Day 138: Sharing Your Message
Originally I was going to write a post about shopping at Goodwill and all the secrets to finding the best clothes available. And while I will eventually write that post, I wanted to take a moment to talk of something else. Something that has been on my mind recently and that is the subject of message.
We live, unfortunately or fortunately, in a very social media driven world. That is something I have come to realize more and more as I look to get more active both on my photography account and on my personal account. Social media sites like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have their benefits as well as their downfalls which should always been considered when interacting with them on a daily basis.
The truth of the matter is simple and the question that keeps running through my head is this: do people really care about the message I have to say? As I've researched ways to build my platform and communicate something bigger than me, the biggest tip I am seeing is to share something that you believe in and be personal with your audience. However, the more I've looked into this the more I begin to question whether or not I have anything to share.
These kind of questions lead me to long sabbaticals from posting or sharing on my Instagram story. Do people really care? Am I annoying them with my message and my posts? Will people really want to follow me if I post about this message? And worst of all, is my message really worth sharing?
I am writing this blog post for everyone out there, including myself, maybe even especially myself. This is something that I know, yet need to hear. So this blog post is literally me telling myself to take my own advice and listening to something I well and truly known, but have begun to doubt recently. It is this...
We have a message that is worth sharing and it will attract the people who need to hear it.
Every single person in the world has a message to share and that message is unique to their story. Every message is worth sharing, no matter what it is. If there is something weighing down on our hearts and we long to share it with others, the only option is action. If it is a weight in our chest, it must be shared. No matter who hears it and no matter who listens.
Because the truth is, if you have a message, it is meant to be heard by someone. That may not be everyone or even a majority of people. However, there is someone out there who desperately needs to hear your message. It is our duty to continue to share that message until it is heard. No matter how long that takes and no matter what others may say.
Social media is simply a tool, no matter how much it has come to mean to us. We must use it as the tool it was designed to be. We are given a platform and we are given the opportunity to build that platform, there couldn't be a better way of getting your message into the world in a readily available way.
The thing is, not everyone will care about your message. That's okay. It wasn't meant for them so pay it no mind. There are people out there who need to hear the message you have in your heart, it could change their life. Should we really keep our message inside because of our fear of what will happen when we put it into the world when we know that it could change someone's entire world? Messages have power, you have the power to share it at your finger tips.
There is a huge push on the importance of being aesthetically pleasing in order to attract more followers, while that may be true. Do not wait until you have thousands of followers, aesthetically pleasing photographs, or any other thing you think you must have for social media. The most important part of sharing your message is simply sharing it, no matter how awkward it feels at first. Start here and now because you have to start somewhere and it might as well be where you are today.
I wrote this blog post as much for me as for you so I truly hope you got as much from it as I did. It is a struggle to post on Instagram while thinking about aesthetic, algorithm, likes, captions, likability, followers, etc. However, we must remember that our biggest task is sharing our message, even if it's just for that one person. They need to hear in and in order for them to hear it you have to share it. Let this be the day you start sharing your message, everything else will begin to fall into place later.
Until Next Time,
Lillian Merritt
