George Kao argues that authentic social media beats curated images. Real audiences stick around through silence and mistakes, like true friends. His early posts got almost no likes for a year and a half, but patience surfaces the people who actually connect with you.
Someone asked me how they can possibly sustain their presence on social media when they feel like they have to keep up an image of themselves and they might run out of things to say. Well, if I were worrying about those things, I would be also not be on social media on a consistent basis because it's exhausting to keep up an image to try to remember what I'm going to say and what if I run out of things to say? Who wants to do that? Nobody wants to do it. But how have I been able to keep up my social media showing up consistently since 2008 is when I began my social media explorations and expressions. Here's how I think of social media like an authentic friendship. When you're with a true friend, do you go, oh my God, I gotta make sure I keep up an image of myself and oh, I gotta make sure I plan what to say and know random things to say? I hope not. I'm not sure that's a true friend. You'll probably be exhausted hanging out with them and you probably avoid seeing them. Instead, when you're with a true friend, like a soulmate type of friend, you can really relax, you can really be yourself. There's no image to upkeep. You don't have to worry about running out of things to say. There can be silence. There can be things you say that you take back. There can be things you say that. Oh, that was dung. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you like that. Oh, I. What I meant to say was this. And that true friend will be patient enough to stay with you through all of that because they resonate with something deeper than the surface level, societal. Oh, you are attracted when you're like this, and you're so smart when you're like that. The true friend stays through all of this. When you're unattractive, when you're boring, that day when you're sad, when you didn't know what you were saying. That's how I see social media actually so different right from how most people teach you what social media is supposed to be like. And for the few of you who are still here, a lot more people began watching this video and a few of you are left. You are the ones I think of before I show up on social media. And when I'm here, I think of. I'm so grateful for the few who somehow resonate deep enough with my energy signature that they don't mind when I'm boring, they don't mind when I'm Occasionally offensive, say stupid things, don't look attractive, whatever, but they. They're still here. They somehow. And it's not, it's not that you're somehow more patient than most people, maybe you are, but it's somehow you're getting value from me, being myself, like not having to dress up in any certain way. This is the same thing I wear just on a daily basis, walking around. This is how I am when I'm with a true friend, like I said. So I wish for you this kind of comfort when you show up to social media as well. Because if you can do that, if you can imagine that true friend, whether people leave or come and go, they start watching your video, they leave, whatever, think of that true friend who will stick with you through the thick and thin. And then the guess what? The social media algorithm helps you to find those people. Most of the people in the world are not going to be like that for you. They're not going to be your true friend. They're not going to be patient enough or resonate enough with your energy signature to stay with you through the thick and thin. Sometimes you're loud, sometimes you're soft, sometimes you're really slow. Sometimes you're a bit faster. Sometimes you're boring. Sometimes, well, boring is a judgment. It's, you are who you are, and some average person in the world will find you boring or unattractive or not so smart. And the algorithm is there to help you find your true fans. When you post on social media, most of the time you're not going to get any likes, or very few, fewer than you want anyway. So you post this video, you post that image, you post that text, you post that blog post, you upload that episode. And most of the time, the algorithm keeps testing different types of people say, hey, maybe this person will like this person's content. Most of the time it will be no, no, no likes, no comments, nothing. But if you keep showing up as authentically as you can because you want to find the people that you could be really comfortable with, if you keep showing up month after month, year after year, the algorithm keeps testing until it finds, oh, my gosh, this person, out of a thousand people, this person liked your thing. Okay, we're going to show your thing again to them next time. Oh, next time, they liked it again. Okay, maybe the third time they didn't like it, and the fourth time they didn't like it. But the fifth time, we're testing again, they liked it again. Guess what? You just found one true fan. But it may have taken you months of showing up again and again before you found that one true fan. In the beginning of year and a half for me, it was barely any likes year and a half. So you keep showing up authentically just knowing that you're practicing your authentic expression. The algorithm will keep testing different people until they find you one person who likes your thing. You know, out of 10 things they liked four of them, six of them, or whatever. Good. They'll try to find more people like that if you keep showing up month after month, year after year. And all along the all along the while, you're practicing your soulful expression. You're experimenting, exploring, finding yourself. And that's what social media helps you to do. Finding gives you the practice of finding yourself so you can find your true fans. That journey is worth it. I hope this is helpful. Thanks for watching.
