuating statements and insults. This signals the onset of the entire problem. Even though social media presents bloggers and other users with the opportunity of expressing their freedom, integration of the concept of character and civility is paramount.

Civility refers to the application of courtesy or politeness in speech or behavior as it is the case with most formal conversations. Even though the Internet and social media has provided an avenue for users to exercise their freedom of expression, it is evident that exercising the freedom occurs at the expense of another fundamental freedom, the right to privacy (Swigger 1). The essay argues that the social media is a valuable outlet for exercising the freedom of expression.

Speakers including corporate gadflies, cultural critics, and political candidates among others get an extraordinary opportunity when communicating their opinion regarding anything on the Internet. Therefore, their individual thoughts are made available to the global audience in an easier and faster way than it was observed before the emergence of social media platforms. That opportunity has been seized by the growing and large group of Internet users. Some studies indicate that the outcome is the expression of speech exhilarating.

In it, they see nothing else rather than an instrument of community restoration and competition of democracy while other research findings on the topic find the speech communicated on social media platforms as frightening and offensive. Lurid threats, hate speech, and pornography among others flourish alongside social media debates over the country’s political stability and democracy as well as exchange of opinions concerning fly-fishing in the governing regime.

This phenomenon has triggered mounting pressure to limit the nature speech social media users sometimes engage in or rather create systems that can filter out the content communicated on the Internet to remove offensive material. Thus, this paper also examines some of the social and legal issues identified in the growing struggle between the proponents of control and filtration and those supporting free speech on social media platforms.

Two centuries have elapsed when the world was defined by religions, borders, tribes, states, and nations, there still exists some sort of confusion amongst people regarding how to the existing divide between cultural traditions, empirical facts, science, and spiritual beliefs that demands humans to put their faith in things they cannot measure, prove, and see. This issues becomes eminent when social media is combined with the so called “blind faith,” something that is almost inevitable digital footprint, and also the need for self-expression, truth, and equality (Fox and Jennifer 168).

But today, it should be acknowledged that online platforms and communications facilitate discussions that were earlier on held in the corner café, the plaza, or in court. Studies indicate that the power of social media platforms is two-fold, based on the governing regime because the Internet has in no time revitalized the grassroots of a democratic community of readers and writers.

Despite the fact that social media platforms can claim unequivocal democratic benefits such as undermining the censorship of undemocratic governments that attempt to repress and control public opinion, in the context liberal regimes, instead, the emergence of millions of disjointed chat rooms in the whole world lead to the split of and enormous and politically concentrated mass audiences into a large figure of divided issue publics. In the current public spheres, debates carried out on the social media promotes political communication particularly when news reporters discuss about the quality of press through political magazines and national newspapers.

Putting all the above issues aside, it could still be argued that social media platforms play an integral part in scrutinizing the world events since it enables a more open and easier access to interpretation. Social media users are devoid of cues when communicating online. Their intent is also impossible to decipher and their tone not easy to comprehend (Ellison et al 858).

John Blossom, an industry analyst, suffices to be one of the bloggers that use the social media to express specific ideas with the objective of communicating the ideas to the public. Blossom finds it necessary to identify and acknowledge unsung heroes such as Vero. In his blog, That Canadian Girl, Blossom reiterates the important aspects of Vero’s blog such as the ability to combine professional and personal topics (Brynco 1). From the outset, it is clear that Blossom’s application of the social media in expressing individual opinion was appropriate. However, there are incidences where other bloggers and users of social sites express their feelings and opinions in a negative way thereby creating public unrest.

In her article, PSA and Social Media, Gaul stated that it is impossible for people to prevent access to the social media or social networking each day (1). According to Gaul, it is almost certain that an individual will gain access to the social media or social networking (1). The wide accessibility and inexpensive aspects associated with the social media imply that many people can access the social media and social networking sites without incurring hefty expenses.

Consequently, the social media grants anyone the opportunity to publish and post any content that she or he deems relevant. At the same time, the social media and social networking sites grants all users the opportunity to access information as and when required if the information is already available on the target platform (Gaul 1). It is evident that the social media provides access to substantial amounts of information.

