Is Thankfulness One of Your Social Media Best Practices?

Have you ever gone in for a high-five and been left hanging?

It might be funny IRL, but it mostly sucks on social media. That’s what it can feel like for your followers when you don’t express any thanks or appreciation when they support you in some way.

While most aren't expecting a parade, we all like a little nod from people whose work we support.Click To Tweet

I’m about to admit to you that I’m a certified member of the Cult of Gratitude.

It’s somewhat of a buzzword these days and if that makes it lose its power, that’s a shame, because it’s an important happiness, business, and life practice.

It’s basically impossible to feel like crap when you feel truly thankful. However, it can be hard to feel on a day to day basis and it can definitely be hard to feel on social media. There are always people with more followers, more opportunities, doing better in very quantifiable ways. While inspiration to grow or keep striving is a good thing within reason, it can turn poisonous without gratitude.

There are SO MANY ways to feel more grateful, keeping gratitude journals, meditating on gratitude, etc. But are you letting your followers know how thankful you are for their support?

Here are some ideas for expressing your appreciation to your social media followers, however huge or humble your following.

On Twitter, be grateful for retweets, people who share your content, and for the comments and say a quick “thanks!”  I’ve seen that there are apps that will auto-thank people. As much as I’m into automation, I’m not really into that for myself.  Taking a moment to actually be thankful for those who help us spread our work can make you feel good and hopefully makes them feel good as well. You don’t have to do this every day, but schedule a time once or twice a week to sign into Twitter and actually connect with the people who are engaging with you.

On any platform, take a second to express your appreciation for your followers.

They could share a million other people’s work, be sincerely grateful it was yours. Click To Tweet Comment back with a thanks or an emoji, regram or repin something from their account if you like what they’re doing too.  A simple follow back (as long as you approve of what they’re posting!) can be lovely.

Share the love. If they’re following you, you might have something in common or might like their work as well. Look for content of theirs that your other followers might get something out of too and share.

Shout outs! Sometimes, unprompted, I just let someone who I think is rad know it. I don’t know if they think I’m weird, but I just want them to know I’m grateful for the work that they do. Who is someone whose work you admire? Let them know!

Feature other people’s work on your social media platforms and, even better, your blog. If there’s something that helped you out, don’t hoard it. Be grateful to the person who made it by signing the work’s praises from the rooftops.

If you aren’t already including appreciation and gratitude in your social media strategy, either because you think your following is too small or too large to keep this up, why not give it a try to see how it feels?

Word of warning, though: Please don’t turn this into something you beat yourself up over if you can’t get to everybody! The point is for this to feel great and to keep you inspired, not berate yourself over! Look for small ways to incorporate this into your social media if it starts to feel overwhelming.

What other ways can you think of to add thankfulness to your social media practices? I’d love to know in the comments.