Self awareness is defined as knowing yourself; understanding your feelings and behaviors. Social media self awareness, similarly, is knowing yourself (or your brand) and the WHY behind what you do.
Self awareness in social media also means understanding your voice, knowing what you’re good at, and knowing what you still have to learn.
If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It
Your emotional intelligence (EQ) often dictates your level of self awareness and self regulation. When someone knows and embraces their strengths and weaknesses, they are able to more seamlessly “fit in” with the team, follow directions and give non-biased feedback – all things crucial to social media marketing and managing brands.
Moreover, individuals displaying self awareness usually have higher levels of empathy, which helps them lose the “me, ME, ME!” mentality and focus on what’s best for the fan, follower, audience and consumer.
Authenticity and staying true to yourself or your brand also play heavily in emotional intelligence.
Think of nearly any major player in social media … you’ll probably notice that they’re extremely confident in knowing who they are, show signs of caring for their audience, and are seen as “fun”, “cool” and “original.” They do an excellent job of humanizing their brand.
Signs You’re Lacking Self Awareness
I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with people, both personally and professionally, who do not seem to posses self awareness. These people are especially difficult to form relationships with, to conduct healthy debates with, and ultimately, to trust.
It’s clear that those things, ESPECIALLY trust, are key to successfully forming and implementing social media campaigns. And for anyone acting as, or looking to hire a Community Manager, emotional intelligence and knowing oneself is essential to performing daily tasks.
But how to you know if someone is lacking self awareness? There are signs:
- The need to always be right
- Throwing a fit, or becoming overly mad when something doesn’t go your way
- Being unable to admit when you’re wrong or when you’ve made a mistake
- Talking over others in a conversation; speaking loudly to divert attention to yourself
- Fierce competition with friends and/or co-workers (instead of teamwork and cooperation)
- Blaming others for your mistakes; denial
- Taking credit for someone else’s ideas or work; plagiarism
- Emotional reactions; feeling “attacked” constantly
- Defensiveness
- The need to control situations and people
The Lesson
If you’re using social media, it’s important to assess the people helping you with your efforts. Think about the above statements and how they define the person(s) on your team.
If there’s any hesitation about their self awareness, it may be best to keep them off forward-facing, public outlets.
What do you think? Are you in agreement? Or do you think people can “fake it ’till the make it”? Let me know in the comments section below!
See you in the social sphere!
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