How Much Should You Put On The Internet, Actually?

When looking at most influencers, or even just scrolling through your general feed, it can feel like people are sharing every moment of their life on the internet, and it can feel like maybe you need to as well.

But, do you?

How much of yourself do you need to put on your social media for it to be effective in connecting with people?

The answer is pretty simple: You can put as little or as much of yourself out there as you want.

There are people who have millions of followers, yet their spouse and their children are never on their accounts, and some people might not even know that they are married or have children, because that isn’t part of their brand.

At the same time, there are people who have millions of followers who seem to put themselves out there fully, but if you really stop to look, even they are very curated as far as what it is they actually are sharing.

When crafting your content for your social media, you do not have to share any more of yourself than you want to. You can put forward a glammed up, styled version, or you can put a “warts and all” version, or you can fall somewhere in between. It all goes back to your brand and what best fits who you are and what you’re trying to say.

You should be mindful of things like personal information which could be a security risk, such as physical addresses, medical information or client information on papers on your desk or in the background, things like security camera placement, financial information, or even just things like where your kids go to school. A good rule of thumb is not to put anything anywhere on the internet if it is not something that you wouldn’t want on the front page of a major news outlet. In general, there are lots of great resources for online security. Beyond just branding, it is important to keep that in mind when deciding what you do and what you don’t want on the internet.

When deciding what content you want to share, and what story you want to tell about your business or your brand, remember that the business or brand is the story. Every single part of you doesn’t have to be the story. And you can totally promote who you are professionally and what you do without sharing anything about yourself that you don’t want to share.

There is a great line from Downton Abbey to the effect of keeping something private doesn’t mean you’re keeping it secret. It is just yours to keep private. And you can totally have an online presence while keeping some things private and not shared across your social media.

All of the blogs here are geared towards outlining content you can share, and things you can do to connect with your audience. And in putting that part of you out there, remember that you don’t have to share anything more than you want to! And you can still make amazing content!