Are you struggling to attract followers on Instagram? Do you feel like your pictures aren’t as good as others? Are you uncertain about your social media presence? If so, it might be time to work on improving your confidence. Having high self-esteem and confidence can benefit all areas of your life—including social media marketing and Instagram marketing. In fact, when you have the right amount of confidence, many other aspects of your life improve too, such as how you communicate with other people and how much individuality you show in what you do or say.
How to Improve Confidence
Put the smartphone down. Self-validation is the only validation you need. It’s time to start practicing self-acceptance and learn to love yourself. Every time you look for validation from someone other than yourself, you’ll never be happy with what you find. The social media landscape will continue to change, and self-confidence can’t grow if it’s being poisoned.
As soon as you stop looking at someone else’s level, you’ll have to set your own. You might not know what that is, but you know it is above where you are now. As you don’t have anyone else to cheer you on, you are on your own. You must have faith in your own abilities.
Here’s a trick to make that easier: if you’re anything like me, then you tend to remember only the parts of history you regret. Think about how other people view you. As an example, people always call me brave for travelling to other countries. However, I don’t consider myself brave since I know I never feel much when I’m moving away. It’s never been about excitement or fear, curiosity or even joy. It’s always been about finding those missing pieces of myself that kids find as they grow up. I hadn’t found them at home in childhood, so I’d figured I must have to go find them.
Observing my behavior from the outside, people assume I am brave, resilient, patient, and kind. The latter two are the only words I’d accept into my vocabulary, but I know their development had much more to do with not getting into trouble as a child than honest assessments of who I am. The words I more closely relate to, such as ‘stubborn’, ‘judgemental’, or ‘defensive’, are inherently negative, whereas others see them as necessary characteristics.
(It’s easy to see why we compare ourselves to others, isn’t it?)
From the inside looking out, comparing oneself to others can be destructive, but from the outside looking in, comparing ourselves to others can actually be useful. Our tendency is to assume others are more accomplished before thinking so of ourselves. Utilizing this bias will give you a more realistic perception of who you are.
Based on their internal levels of confidence versus what they perceive as yours, you might realize there is some confidence just hanging out on your skin waiting to be used.
After that, it’s just a matter of learning how to wield it.
Improve Communication Skills
Every person communicates differently. If you keep that in mind when speaking to others, you may find it helpful.
When I tried to find out how many kinds there are, even Google could not decide. My best guess is that there are seven. You can be formal, casual, consultative, aggressive, passive, or frozen, but the point remains the same: It will be helpful to remember that not everyone converses the same way.
The best way to become a better speaker is to first and foremost be a good listener. Just like inspiring writers are always told to read as much as possible, the same applies to inspiring speakers. You might also be able to tell what type of communicator the person is. We all communicate the way we learned from the people in our life. Obviously, it would affect how we communicate with each other. However, if you take the time to listen rather than just respond, you’ll understand a lot more about how a friend converses.
Communicate briefly but to the point. An easy-going conversational style encourages unneeded detail about our days. With our friends, we already know them and can often discern how they want to be communicated with. We do not have this luxury with strangers.
The importance of body language cannot be overlooked, as humans communicate not only through words. for example, we use our bodies, and we depend on social cues to better understand the context of a conversation. (This is partly why Zoom is so exhausting; our brains are forced to process visual and auditory communication without any body language or gestures for help.)
How might you improve your understanding of body language? A YouTube search is an excellent way to do so. If you’re looking for an in-person lesson, I suggest finding an acting, theatre, or improv class. Not only will you become aware of your own body but you’ll notice how everyone else behaves, too.
There’s one last bit of advice: Think before you speak. It’s good advice, but even more when it comes to getting better at communicating. In order to communicate effectively, it’s not enough to just keep a conversation going; you must also maintain an active part in introducing new ideas as well. So if you think about how you could hurt somebody’s feelings by saying the wrong thing to them, you might rethink if it’s worth the pain you’re likely to cause. Once you have listened and observed your audience carefully, craft your words in a way that relates to them the best.
Find Your Individuality
You should experiment with a lot of things to see what suits you, and then experiment some more. Tastes change; as do preferences. People grow up and become aware of more things as they age. There is no guarantee that you will be great at everything the first time you try it, even if you were a genius. With enough practice, you might find a solution that works for you only.
Your closet is a good place to start. Begin by bringing out your favourite clothes, the ones you love most. These will be the things you’ve always worn, and you likely have had them for years and years. Now, look at the other things in your closet. Grab all of the items that remind you of your favorites–maybe they’re the same color or materials–and move them to a different area of the room.
Likely, there are only two categories of clothing left in your closet. One is simple staples like camis and underwear, and the other is items you’ve forgotten about and likely never plan to wear. (If you’re doing a purge, throw away the second group.)
As you pulled clothing from your closet, you learned something about the person you are and the person you want to be. This is a good place to start with separating the true you from your ideal self, the self you are and the self you wish to be. It will help you understand your personality if you follow similar paths elsewhere in your life.
Combine & Produce
All for the sake of your business and marketing, it’s about being different, which you already are. People are unique, and there are so many of us in the world that it’s only a matter of time before they find the people they’re supposed to be with.
How long have you been watching YouTube? Are you still watching the same YouTubers you were watching ten years ago? Are there others? How recently? If you watch YouTube videos regularly, I bet that you’ve found a new YouTuber within the last six months who stands out to you for some reason. For you to pay attention to them, they don’t need to be the best at what they talk about, wear funky makeup, or do crazy stunts. You watch them because you jive with them.
You’ll experience similar results if you remain authentic on the internet. We found your individuality above, and you’re mastering your communication skills, and you’ve already shown considerable confidence. Now you can share a public version of yourself online.
