Today’s blog is from Ethan Whelpley. Ethan has social media accounts on YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, SoundCloud and musical.ly and wants to share lessons he’s learned from having an online presence as a tween and teen.
It might seem hard to be safe and smart online. I have learned from my experiences online and have compiled a list of 7 tips to a smarter online personality.
Be yourself. Don’t try to impress others online. Behaving online like someone you’re not is a waste of time and you’ll regret it in the future. For example, if you pretend to use drugs online to try to impress your friends (which, by the way, is NOT impressive), years later a job interviewer might find those posts and you will most likely not get that job. Your parent, teacher, or coach could see the posts right now, assume they are true, and then your reputation may be tarnished. You might be punished, or worse. People believe what they see online and it’s hard to change their minds after they’ve seen something. Often it is impossible to tell what is a joke and what isn’t. It’s best to be true to who you are, online and in “real” life.- Criticism is not bad. Listen to criticism. If it’s a positive comment, you know that your content is something that people like. If you receive negative criticism, then consider stopping those types of posts. When I receive criticism, I like to re-evaluate what I have posted in the past that has succeeded. Then I focus on something that works instead of trying to fix what people don’t like.
- Delete hate comments. You want your comment section to be honest, but if someone leaves a mean comment
just delete it. It’s as simple as that! - Be interactive with your friends and fans. Respond to your friends’ posts. Respond to comments on your posts. Don’t feel compelled to follow someone back if you don’t want to. If you follow someone back, they will feel on somewhat of a personal level with you. Some of my favorite YouTubers are well known for following fans back and liking fans’ tweets.
- Share the good and bad about your life. Everyone is tired of seeing all positive things on social media. Share some of the bad things in life. Don’t be too deep but make sure to be down to earth.
- If you screw up, then admit it and do something about it. This will have your friends and fans trusting in you because you are showing that you are honest. Earlier this year, I posted something and I did not even intend to offend anyone, and somebody got offended. I apologized and explained that I had not meant to offend the person, and then I just deleted the post. Sometimes it’s worse to delete your post, so keep that in mind. The best thing is to consider what you post, before you post it, and don’t post anything that might hurt someone else.
- Be a role model. Be someone who you would look up to. A good example of someone who does this is FaZe Blaziken. He makes sure not to swear or do anything inappropriate, because he knows that kids watch his videos. Here’s a link to his YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/Blazifyy
Now that you have learned these 7 tips I hope it will be easier for you to go out on the internet and be successful on social media! Good luck!
Ethan Whelpley will be entering high school this fall. His videos can be found on YouTube at youtube.com/channel/UCRZ5WA-Y5W4hZzHdxr2HXOg and his music is at SoundClud at soundcloud.com/ethan-whelpley
