I am sure you have heard of the word FoMO which stands for Fear of Missing Out. According to the Oxford dictionary it means: “Anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.” This is a real experience for many and those of us with younger kids who use Social Media know that is also a growing phenomena which I believe is something we need to address and end pretty quickly.
FoMO is not something I experience to be honest, because right now I am really happy where I am, and my life is pretty exciting. In fact I am living my dream, although just three short years ago that was not the truth.
In any case I want to speak about another side to Social Media and that is the EGO aspect. Unlike FoMO this is something that has hit me pretty hard in the past.
When I started embracing the online world as a serious business tool, my following grew really quickly. Within six months I had 10,000 followers on Facebook and I was quite pleased with myself. In fact I was more than pleased with myself. Fellow MOM-trepreneurs kept asking me how I did it, they were coming up to me for tips and advice. People wanted to pay me to find out more. I was hooked. Multiple times per day I would furiously login and count my followers. I must admit, I thought I was super popular and that I was in demand. My Ego was burning pretty bright. Just after that, my current Marketing Director had started to help me with certain areas of my business. He came to me after completing some analysis and broke the bad news to me. He said “Hayley, all those followers that you are so pleased about? Well sixty percent of them are males based in Asia and the Middle East. That is not your target audience. You’re trying to empower women!” What? He also noticed that the posts that got the most engagement where when I was posing in my Yoga outfits. My Ego was shattered. That was a huge lesson for me. We made massive changes to change my audience, but I also made massive personal change right then too.
I vowed that I would never let Social Media or my Success feed my Ego. That is not always easy though as my ego has been fed many times since then. The difference is that experience taught me to be aware. I decided to come up with a Mantra.
As soon as I start feeling super pleased with myself online, I say that Mantra over and over just to ensure that I don’t feed my ego and change my focus from me to them.
So here are three powerful tips for you to stop feeding your Ego when using Social Media:
1. Mantra - Come up with a mantra that you can say over and over to take the focus off of you and place the focus on your ultimate point of focus, whether that is a cause, a person or event.
2. Create an Image – One of my passions is empowering Women to be a success, so that they never have to say No to their child, because they cannot afford it. I believe in abundance and financial freedom. So I have created an Image in my mind of a Women being a Success with her happy family. When saying my mantra, I go to that image. That helps me focus on What can I do to help them achieve their goals?
3. Ask Yourself – Don’t just post on Social Media for the sake of posting. Try to contemplate for five-ten minutes before posting. Ask yourself, how can I help them? How can I make a difference in their life today? How can I add value? Even though I do share a lot of lifestyle photos on my social media channels, I always ask myself these questions before posting. These are such simple approaches that can make a HUGE difference to your energy and also help you to not feed your Ego while having success with your Social Media. Social Media is a huge part of our lives, especially if you are a business owner. It can cause problems on many different levels, but it is also a hugely powerful and positive tool set when used correctly.
We literally have the opportunity to influence and impact tens of thousands of people and more, on a global level when we focus on helping them rather than feeding our own Ego. Try it and also make up your own ways, so you can be the Social Media super star that nourishes others lives and not your own Ego. XO Hayley Originally Published in
Positively Positive Image courtesy of
Jason Howie.