People trust people
What you do on social media matters
“[C]hange is rooted in people … and the power we can create with each other when we find values we share, and our capacity to turn those values into sources of power.” —Marshall Ganz
This quote jumped out at me while reading a transcript of a conversation between Marshall Ganz, an expert in organizing people to create substantive change, and Tomás R. Jiménez, the founding codirector of Stanford’s Institute for Advancing Just Societies. It came across my feed courtesy of a post by Neil Hopkins, a superb communicator focused on understanding and doing things that matter.
I read this quote at the end of a day where I’d had several conversations around this important — and all to often ignored — truth.
Real change is a human undertaking. It all comes down to people finding common ground and creating together.
My work is anchored in this truth — but, because most organizational budgets don’t contain line items for “facilitating positive connections and vulnerable conversations between people,” I often find myself being brought in to consult under the banners of “marketing,” “communication,” or “strategic planning.”
The problem with not labeling the work I do as “facilitation” is that the other labels continue to be given more weight than they merit … and organizations, leaders, and experts keep doing things that don’t really work because that’s what they’ve always known and what most of the systems and literature keep propping up.
“[T]hey forget that it’s about people,” Ganz says. “They think it’s about branding, sound bites, clever memes. They think it’s about getting the right funder to fund you…” (In the case of experts, I’d add “they think it’s about the right journal or publication to publish or profile you.”)
“Instead of being about people engaging with other people,” Ganz continues, “it becomes this marketing messaging, highly rarefied, ultimately, very transactional.”
Real change is relational, not transactional.
(I wrote that sentence on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I was reading a case study on the successful effort in Travis County, Texas to pass a ballot measure approving a tax to fund increased access to quality child care and saw this: “Real change is relational, and the strength of any coalition is its people.”)
I see it all across my work. From how young people decide on careers (someone they know and respect is in the field or encourages them to enter the field) to how people decide where to go for a celebratory meal (their friends rave about the perfect place) to how we get involved in volunteer work or a political campaign (someone we know invites us or tells us how important our contribution is) — everything we do and everything we know is tied to people we know, respect, and trust.
In a chaotic, oversaturead (dis)information ecosystem, pretty much the only way people know things outside their own experiences is when other people within their circle talk about them.
According to technologist Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, social media has changed the notion of “news” from “news as an institutional prerogative to news as part of a communication ecosystem, occupied by a mix of formal organizations, informal collectives, and individuals.” (Emphasis added by me.)
Each of us can choose whatever part we want to play in this ecosystem: reporters, commentators, amplifiers, curators/aggregators, etc. on any issue or topic that matters to us.
They’re all important. We tend to elevate creators in digital spaces, but amplifying the voices of others is every bit as important a contribution as raising our own. When others speak about things outside our own experience or expertise, amplification can be more important than finding our own words. If we’re one of the only people in our network who has seen or knows something, the rest of our network is unlikely to see or know it unless we share it.
And our voices do have the power to change dominant narratives. “The same idea, published in dozens or hundreds of places, can have an amplifying effect that outweighs the verdict from the smaller number of professional outlets,” Shirky says.
Your content doesn’t have to be attention-getting or trendy or perfect to have impact. It doesn’t have to appeal to any particular audience or “market segment.” It doesn’t have to be formatted in a certain way. None of the tips, tricks, and “best practices” for social media marketers apply to you sharing your heart or communicating anything you think is important for fellow humans to know. None of the measurements of “success” apply either. A reach of one is more than enough to make a difference — because every one person is connected to hundreds more.
Anything you do on social media matters. Whether you craft your own posts or leave validating comments on and/or share the posts of others, what you do changes what people know about the world, see as important, and believe to be possible. It changes what shows up in people’s feeds, how they react to other people’s posts, and how safe they feel talking about various topics.
Social media spaces are flooded with content from people who carelessly spread misinformation, callously speak about fellow human beings, and delight in stoking fear and hate. To change the ratio, we need more content from reluctant posters — the ponderers, observers, reflectors, dreamers, deep thinkers, and all the people who care deeply how their words and actions impact others.
Post in whatever ways are meaningful to you: poetry, photos with no explanation, detailed research, a handful of words, re-posts of content you find important.
There are no rules for sharing your heart and the world you want to see. But please post … because we all need to see different ways of being human and the endless possibilities for co-creating a world built on love and abundance.
Social Media Coaching for Leaders & Experts
If you want to share your expertise on social media, but are struggling with how to get started or how to do it in a way that fits your goals and bandwidth, let’s talk!
MISCELLANEA
Check out my guest appearance on
. Chatting with is a delight, and his work with coworking spaces is fascinating.I received a sweet surprise Valentine when I saw that
at talked about my work in making social media more human in this newsletter. I know I have some knitter readers who will love her writing!Last night, I saw the world premiere production of "In Her Bones" by Jessica Kahkoska. It’s a play about Crypto-Jews in the Southwest (people who fled the Inquisition to be safe practicing their faith in the "New World" only to have the Inquisition come to the New World, too). I was especially interested in seeing it after visiting Belmonte, Portugal, a medieval town famous for the Crypto-Jewish community that preserved its faith for nearly 500 years in secret (transmitted from mother to daughter) after being forced to convert or endure torture and death during the Inquisition. Both are haunting experiences — powerful reminders of the damage done to individuals, families, and communities for generations when those in power decide that some people aren't allowed to be who they are, stoke hate and fear, and use their power to strip people of property, liberty, and their lives. It was not lost on me that I was seeing it on Day of Remembrance commemorating the forced evacuation, relocation, and incarceration of American citizens of Japanese descent during WWII pursuant to an Executive Order backed by Congress and deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court.
Proud mom moment! My daughter launched an online store for her artwork. Here’s her Pisces:
Great post. I hadn't come across Here Comes Everybody. Adding that to my TBR list.
Oh wow, I felt this in my bones. I especially love the reminder that our reach isn't important - just connecting to one other person can help spread the word to 100s more. It's easy to think that we are small in the greater scheme of things and can't effect meaningful change. But together we are mighty.