Threads! Should you be using it for your business or is it just shiny object syndrome?

Today’s episode of the podcast is all about the new social media platform that everyone is talking about - Threads! In this episode I share how to know whether to do something new, how to know when something has worked or not worked, and how to stay in your lane and keep your head down and get on with the things that you need to be getting on with. Are you on Threads yet? How are you finding it if you are? Drop me a DM on my socials and let me know, I'd love to hear from you!   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST Why the issues you face with social media isn't necessarily about the platform you're on The hockey stick effect of consistency The most valuable resource you have as a business owner   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Happy Mind, Happy Life by Dr Rangan Chatterjeee Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter   Transcript  You are listening to your dream business podcast. And as always, I am your host, Teresa Heath Wareing. Welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. Now, I actually started to get a bit ahead of myself again, as you will know, if you're a regular listener, I have literally been recording these like days before they're due to come out, which is very unlike me. So I sat down the other day with all my team and we planned out the next, I don't know, six, seven episodes. And then the world, did something. And I thought, Oh no, I really need to talk about that. So we've moved episodes again, but that's fine because that's kind of one of the advantages of doing it as quick as I am doing it as it were. I mean, there's good and bad to batching and doing things on the fly. So at the moment doing it on the flight is helping because I wanted to address something that has happened, in the marketing space. So Threads have just come out. Instagram, Facebook Meta have released a new social media platform which is in, meant to be a competitive thing towards Twitter. And it's not that I want to sit and talk about Threads, because I really don't, and I'm not on it, so I don't know anything about it, so that's not going to be of any help, if that's what you're thinking this episode is. It's that I want to talk about around this subject of... How do you know whether to do something new? When do you know something has worked or not worked? And how to stay in your lane and keep your head down and get on with the things that you need to be getting on with and not get necessarily distracted and swayed by other stuff? So, It came out and suddenly my Instagram feed is full of here's my first Thread, here's what's on Threads, and then of course all the social media people are putting on there, well not even just social media people, marketing people, and someone made a joke about, you know, give two days and there'll be a course on how to use Threads. You know, everyone's commenting on it and I get it. If people are in that space, absolutely. They should be commenting on it. If they've got a social media business, if they've got a marketing business, I get why this would be something they're talking about and jumping on. However, I have to say, obviously my feed is full of business owners that not only I know, but ones that are in my world. And I see them all or see a lot of them jumping on Threads and saying, you know, I'm on Threads and here it is, and this is what I'm doing. And I have to start questioning to myself, like why, and how's that helping their business and how, how have they decided that they need another social media platform? So now this, I have to say this podcast is not in any way aimed to judge or shame or anything. It's just my thoughts and views on it. In fact, I had a very lovely message, which I shared on my Instagram the other week. About someone had listened to my podcast episode about when things are hard in your business and what to do and said it was like a big warm hug and it was lovely, which is my aim. So I certainly don't want you to think I'm sat here judging you or judging anybody going, what are you doing on that new platform? That's not the case. What I'm doing is, I guess, explaining my thoughts, my approach to these things, and it may or not, or may help you in yours. So the first thing is when something new comes out, it's really hard not to jump on it, right? Cause everyone's jumping on it and you don't want to be the one person that's not on the platform that everyone's talking about. Because in the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, being part of a community and being in people's world and having people around us is one of his needs. I'm sure he says it much more eloquently and he doesn't mean social media, but that is part of our needs. So if we think everyone is doing something and we're not there and we're not invited to the party or we're not getting involved, then we will automatically want to make sure that we are part of that party. So it is absolutely human nature to want to get involved in something that everyone else is involved in. But one of the things that really kind of not surprised me, one of the things that really made me think was some of the people moving on to Threads and creating accounts and posting on Threads haven't been consistent on their own social media. They haven't posted consistently on the ones that they're currently on. They are not killing it on those platforms as in, they've got it all sussed and therefore they've got enough time and space to take on another platform. These things, like, let's move business to one side, but from a mental health point of view, like, I really don't like social media. I really don't. I have a very curated feed. I literally block and mute people on a regular basis if they give me anything but positive vibes. The only people I really follow and look at their stuff are my members and my community and people in my world. I don't look at competitors. I don't look at some friends because they do similar stuff to me and I don't want to see what they're doing. So the last thing I want to do is go on another platform where my time is being taken. I can't remember what it was, whether it was a book or a podcast or something. I think it might have been a podcast. No, it wasn't. It was a book. It was, Rangan Chatterjee. Have I said that right? Probably not. Anyway, I'll make sure we link up to it. I think it's called happy something, happy something. I'm obviously prepared for this podcast. Can't you tell? And basically he talks about phones in that, and I will make sure we link up to it in the show notes. In case you don't know where the show notes are, it's teresaheathwareing.com/ whatever number episode this is. Which FYI, I better tell you what episode it is or otherwise that's not gonna be very helpful. It's episode 303. So it literally will be the numbers 303. Yeah, so I, He talks in this book about Phones and imagine if your phone was another person, right? So imagine you're sat on your sofa and your partner's sat next to you And imagine your phone is another person and how much attention you're giving that other person. Imagine going out for dinner with your partner. And instead of talking to your partner, you're talking to this other person. And it really kind of made me think, and I was like, do you know what? It's not good being on our phones this much is not good. As you will know, if you are a regular listener, I'm a teen, I'm a teenager. No, I'm not. I'm a mom to a teenager. And I hate the fact that she wants to spend so much time on her phone. So from a mental health point of view, I don't think it's great to have yet another platform to take our time, to take up our mental space, and to affect our mental health. I don't think it's, personally, I don't want that in my world. Someone did say that, you know, All the people, you know, there's only nice people on Thread so far. And it's like, yeah, there will be so far maybe, but it won't be long. There's the issues aren't necessarily with the platforms. It's with the people on the platforms and what they're putting on them. And just because it's a new platform does not mean those people who are horrible and hateful and have the worst things to say are not going to come over to that platform. Anyway, I've gone down a rabbit hole that I didn't expect to go down. So let's come back to the business thing. So how do we stay in our own lane? How do we know what's working and how do we make a confident decision to change when we know something isn't working? This is a really hard question. Because people come to me all the time and they go, I've done this thing and it's not working. And then I speak to them and go, how much have you done it? And how often have you posted it? And what have you done from it? And inevitably 9 out of 10 times, it's not the thing that isn't working. If the fact that they either haven't done it enough, they haven't been consistent enough,