My relationship with numbers in general

Numbers are incredibly versatile and exciting for me. They allow us to grasp the world around us in all its diversity and complexity. And they also enable us to examine this diversity for patterns, thereby making it comprehensible and perceptible. That's awesome.

Numbers constantly accompany me in my professional life as well. As a consultant, for example, I conduct many process and impact evaluations for projects, carry out surveys, and create statistics. The numbers provide interesting insights into a status quo as an overall overview. They also offer good starting points for further survey steps, such as participant observation, interviews, and focus groups, to delve deeper. This leads to meaningful insights into processes that enable us to adapt the path, set a focus, make a course correction, and continue to work even better.

Generally, my relationship with numbers is very good and relaxed, almost loving. (Except maybe for those moments when the evaluation program takes on a life of its own. 😉)

My previous personal relationship with numbers on social media

When I talk about social media, I primarily mean Facebook and Instagram. Those are the platforms I use. And even here, my personal relationship with numbers has always been very relaxed.

Facebook as a way to stay in touch with friends all over the world

Facebook was and still is the only way for me to stay in touch with all my friends and acquaintances, even though they are spread out internationally. With posts, I was even more surprised when I got a particularly large number of likes. And somehow I was also not very surprised when there were none at all, because I knew from friends that certain posts were not being shown to them in their feed. Primarily those with „more serious“ topics. So, the number of likes on posts was actually rather meaningless to me.

I've also tended to prefer keeping the number of friends on Facebook manageable on my private profile. I consciously connect only with people I share fond memories with, people I have a connection with, people I care about. At some point, I was surprised to find that my Facebook profile suddenly had over 1000 friends.

1000 people, wow, that’s quite a lot, do I know them all? Then I wanted to „clean house.“ So I was actually surprised by a high number of friends and even felt the need to reduce the numbers. So I went through the list. But then I realized that every single person on there is also a friend or at least a good acquaintance in "real life." I had never consciously perceived such a huge number of people around me. Very interesting. And of course, it’s wonderful that I share memories with so many unique individuals and that so many people are close to me.

Some of these are from my school or university days. Unfortunately, not many are left from that time, because at some point I actually reduced my friends list to those people with whom I had real-life contact at least weekly. This idea pretty quickly proved to be misguided, and unfortunately, I couldn't find everyone again afterwards (so if we went to school or university together, or were in a club: feel free to add me again, it wasn't meant maliciously if I removed you back then 🙂 ).

Many of the current over 1,000 people I stay in touch with on Facebook are from the artistic music „Samba world,“ where I spend a large part of my free time and travel extensively throughout Europe for performances. Here, I always get to meet and spend time with many, many wonderful people, dancing and making music with them. These people are spread all over the world, and Facebook is really the only way for me to stay in touch somehow (unimaginable as an alternative, for example, to write and receive over 1,000 messages weekly).

As I reviewed them, I realized that wonderful memories connect me with all these people, so why should I get rid of them? And so I became friends with this number. Over 1000, why not. Where is it written how many people we can connect with in life? And I always look forward to seeing each and every one of them again, and we always have a wonderful time. To me, this high number therefore represents many beautiful memories.

Instagram as a way to make others smile

On Instagram, a few years ago, I only had a Profile created because I like to bring smiles to people's faces with my pareidolia pictures. I don't know any numbers from this profile, which features photos of things with faces. I have no idea how many followers I have, how many likes the pictures get, or how many people I follow. I also don't interact with others on this profile; I simply share my photos and the photos that people send me in return. And I'm happy that I can make others smile with it.

At some point, I also created a profile with my first name to share other things that didn't fit the surrounded_by_faces profile. Here, for example, I would post pictures I took on walks or similar outings, which showed a different perspective on the city. But again, I don't know how many followers I have or how many likes. And honestly, I haven't been online on that profile in a long time.

So, what has my relationship with numbers on social media been like so far?

So when I look at it closely, my relationship with numbers on social media has definitely been a relaxed and good one. I was only a little interested in them and largely ignored them because other things on the platforms were more important to me: staying in touch with people, making someone smile, sharing different perspectives. Or they reminded me how lucky I am to be able to connect with so many wonderful people.

