Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said, “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. It’s a saying my team has heard me say more times than they can count.
The people we spend the most time with shape who we are.
They affect our way of thinking, our self esteem and our decisions.
While we may think this only counts the five people we are physically present with, it extends further to include those who we are exchanging energy with online.
I encourage you to consider social media as a person, because when we do, we realise the social media environment influences us more than we think – and then we can learn how to control that impact.
Social media users in Australia are some of the most prolific in the world, with 18 million of us being active social media users and one in two Aussies logging into Facebook or Instagram at least once a day.
I used to find myself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram first thing in the morning and then last thing at night.
In the digital age, so many of us tend to spend our evenings watching television while simultaneously on our phones or tablets.
Have you ever looked at your screen time report on your smart phone? I got a huge shock to see how much time I was spending online and it made me realise that this is time not spent with my nearest and dearest.
I’ve now learned how to actively construct my social environment, because we become like the people we are around the most.
My physical social circle – who I refer to as my tribe – consists of people with similar interests and values as me; people who make me feel inspired and happy.
By thinking of social media as another person in our social circle, we can then focus on controlling the way we interact with this ‘person’ and consciously changing our attitude towards them.
The first step for me was becoming more aware of the accounts I am engaging with on social media and being selective about who I follow – I think about what makes me feel good and what I’m actually interested in.
I choose to follow accounts that make me feel inspired and people who I admire; those people who we are most exposed to will ultimately shape who we are and eventually we start to think and behave in similar ways to them.
If our social media usage is making us feel negative, that is the kind of energy we will be radiating.
If we are repeatedly seeing content that doesn’t make us feel good, there are options to customise our social media usage and enhance our overall experience.
We can streamline our feed so we see the most encouraging and positive posts first, by muting the content that has a less desirable effect on us.
Social media has done wonders for my business and has become an integral component of being a successful real estate agent in the digital age.
It’s an important way for us to connect with our target audience, that is our current and potential clients.
For me personally, I have found that outsourcing my social media management not only fits in with my lifestyle and work flow, it also helps me to control the influence it has on me.
I work in close collaboration with my social media account manager to ensure I’m reaching my audience and that my content remains relevant and authentic, that way I still maintain control over the output.
I’m actively involved in the creation of the content and there are certain aspects I manage myself, like audience interaction and posting stories in real time for example, but outsourcing to a professional has freed up my time to focus on my business.
We are real estate agents after all, not marketing managers or celebrities, so our time needs to be focused toward listing, selling and negotiating.
As real estate professionals it is vital to feel good and be on top of our game. When it comes to relationships, we are greatly influenced by those closest to us.
By considering social media as a person we spend a lot of time with, we can then focus on controlling the effect it has on us to ensure we are looking after our mental health and wellbeing.
