Myles Munroe said,
“Philosophy is probably the most powerful force in the world. Philosophy begins with THOUGHTS or IDEAS – and IDEAS CONTROL THE WORLD.”
He continues, “The POWER of an IDEA is that it can create REALITY. EVERYTHING begins with an idea.”
He concluded, “Be careful what ideas you accept, because they can be either HELPFUL or HARMFUL.”
•••••••
COMMUNISM, SOCIALISM, DEMOCRACY, DICTATORSHIP, etc. are all IDEAS.
Or what you may call IDEALOGY.
An ideology is a set of opinions or beliefs of a group or an individual.
Very often ideology refers to a set of political beliefs or a set of ideas that characterise a particular culture.
Capitalism, communism, socialism, and Marxism are ideologies.
It is eventually considered a way of life.
All this evolve from “a way” of thinking – PHILOSOPHY.
Our lives our formed around what we have CHOSEN to believe. But we must get to a level we begin to CHOSE the PHILOSOPHIES we want our LIVES to run on.
Our lives are SHAPED by all we TOOK IN from books we have read, lectures we have received, causal talks in the neighbourhood, what you watch on TV, what you hear from the radio, what you read on facebook, blogs, etc.
Sometimes, you take some decisions, and you unconsciously THINK you are the one that made the decision not knowing that the decision was made for you.
Months ago, I spoke somewhere I asked my audience, “Who TOLD you that any brand of detergent is good for you to wash your clothes? Did you make the decision to buy the detergent?”
I said NO, you WERE MADE to buy.
The MEDIA and ADVERTISING AGENCIES made you THINK a particular detergent is good for your washing.
So, where I am going is this:
- You must EVALUATE the ideas, philosophies you run your life on.
- If they are HELPFUL (beneficial) and EMPOWERING, adopt them.
3. Express these EMPOWERING, BENEFICIAL philosophies in your writings and speaking.
When you READ other people’s write up on facebook, twitter, books, etc, they are SELLING you their own PHILOSOPHIES. Take note of that.
Check such philosophies. Ask yourself, “Will this PHILOSOPHY help me? Will they make me better?”
Ask yourself, “Should I buy in into this philosophy?”
SELL your own PHILOSOPHY!
SELL your own IDEAOLOGY!
SELL your own PERSPECTIVE!
But, wait? What is your own PHILOSOPHY?
You have been living your life, based on other people’s philosophies. Why aren’t you sharing your own philosophy?
Ideologies/philosophies are like PROGRAMS/SOFTWARES our lives RUN ON.
Have you noticed that PENTIUM 2 CANNOT do the work of NEWER versions. It will break down.
Every man runs on CERTAIN SOFTWARES (ideology/philosophy/programmes).
You can as well say, everything you know, was INSTALL into you.
They control your life and my life.
GIGO = Garbage In, Garbage Out!
INTAKE = OUTFLOW
HOW TO CONSCIOUSLY INSTALL EMPOWERING PHILOSOPHIES INTO YOURSELF
- SPEND TIME with people who have BENEFICIAL, ENDURING philosophies.
- READ books that have EMPOWERING, BENEFICIAL ideologies.
- Go to PLACES that their ideologies/philosophies can make your life better.
- BARNISH thoughts and ideologies/philosophies that are HARMFUL, DISEMPOWERING from your mind.
- SPEND TIME in SOLITUDE.
- EVALUATE what you watch, see, and hear.
- CULTIVATE the HABIT of WRITING some of your thoughts down too.
There is what is called
•SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
•SIGNIFICANT PLACES
•SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS
Engage yourself with SIGNIFICANT people, SIGNIFICANT places and SIGNIFICANT publications.
If you do, your life cannot be the same again.
Anything and anybody that will not point you to your greater future is NOT SIGNIFICANT – it is INSIGNIFICANT.
7 LIFE PRINCIPLES SOCIAL MEDIA RUN ON
Having said all that, how do all that tie up with social media?
- Social Media runs on philosophies – people’s philosophies.
Social Media is what is called User Generated Content platforms. These platforms are built for the user to generate their own content.
If you have observed, if you don’t follow Mark Zuckerberg, you don’t get to see his posts despite the fact that he is the founder of Facebook.
- Social Media is also built on the principle of PERMISSION MARKETING.
This means the moment you accept my friend’s request, or subscribe to my email, or follow me on Instagram, you have GIVEN me the PERMISSION to share my thoughts, perspectives, philosophies with you whether you like it or not.
In summary, you gave me the permission to share in my philosophies.
Just as you give people permission to read their philosophies, they also have given you permission to share your own philosophies (view, perspective, thoughts) on anything with them.
