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Jarrod’s Journal

So, if you took a look at my Facebook page a few days ago, you would have seen over 5,000 likes. This is because back in 2015, on my personal profile, I posted a (regular, PG) photo in a group that got plenty of attention. At the time, I mistakenly believed that followers (or friends, in Facebook’s case) = success or relevance. I began accepting all friend requests without vetting or actually knowing anyone. So much so, that I made it to Facebook’s cap of 5,000 friends. Because I was beginning to focus on being an author and because I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to split up my content between both the page and my profile, I decided to merge both and just have a Facebook page. Side note: I was also kind of bored with Facebook at the time as well. Converting everything over to a page caused the page to count all of my friends as likes. So, for the moment, I was happy! I figured an audience of 5,000 would see and interact with my updates. Not so. As anyone who has a Facebook page knows, boosted (paid) posts rule, and I was not about to pay for each post to be seen by my audience. Not only that, but just because I had 5,000 followers didn’t mean they were interested in me as an author. I began to regret the decision and decided to undo the merge and get my profile back.

I hadn’t decided to do much about my amount of likes until earlier this week. That’s because I’m now planning on making the best use of my Facebook page. That starts with engaging people who are actually interested. So, I deleted most of the likes that came over because of the merge, leaving me with a little over 700. I would have gone down to zero if I could, seeing as I’m positive I haven’t gotten 700 real likes, but Facebook isn’t letting me. I’m also going through the process of removing the unvetted “friends” on my list (which is way more tedious than the like removal process on a page).

This led to an important lesson about tying up my self-worth and definition of success in likes or follows. These social media metrics mean very little in the grand scheme of things. Now, my gauge of success is impact on my audience however small. I cherish my 1500 or more followers on Instagram and Twitter because they, for the most part, found something interesting in what I had to say or offer. My goal is to do the same now with Facebook.

If I removed your like on my page and you’re interested in following my journey of growth as an author, please give it another like. There will plenty of great content to come that I know will impact you in some way.

Facebook.com/jarroddking

Tags : FollowersSelf-WorthSocial MediaSuccess
Jarrod King

The author Jarrod King

Jarrod is an author of fantasy, sci-fi, and more. He currently has a job as a web optimizer. Besides writing, he enjoys singing, songwriting, and enjoying the company of great friends. He currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.

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