The other truth associated with the information is the fact that the rationale of the creators of the sites is to ensure that the information remains on the sites forever unless the need to delete such information arises. This elicits the need for social media users and bloggers to consider the specific information that they post on social sites or upload on social video sites such as YouTube (Gaul 2).

The intended purpose of social media sites was to increase the worldwide visibility of information by availing a means of communication that would act as a bridge between the communicating parties. In essence, the social media acts as a point of contact between the different members of a society. Consequently, publishing and posting helpful information on such sites would be helpful to the other members of the society. However, relaying contentious information has the impact of eliciting unrest among the members of the society thereby leading to other adverse consequences.

The Presidency of George W. Bush brought forth millions of bloggers that wanted to express their outrage to the dubious projects of the Bush Administration (Brundidge et al. 741). During his tenure as the President, the U.S. invested in dubious projects such as the Iraqi Invasion, warrantless eavesdropping, and harsh interrogations, retrograde strategies towards emergency management and climate change, and excessive secrecy (Brundidge et al. 748). The result was an expanding blogosphere where bloggers took to the

Internet to express their outrage to the projects. Even though the force presented by the bloggers did not appear to be strong at the onset, the situation took a different turn in the end. The legal blogosphere turned out to be a massive force with substantial influence. It comprised of influential online communities characterized by vast organizing and fundraising capabilities. The blogosphere also incorporated different arguments and voices as well as reporting and investigative journalism (Boehlert 59).

The online movement yielded the netroots, a combination of grassroots and the Internet, that later had a massive influence in Barack Obama’s victory in 2008 (Boehlert 59). In the case, it is evident that the influential members of the blogosphere capitalized on the freedom of expression granted by social networks and the social media to communicate significant and sensitive information to other individuals with the objective of getting rid of the poor leadership decisions evident in Bush Administration.

The use of social media leads to offline relationship problems and stress. Studies indicate that close to 31% of social media users in their teenage have fought with each other due to online events (Sidani et al. 323). In 2016, research results showed that the adolescent’s overuse of Internet sites and social media platforms can limit the chances of success in people’s relationships in their later life because communication is a barrier to the development of conflict resolution awareness and skills of interpersonal cues (Sidani et al. 326). Research also found that as an individual get more following on his or her Facebook page, the more stressful such people become for using the social media account. Social media experts in their studies say that “active

Twitter use leads to greater amounts of Twitter-related conflict among romantic partners, which in turn leads to infidelity, breakup, and divorce” (Sidani et al. 331).

People are enticed by social media to waste their precious time. An empirical survey on the users of social media platforms particularly those aged sixteen years to sixty-four years established that on average, they spent 1.72 hours on the social media daily, this time when estimated against the total time spent online represents approximately 28% (Salmon et al. 5).

Amongst the participants, close to 36% identified social medial platforms and Internet sites as the “biggest waste of time,” compared to shopping (9%), watching TV (23%), and fantasy sports (25%) (Salmon et al. 5). When alerted to new activity on the social media like Facebook message or a new tweet, the users of such account take an average of between 20-25 minutes to return to the original job. Research on the 30% of all the surveyed cases, it was established that returning to the original duty took close to two hours (Salmon et al. 5).

However, despite the concerns raised on the social media users in this discussion, increased interaction and social engagement turn out to be the main benefits of social media and social networking. However, incidences of historical tragedies remind us of the devastating impact of social networking on the society. The incidences reveal that the contemporary society lacks civility and is on the forefront in the expression of anger and hostility. It is evident that majority of such incidences emanate from the information that users of social networking sites obtain from the sites (Ellison et al. 855).

To address the adverse effects of negative social media comments on the readers of such information, choosing civility should be imperative on the part of the users of the social media and networking sites. Choosing civility entails the implementation of considerable conduct and proper online behavior. Under considerable conduct, it is imperative that online bloggers and other users of social networking sites should think the best.

Thinking the best is detrimental towards enabling bloggers and other online users to evaluate information before deciding to publish and post it online. By so doing, incidences where people capitalize on the freedom of expression to post insinuating comments will not be common. This will contribute towards eliminating historical hostilities that emanate from public reactions on posted contentious information. Online bloggers should also respect negative responses even when they are subtle.