My current business relationship with numbers on social media 

Paying for social media with business profiles feels a bit more stressful. Although, actually, not from the beginning, when I think about it, and that wasn't that long ago. Until the beginning of May 2021, I didn't have a professional social media presence. Sure, there was already a Xing and a LinkedIn profile. But everything was more like an "online business card" and not an interactive space. I also only had a very basic website online.

Clients and cooperation partners came to me through recommendations. That's great, of course, but at the same time, I've never really presented myself outwardly with my professional passions. And in the course of The Blog Bang by Judith Sympatexter, I finally dared to jump out of my comfort zone in May 2021. Currently, I'm not only updating my homepage, but I've also created a Facebook page and an Instagram profile for my business. Here too, I didn't think about the numbers at all when I started. But the platforms have completely different dynamics when it comes to business, I've noticed.

Facebook as a never-ending stream of automated optimization advice

Before my new homepage, where a blog finally has its place, was completed, Facebook was simply a way for me to publish the blog articles (how exciting!). Without intending to, however, the topic of likes became relevant here from the very beginning.

So, in the beginning, I had huge problems because Facebook didn't allow me to "clone" a page from my profile. I also couldn't invite anyone (and still can't) to „like“ my page, and subscribing also apparently didn't always work. So, I suddenly found myself preoccupied with topics like likes and subscriber numbers because I was prevented from truly "showing off" my page at all. And when sending messages, I was blocked due to suspected spam. Very interesting.

This then naturally made all the tips Facebook constantly sends and shows me even more annoying: which post I should promote and how many people I can reach with it, which groups I should join, etc. Phew, quite stressful. In combination with the inability to actively share, these numbers got on my nerves pretty quickly, even though I don't really care about them. Simply because the tips are omnipresent. This is actually causing me to click on my page less and less often at the moment. The desire to post isn't huge either.

If there's a way to hide all these hints and numbers: Please, by all means, share your tips!

Instagram as a Paradise for Social Media Experts

For me, the Instagram profile is a way to show the world what kind of person I am. This includes showcasing to some extent the services I offer as a coach, trainer, and consultant. Obviously, as a self-employed person, that's a big part of who I am. But above all, Instagram is a way for me to share my thoughts with others. To connect with other people.

I was so excited about my new profile on Instagram that I was happy just posting. And in my thoughts, I was and still am busy considering what meaningful impulses, content, and exciting ideas I want to share with the people I reach. On Instagram, there are also few or no automated tips and hints for numerical optimization. So, at first, it was easier for me to focus on my feelings and my "desire.".

But on Instagram, it's pretty quickly social media marketing experts who contact you with optimization offers. And these are really good tips and tricks that you can learn, great advice, and valuable experiences. After creating my profile, I received countless messages. The content was always approximately as follows: It's great that you're on Instagram now, I love your profile, want to get thousands of followers and customers in the shortest possible time?

As a curious person, I've exchanged messages here and there and had conversations. And I was even close to buying expertise because at some point I felt that only if I did it NOW, I would have a chance to get the right and most followers and then to sell, to sell, to sell. And then my gut feeling spoke to me. Very, very loudly. And asked me: Is that really you? And of course, one could say that the gut feeling shouldn't have a say when it comes to business. But I disagree. Many CEOs in the world, especially from startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), also agree, by the way.

And how am I doing now with the numbers?

Gut feeling can only become dangerous if I don't understand it. But if I have a good relationship with it, if I can communicate with my inner voice, then it's a great advisor.

So, I basically sat down with my intuition and saw what it had to say: "The offer was very good, the person behind it is likeable, it can help us." Those were the pros in agreement with my head. And then came the cons: "This isn't you, you've never gone down the path that everyone has already settled on, your goal lies somewhere else entirely, we can't breathe in a tight corset, better to live out your creativity, perhaps at a later point, don't overthink it, numbers are also only relative, rather continue to get your motivation intellectually and intrinsically, otherwise you won't last long."

This conversation didn't happen overnight, but over several weeks. Partly because I had an incredible amount to do and didn't want to rush anything. And in the end, I decided against purchasing this service. At least for me, it feels right right now, in this situation and at this time. And who knows, maybe professional optimization will be interesting for me at a later point.

But right now, I'm thinking to myself: I did everything right! And after this reflection, my relationship with numbers on social media is also back on track and relaxed. And the profiles still feel like "mine." Like a very personal playground for romping around, experimenting, and connecting with wonderful people.