However, I have noticed that most people on social media are CONSUMERS and NOT CONTRIBUTORS. The percentage of consumers on social media should be about 80% if we follow the Pareto Principle. That means only 20% are the ones generating the content you 80% consume.
The big question is, are you a contributor or a consumer?
If you are a consumer and not a contributor, it means, two things: 1. you are consuming other people’s philosophies, and 2. They are shaping who are turning out to be.
What that mean is that, your decisions, and the quality of your life is VERY LIKELY being controlled by these philosophies.
- Social Media is built on the idea of personal branding.
Each individual is an entity. You are not just an entity but A UNIQUE entity. What that means is that you have features, uniqueness, that you bring to bear in what you do and how you do what you do. Therefore, these uniqueness should find expression on your posts on social media.
- Social Media is built on the principle of community building.
A community is a group of people who believes in a leader (a thought leader) who creates the community and creates consistently content for the group and also creates the atmosphere for others to create edifying and educational content for the same community around their common objective(s).
- Social Media is built on the principle of “everyone has a voice”.
We are in the era where everyone can air or express whatever he or she wants to say. Expressing your view means that it can go far beyond your country into many continents.
- Social Media is built on the principle of “everyone is an expert”.
No matter your trade or expertise, you can share your knowledge. In fact, from sharing your knowledge, you can gain followership and create of pool of interested mentees.
- Social Media is built on the principle of engagement, data collection and metric.
Data is power. Engagement drives metric.
Engagement, data and metric are things that have made companies and organisations getting more interested in social media. Real time data, metrics and engagements happen online.
There are emerging career types many people are gearing up for today just because of data.
YOUR ROLE
As a career or business person, you have a role to play in all the listed principles of social media I have highlighted above.
- Philosophies – as explained, you have philosophies you have developed in your personal life and in your business or career. They are ideas that should be shared. They are views that should be expressed.
WHY?
They are who you are. They are what your business or career hinges on. They are things that define you. They are your boundaries of thoughts and operations.
They are the lifeline of your career or business. They tell people and followers where you stand.
- Marketing – You cannot force your views, products, services on people. Yes before, what advertisers, marketers, TV, radio, etc do was what is called INTERRUPTION MARKETING. While you are watching your favourite soap opera, they INTERRUPT the show and SLOT IN a paid advert.
That practice is still in existence, however lots have changed with the advent of social media.
You role is to know how permission marketing operates and use it to your business or career advantage.
- Personal Branding – Whether you are employed or self employed, branding is no longer the game big, high octane, high networth organisations alone play.
Branding is game anyone can play. And for you, you have to personally brand yourself.
Personal branding involves what you want your client to remember you for. It involves, having characteristic features that act as triggers for your remembrance.
These could be the way you serve your clients, the excellent customer service, colour of your product, your logo, your font types, etc.
Branding involves physical as well as emotional elements. What they see and how you make them feel.
- Community Building – It is required that you build a community of people around the ideas, products, services you lead or champion.
These are the people who you would continue to engage with, get ideas from, bounce ideas on, have a meet up with, rejoice and celebrate with, and a host of other activities.
That’s why Facebook puts emphasis on group creation.
There are thousands and thousands of communities built on ideas of certain thought leaders and organisations.
For your idea to endure and stretch beyond you, community is one of the ways out.
- Your Voice Count As Well – Who hasn’t got a voice? Everybody has got a voice. The challenge is getting the medium through which to express it.
Right, no more excuse. Social Media has provided uncountable platforms to express and LOUD your voice.
Whatever you want to express, platforms are available whether in audio format, video format, or text format.
All you need is the right platform for you. Right platform meaning, you have a platform where the people that need to hear what you’ve got to say gather there.
- Building Your Expert Identity – A very cheap and easy way to build credibility, gain exposure, become visible, and be known is through social media.
All professionals can share their knowledge bite size (chunk form) via tweets, or short posts or express what they know in long form through blogging or creating videos or audio hence showing the world or their followers the depth and width of their expertise.
This is not ‘A SHOW’ but pure knowledge sharing.
People value professionals who share their knowledge and see them more as THE EXPERTS rather than those who don’t share or are absent from social media.
- Data Collection – You need data. Data grows businesses. Where you are working, you can start the drive for data collection via social media platforms. They might not have thought of this, you knowing this, gives you the edge.
You also need to be at the leading edge for the change data is bringing to virtually all careers and organisations.
Very soon you might begin to hear, “Data is king”.
Social Media is not mere waste of time. Social Media is driving a revolution – business and career revolution. I guess you might have heard about the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Yes, we are already in it. Social Media has a great role to play in it. And you have greater responsibilities.