It is also proper behavior for bloggers to refrain from idle complaints posted by other bloggers. Apparently, the objective of some bloggers is to post insinuating comments that would attract negative interest from other bloggers. By avoiding such comments, the bloggers that post the comments would fail to attain their objective of creating unrest among the public. Considerate conduct also requires bloggers to avoid shifting blame and responsibility to others.

It is the responsibility of all users of social sites and other networks to ensure the appraisal of positive comments and the dismissal of insinuating comments. Apparently, when a blogger responds to an insinuating comment with another inciting one, the chain of negative comments expands thereby sparking unnecessary interest among other bloggers. The occurrence of hostilities because of the comments therefore turns out to be the joint efforts of all bloggers that took part in the “idle” conversation. In essence, considerate character requires all bloggers to refrain from speaking ill of other persons, organizations, or events.

Before deciding to use social networks, several issues should ring in the mind of a blogger. From the onset, the blogger should identify the primary goal of using the site. In the event that the identified goal is negative, the blogger should refrain from using the blog with immediate effect. The blogger should also determine the sites that the target audience uses on a regular basis. Identifying the site will enable the blogger to deliver the information to the target audience within the shortest time possible. As a blogger, one should also find answers to the two questions: What can you offer and how will you assess your use?

The social media presents a good platform for free expression. The use of the social media is a rising trend across the globe. People find the social media as the most reliable platform for expressing their feelings, concerns, and ideas among other issues. However, the effective use of the social media in communicating the needs of bloggers to the target audience is mandatory. This emanates from the fact that comments on contentious issues turn out to be inciting to the society thereby creating public unrest on some occasions.

Hostilities from the hatred between bloggers of different opinions turn out to be the result of such heated online conversations. Bloggers should also attain a balance between the right to privacy and the freedom of expression in using the social media. Assessing whether the content will spark negative reactions among other online bloggers before deciding on whether to post such information is necessary in avoiding the inappropriate use of the social media in expressing our issues.

Tony Green Comp II Essay 3 Social Media in the Workplace A growing hot topic, and cause for concern is the increasing use of social media in the workplace. The landscape for communication has changed, and the line between personal and professional communications has been blurred. How will your employer manage the risks associated with the use of social media and at the same time, gain the benefits that this media form provides?

While many employers were initially concerned that employees would use company time and equipment for socializing with friends, they are quickly learning that many social networks can also be used directly for work purposes. In today’s competitive workplace, emerging professionals should spend as much time using online tools for professional knowledge and development, as they do developing their social life and personal interests.

Supervisors are learning that social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, blogs, wikis, text messaging or discussion groups can be used to engage other employees in discussions, and cultivate conversations between teams across geographic, and other boundaries. Speaking to business partners ashore and abound has never been easier, and can be accomplished today with the click of a button. Social media can also be a profitable sales and marketing tool. Through social media, business professionals now have the ability to advertise, promote, and publicize their products and services without ever having to leave their homes.

There is no other low-cost promotional method out there that will easily give you large numbers of visitors, some of whom may come back to your website again and again. In fact, the benefits in most cases exceed the cost. It would take you thousands of dollars to buy several links; social media has the ability to give you that for free. Social Media doesn’t, “Guarantee” that you will make money. Every site or business that wants to expand and become profitable, needs a core group of supporters who will be willing to make purchases or recommend the site to others.

Your site needs to perpetuate itself. The more supporters you have, the faster word spreads about your site. Social media marketing is an excellent way to get people to come into your site to take a look at what you have to offer. You will grow when there are a group of loyal visitors ready to always act upon what you have to offer. Accompanying all actions, there are equal, and opposite reactions. Just as there are many benefits of social media in the workplace, there are many not-so-beneficial attributes associated with allowing social networking in your workplace.

Time management is obviously the most important issue for all of us with always-on technologies of communication. Today we can record conversations, take pictures, check email, and visit networking sites through our own telephones. Extended smoke breaks are no longer in the picture when compared to the amount of time employees are using during work to reconnect with friends and family. When that technology is used to view, collect or disseminate inappropriate content, again employers have cause for concern.

