The Influencer and Leader
The power of social media is unbelievable. We’ve watched governments collapse in real time by tweets that go viral. Even the devastation that can happen in our own country when angry and misguided people find a voice that people cling and listen to. The mob-mentality can be dangerous as like-minded individuals come together to disrupt.
Within social media, the tendency to align to groups or influencers with similar views is part of the construct. What you search will continue to pop on your feeds and lead you down the rabbit hole. I’ve seen intelligent individuals be trapped by this and logic can pull them out. It can be disheartening and frustrating.
This brings us back to what can you control. You can control your content and messages that you share but you must understand that something that might seem like a good idea in the moment, might not be a couple years from now and you need to account for people that follow you and the influence you can have over them.
Leadership is about influence and influencing people doesn’t necessarily mean you are a “leader”. Correction to that, being an influencer doesn’t mean you should be a leader. Just because you have amassed a following doesn’t mean you should follow the latest hot topics and shape people’s current beliefs.
I currently know of one said influencer, who has not just thousands of followers, but 100,000 of followers. I happen to know this individual and we talk regularly. After a recent video they made, I questioned him on what he claimed as facts and asked where he got the information from? After some back and forth, I told him the truth as I saw it. This knowledge was based on people on the ground and providing information in real time.
In a very roundabout way, what the individual said was that facts didn’t matter; his audience wanted a specific narrative and he needed to deliver it. Think about this for a second. The audience wanted a narrative and the narrator skewed the facts to feed that need. Basically making things up and now you have thousands of people misinformed.
None of this is surprising, it’s just disheartening. False narratives are part of our world and have been perpetuated by the advent of social media. It moves at the speed of light around the world and shapes the minds of many.
So how do we change this? What can we really do?
Be a leader first. Leaders don’t make decisions based on emotions. When you hear something that stirs emotions, you pause to reflect and gather more information. Ensuring that what you are about to disseminate is accurate and based in fact. Especially if it has the potential to shape events going forward. Also, we seek out mentorship by asking trusted people for their input.
We gain perspective looking for people and literature that challenge what we believe or give us an angle we had not previously considered. Every single post or video we make is a decision so we need to go into it with a leader mindset, not someone looking to placate the masses. It’s a responsibility and one that comes with a lot of influence.
Understand that humans are flawed, we all are. People will make mistakes and let us down. More importantly as a leader, you will make mistakes. When this happens, do you take ownership of it and publicly admit you made an error? I’ve seen where people will double down, knowing they are wrong and adding to the false narrative to try and save face.
Like I previously stated, not all influencers are leaders. That’s not necessarily reality because they are leading people and in some cases in the most significant way, their emotions and daily attitudes. We must encourage people to do this responsibly and not take everything at face value.
Why does this matter? If we continue down this path, we will have a society that lacks perspective and believes narratives of their favorite social media celebrity instead of the great minds of our world who are trying to solve the most complex problems. This is a population that will be easily manipulated and controlled.
It would be easy to say to yourself, “well I don’t have a huge following or any other excuse.” The truth is, it must start with someone, let it be you. Remember to focus on what you can control, which are your own actions and influence online.
I hope this adds value to your life.
~Mike
