Lessons from Utah – Part 2

I couldn’t resist capturing my husband’s silhouette in this photo of the Fiery Furnace, Arches National Park, Utah.

Social media is a valuable tool for marketing large and small businesses alike, communicating important information in an interesting way, engaging with your audience, answering questions where people already are, and reinforcing your brand. Social media is a valuable tool for individuals as well, connecting with family members and friends in ongoing conversations and interactions. But managing accounts, posting content, and following others on social media also can be an all-consuming timesuck if you let it. Many of us have to actively strive against living inside our phones.

Case in point:

Utah is one of the most intriguingly beautiful places I have ever seen. The topography and terrain are beyond varied, and each time my eyes opened to a new scene on our recent trip, I couldn’t believe what was before me was real. At the destination of several of our hikes in the five national parks there, I sat down and just tried to take it all in. From arches spanning between huge rock formations to steep canyons to green rivers to rock spires reaching toward the heavens to majestic mountains cast in shadows of drifting clouds, Utah made me feel like I could not still be on the earth. Once, at the sight of Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park, tears even welled up in my eyes. I just could not believe this place existed and I was there to see it for myself. Forget about taking pictures when your eyes are filled with tears. Eventually, when I could start to feel my body again, it became possible to snap a few photos of this place so that I could remember this trip in a visual way. On the way back down the trail again, it was impossible not to pause after a few steps, turn around, and look at it one last time.

That was my experience at least. On these types of trips, I also often find myself watching the people around me. In the national parks especially, you can find people from all over the world, and from every part of the United States. They, too, are an intriguingly beautiful thing to see.

Undoubtedly, on the very same hike in which I could no longer feel my body because of the scene before my eyes, were other tourists, and sometimes these people were equipped with selfie sticks. As I was sitting in awe, just staring at an incredible sight, they would come, stand with their backs to the beauty, snap a photo of themselves, and keep walking. The goal, I am sure, was to post a selfie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. of them in this famous place. My husband and I did that a couple times, too. But our ultimate goal in taking this trip was not to tell other people where we were but to enjoy the nature there waiting for us. For some others, I am not sure they ever actually turned around even one time to face the place they came to see. Maybe a slice of it will peek out from behind their heads when they look through all their selfies someday.

We saw people driving around with GoPros taped to their car hoods. A couple had GoPros strapped to their foreheads. Keep in mind we were not skydiving here. We were not repelling down mountain cliffs. We were just walking through the woods or the desert seeking beauty, which in the end was all around us. Some others wanted to document each step they took or each mile they drove for all the world to see. Whether or not they saw any of it themselves is not really for me to know or judge, but watching these people did make me pause, take a breath, and look through my own eyes instead of just through my camera lens at the landscape around me.

If you are not a full-time social media coordinator or communications professional and your social media program or habits have overtaken your work or your life, it’s time to rethink their importance. Social media is an integral component to any communications strategy, and in some cases social media does need to be the highest priority. In crisis situations, especially during public safety emergencies, natural disasters, or significant weather events like flash floods or blizzards, social media is how people expect to communicate with their local governments, businesses, and personal contacts. Engaging regularly with your customers on social media is paramount to staying relevant in the business world. That’s when you let social media work for you.

But if you are working for your social media program or if you are allowing your personal social media accounts to keep you from enjoying the real life around you, that’s when it’s time to take a step back. Will every photo from your recent trip be of your own face, or will you look back on your vacation and remember the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and aches and pains of every hike?

If your business or organization’s social media program has gotten out of hand and you can’t remember why you started these accounts to begin with, H Squared Communications can help you get back on track. To create an effective, individualized social media plan and content strategy, we will start with your organizational or project goals and make sure that subsequent work aligns with those goals so that you aren’t wasting any more time on activities that aren’t benefiting your customers or business.

In the end, there won’t be much evidence to prove that my husband and I were in very many places in Utah. We took just enough photos of ourselves to have at least one good one to put on our holiday cards. And I am okay with that.