Use of workplace computers to access and distribute pornography, for example, frequently results in discipline and workplace harassment complaints. In some cases it can even result in serious criminal investigations. Social Media is growing upward, fast! If you can’t keep up with it, at the very least keep track of it. Most importantly, usage of social media in the workplace must be regulated. Guidelines must be set, and signed verifications must be documented. This media frenzy can be your best business partner, or your worst piece of evidence against you. Which side do you want to be on?

Whether you’re a solo marketer, startup or multinational enterprise, you’ll find it’s nearly an insurmountable feat to manage your social media without the help of some third-party tools.

Related: 

It’s these tools that make it possible for you to reach marketing goals, track results and engage more efficiently across a multitude of platforms. And, more and more, they’re a necessary step, given that now use two or more social media sites, and the average social media user.

The good news is, , is that there are plenty of mobile apps and web-based tools to choose from; they range from specialized to multipurpose.

Below, I’ve compiled a list of my top five most recommended social tools for managing your marketing campaigns and making scaling your online marketing efforts that much easier.

1. Hootsuite

is considered to be a leader when it comes to managing social media. The platform offers everything you need to monitor social chatter and manage content publishing and multiple accounts. It also offers detailed reporting and collaboration features.

Each of your accounts can be displayed side by side in multiple streams for quick monitoring. This is especially helpful when big trending topics and conversations are taking place across all of your social channels. That listening ability is a big part of social engagement, and Hootsuite makes it easy.

“I use social media as an idea generator, trend mapper, and strategic compass for all of our online business ventures,” , founder of Digital CoCo.

Hootsuite is available in a free plan as well as via multiple paid-plan options, and can be used on a desktop web environment or via mobile app.

2. Flickr with Creative Commons search

This is a go-to source for great stock photos for any kind of social promotional purposes, content marketing, branding and more. It’s ideal for blogs and presentations. With its advanced search feature, you can browse photos that have been made specifically available under , which allows you to use photos with attribution.

Visuals are an important part of social and content marketing. When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10 percent of it, according to data collected and analyzed by in his book . But if a relevant image is paired with the same information, that retention rate jumps to 65 percent — even three days later.

For slightly higher-grade photos, I recommend purchasing images from Shutterstock.

Related: 

3. Bit.ly

is the dominant URL shortener, and in my opinion it’s the best choice for the function it offers as well as its value-added benefits. Bit.ly’s tracking and analytics are on point, though I recommend utilizing a shortener whenever possible. The “+” feature is a nice perk, as well: By adding the “+” to the end of any bit.ly URL, you can see how many times it has been clicked on and who clicked on it.

It’s a great way to check in on trending topics, find influencers and even keep an eye on your competitors if they’re using the service, as well.

Because creating unique bit.ly links is so easy, the tool is also a great way to do A/B testing, on real-time social networks like Twitter.

4. TubeMogul

Video is a big part of social engagement; that’s why sites like Facebook have upgraded their services to incorporate native video-uploading as well as live streaming. Twitter has done the same thing since its acquisition of Vine back in 2012, and Periscope in 2015. Video provides a means to engage your audience with fun, entertaining content — content that drives social shares.

“The play button is the most compelling call to action on the web,” — , co-founder of Vidyard.

takes the demand of manual upload and simplifies it so you can upload a single video clip directly to dozens of video sites. In addition to faster upload, it gives you comparative statistics on the number of views and the length of each view, site by site. It’s a fantastic tool for moving beyond individual video upload into strategic video optimization as part of a broad social media strategy.

Related: 

5. Notifier

scans your content for the names of influencers in your posts and gives you one-click access to generate @mentions on social media. It’s a simple and effective way to notify influencers (and their audience) that you’ve mentioned them within your content.

