Taking Control of What You See on Social Media

Is your activity feed on social media full of junk you simply don’t want to see?  Ads, posts from folks that you don’t really need to stay up to date with, news items that are boring?  Many of the activity feeds are not stacked with things the owners of the feeds truly want to see.

Worse yet, important posts that people want to see are not showing up in their feed as they scroll.  The platform is not showing many of the posts, comments and articles from folks we want to engage with.  How about you dear reader?  Are you tired of missing out on social media posts from your most important connections and prospects?

Far too many people are reliant solely on the feeds of a platform and their notifications as back up, to be alerted to posts, comments and activities of their networking partners.  I hear things like, “Ira I haven’t seen a post from you in weeks,” on a regular basis.  The truth is I am paid to produce content on social media, and I post multiple times each day.  If you are hoping to stay up with me or anyone else on any social media platform, I’m going to teach you how to never miss another post again.

Step One: Explaining Bookmarks

First, please watch the short instructional video I recorded here:

In the video I teach you how to create a bookmark saving the activity feed of important prospects and networking partners on LinkedIn.  You can apply this same technique to Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and any other social media site you like, including the blog on https://ProjectHelpYouGrow.com/blog

Step Two: Creating Bookmarks

To begin, search for someone that you want to follow.  Then click on their profile.  Now from here it depends a bit on the platform and what you want to see when you click on the bookmark, however in the video I use LinkedIn as an example, and I click on the posts of the individual I want to keep up with.

Once you have found the spot you would like to bookmark, hit the star in the browser (if you’re using chrome) and create the bookmark.  You can and should repeat this process for all the people on that platform you’d like to follow.  Then do the same thing on other platforms.  I’d make a separate folder for each platform, so you might have a folder for: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and so forth.

Step Three: Changing Operating Procedure

Now is the hardest part.  To make this system effective I want you to stop opening up your browser and starting on your home feed of your favorite social media platform. You’ll no longer spend your time scrolling until you see something you like. 

From now on, you will start by opening up your bookmarks and click on the saved page of the person you truly hope to see, going straight to their activity page.  By doing this you will save time getting to what you truly want to see.  Also, you will start to retrain the algorithm on each platform.  As you visit these profiles and activities more, in your feed, when you do choose to scroll, you’re going to start to notice it has more and more what you want to consume.

Step Four: Advanced Networking

Want to take this networking strategy to the next level?  Get busy in the comments.  The most overlooked growth strategy and effective way to network is to comment on all the posts you read.  If you’re visiting the most important networking people according to your priorities, please don’t waste the opportunity to be supportive and be seen. 

You can develop a better, stronger and healthier network in two ways.  First, the people who have posted will appreciate your participation.  You’ll likely notice they start to engage more on your posts too.  Commenting on their posts is a great way to build a better rapport with the people you are supporting.  Second, making comments on other people’s posts increases your visibility to the people that engage with your target.  The other folks here in the audience can be birds of a feather, meaning you can gain and build new secondary relationships to help further your cause.

Networking Help

Are you looking for more networking tips?  Building a strong network is the key to success for many, however social media and networking in general are something many struggle with.  If you need more help, I suggest starting with the free videos I have posted on my coaching website at: https://irabowman.com/bowman-coaching/.

Improving your networking skills are important.  SPN is a group of people looking to work with others who understand a win-win mentality.  Look for ways to help others.  Be kind.  Use your time efficiently using the techniques I taught here in the article and you can improve your personal ROI with the time you spend on social media.