Like many people working in digital marketing and social media, we often find ourselves focusing on more negative aspects of the new digital world and how we might manage them effectively in the interests of business and personal reputation. (Cosmic delivers an excellent workshop on this subject!).
Recently its been very refreshing to see some brilliant examples on social media channels of people encouraging positive thinking and sharing and I’ve participated in one of these – the Facebook 5 Day, 3 Positive Things Challenge (or 3PT for short). Every day for 5 days I had to post three positive things which had happened and share them with friends, and then nominate other people to participate each day as well. Not only did it encourage me to think of positive things which happened each day, but I also really enjoyed reading positive things about lots of my friends and contacts. It really is refreshing to read each day some truly positive things which happen to other people and to share in their happy thoughts and events. Some people who only ever moan and complain on Facebook had to change their behaviour radically and I’m sure it did them good!
More recently I’ve become aware of the Twitter campaign which is #100happydays, and of course you need to post something positive every day using this tag. Again its wonderful to search on this hashtag and see just what a positive world we live in. I haven’t started my 100 days yet but I am tempted given how good the FB experience has proved to be.
And if you’re still in doubt its good for us all to feel positive of course, please read this.
And so, what should we be doing to encourage positive thinking in our businesses? Well how about encouraging your team to come up with positive news features for your website, or you could post a very positive blog reflecting on something (big or small) which happened in the business recently and is worth celebrating. Or perhaps you can do an update with highly positive images on your website – showing off how great things are and how positive your business feels. Or maybe you can use social media for this purpose – set up your own 3PT or 100 day challenge and get as many of your staff, contacts, suppliers and partners involved.
I guarantee it will make you feel better, and you’ll have fun with it too.
Blog written by Julie Hawker, Chief Executive, Cosmic