The knowledge gap hypothesis presumes that you will know more about these topics than people whose educational level is lower than yours, even if the topics don’t directly concern your everyday life. -Stated by Telephone, Donahue and Alien in their 1970 article they said the population Is divided Into two distinct segments: a group of better educated people who know more about most things and those with low education who know less. Low Socio-economic status (SEES) – are slightly defined by education level but also have little or no knowledge about Public affairs issues, are disconnected from news events and Important new discoveries, and usually aren’t concerned about their lack of knowledge. High Socio-Economic Status – Are the opposite of Low SEES – Public Affairs issues: -According to the knowledge gap theory most people gain knowledge as a topic becomes more heavily covered by the mass media, but the higher educated segment of the population will gain more knowledge.

Knowledge gap says nothing about the individuals innate intelligent, the theory is just saying that high-educated people have several advantages. Such as: 1. A greater level of stored knowledge on a variety of topics. 2. Better attention, comprehension, retention, and greater communication skills. 3. More reliance on the information-oriented print media rather than the entertainment-oriented non-profit media 4. Greater numbers of relevant social contacts or friends who are likely to be knowledgeable about and discuss pubic affairs topics. Low SEES can be called Medal Poor -High SEES can be called Media Rich Programmatic Research- is research that builds on itself, where one study outcomes raise questions and other researchers take up the challenge to answer. Points that might reduce the knowledge gap 1 . The type of issue, especially an issue that really gets people’s attention 2. The size and type of community – small, rural, homogeneous areas have lower gaps; clues with pluralistic subcultures have higher gaps. 3. Owe much and what type of media coverage a topic gets – cigarettes link to cancer is constantly in the news (lower gaps); Sexual harassment incidents get intense but inconsistent coverage (Higher gaps) 4. An Issues level of conflict such as police brutality (lower gap) vs.. Covers about urban revitalization (higher gaps) – 3 early concepts explored 1 . Socio-economic deficits 2. Differences -sass’s – Interest in topics became the primary research. – Print Media is more informative than TV.

High SEES group still watches newscast -sass’s – focused on health, environment, and new technology. – Communication campaigns became designed to educated or persuade and television interest increased. Politics became a focus -Higher SEES use Schemata. Chapter 27 – principle of relative constancy -Charles Scripps – 1959 released economic report of media. -Macomb’s used the observations from Scripps to offer a theory called the Principle of Relative Constancy. Some of his predictions were: 1 . The proportion of money, viewed as a part of the gross national product(GNP), spent on the mass media remains fairly constant over time. The Constancy aspect. 2. Because the economy varies from boom to depression, the GNP also will vary. The relative part of the theory. 3. Because the expenditures on mass media are relatively constant, new media must fight it out with existing media. This is the functional equivalence part.

Chapter 28 – Cultivation -The media-culture connection got its first great push from the Payne Fund studies in the asses and asses, an investigation of the impact of movies on young people. Payne Fund Findings: -George Greener – Violence index -Grinner’s definition of violence – “the overt expression of physical force (with or thou a weapon, against self or others) compelling action against ones will on pain of being hurt and or killed or threatened to be so victimized as part of the plot. Cultivate -Two types of Cultivation -Mainstreaming – a relative commonalty of outlooks that television tends to cultivate – Resonance -suggest the power of television to influence popular imagery increases when seen on the screen “resonates” with the viewer – seems consistent with experience – it is more likely incorporated into the person’s notion of “reality’.

Can you get fired for what you post online? In October 2010, Mariana Cole-Rivera, a domestic violence advocate at the group Hipics United of Buffalo, began the Facebook thread that would get her fired. Cole-Rivera and four of her co-workers who’d responded to her post had lost their jobs. Their boss said their Facebook thread violated HUB’s harassment policy by disparaging a co-worker. The Facebook post said that, “Lydia Cruz, who is one of their co-workers, felt that the group wasn’t helping their clients enough at the Hipics United of Buffalo.

Cole-Rivera responded to this by saying, “IVe about had it! and she also wrote, “My fellow coworkers how do you feel? ” Within minutes, HUB colleagues began posting supportive comments. “What the Hell,” one wrote, “we don’t have a life as is, said one, and what else can we do, the others wrote. ” After they were fired, the workers took their case to the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency charged with interpreting and enforcing U. S. labor law.

A Judge sided with them, but now the case is on appeal. There have been more than a few stories in the news about employees being fired because of what they posted online. People need to ealize that when you use your work computer for any personal business whether it is good or bad, can get you in trouble, or even cost you your Job, especially, if the company has guidelines on computer use on the Job. Dan Prywes, an expert in labor and employment law, in Washington, D. C. explains that “Employers are within their rights to limit social networking site access, “Dan also said that, “you need to be prepared for the consequences when you post online.

If a small-business owner sees something unsavory written about themselves or their company online, they can call their workers in and talk with them about it. But whether or not you can take action and fire them is dependent on state law, outside of a written contract or clause at public companies, employment is at-will. My question is: What are your rights when it comes to talking about work online? Should you be allowed to say what you want?

Recently, the National Labor Relations Board issued a series of rulings and advisories that have made it illegal for employers to fire anyone who casts the company in an untavorable light online. The NLRB says employees nave a right to discuss work conditions freely and without fear of retribution, whether the discussion takes place at the office or on Facebook. However, not all work-related speech is protected. For example, your employer can still fire you if you post something negative about a client or customers on Facebook. In my opinion, if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it at all.

Ever wonder why social media and blogging are so addictive? We love the feedback. The gratification that comes from knowing we actually did something right — something that caused another person to react in a meaningful way. Even if it’s just a like or a retweet, the feedback feels good.  

Make no mistake, feedback is a very big deal. Without it, you would never have learned how to walk. Swim. Read. Even tie your shoes. It’s called trial and error and it’s how we learn. And it doesn’t work without the error part — the feedback. As kids, we get plenty of feedback from parents and teachers. As adults, not so much.

Many if not most of us spend our entire careers without getting the recognition we think we deserve or having a clue as to why. Asking your boss usually gets you a generic platitude like “stick with it, your time will come” or oblique criticism like “you’re just not cutting it lately.” What good is that?

Related:

It’s even worse if you’re self-employed or a small business owner. The radio silence can be deafening. If you’re like most people, you’d do almost anything to get a little legitimate feedback so you at least have some idea if you’re heading in the right direction or not.

That’s why we flock to social networks and blogs. Not so much because they’re proven to be effective uses of our precious time or the analytics conclusively show that they’re worth the effort. At least they have analytics. At least we get comments, shares and followers. At least they provide some sort of feedback that tells us how we’re doing.

The question is, is that the highest quality feedback we can get. Does it really provide a return on investment analysis that tells us if it’ll pay off in the long run? Does it really help us build our expertise, our differentiation, and our careers, or just our personal brand? And if it’s the latter, the question is, then what? What and when is the payoff?

Truth is, all that feedback, all those shares and followers, all those analytics, all that data just tells you how you’re doing on one platform over time. It doesn’t tell you whether the time and effort you spend is actually worth it and whether you might have been better off doing something else.

Related:

Nobody ever thinks about that. It’s called opportunity cost, and it’s the hidden cost of time and resources that might have been better spent on something else. It could be enormous. Companies pay a lot of attention to opportunity cost, but individuals rarely do. It’s absolutely critical that you spend your time on what matters.

I know the feedback feels good, the colorful charts look good, and the numbers keep going up, but the question is, what does it all mean in the overall scheme of things? How do you know it’s worth it? Because everyone says it is? Because everyone is doing it? Not only are those not good reasons, they’re very good reasons not to do it. As I often say, nobody ever made it big doing what everyone else is doing.  

I know a lot of you are making a go of it building your personal brands as solopreneurs or with an online business or two. I’m sure you love the feedback you get. And you may make a buck or two for a while, but is it likely to pay off in the long run? Are you building a foundation for a successful career — a differentiated expertise or value proposition?

Look. How you choose to spend your time and pursue your career is a personal decision. It’s not for me to say. And it’s not for anyone else to say, either.

It really comes down to this: are you building your career or just following the crowd? Are you striving to be the best at an in-demand expertise or just slugging it out with millions of others doing the same thing? Are you gaining the experience and exposure you need to grow? These are questions you should be asking yourself.

Related:

Feedback is a funny thing. In my experience, the critical kind you need to learn and grow is hard to come by. The easy kind you get online is not the same thing. It may look good and feel good, but remember, all that glitters is not gold. Something to think about.