To share or not to share

I often have this turmoil in my head whether I should share something on social media (Facebook, Twitter) or not. I have gotten over sharing my work on Medium and having it accessible here but I generally want it to reach more people and then I struggle between writing group posts on the Facebook groups or a tweet with a link to the article. I don’t do this for every post and, here, I quickly want to analyze the obstacles I feel about sharing.

I am hoping that if you are reading this and can relate in the tiniest way, you can guide me on how I can do better and be cognizant of other people but also confidant enough to share my story.

How do I decide if I want to share something?

I have to feel very strongly about my writing and also know a target group that I can address. For example, I shared my article on What I learnt about myself after two months of bullet journalling on a Bullet Journaling Tips and Tricks group. I was very happy about the response: around 50 bullet journalists liked or loved it and a couple even commented on it.

The one that I struggled to share is my article on The Sticky System. As my friend pointed out, it has a punny title and it might not appeal to everyone out there. Anyway, I shared it with two of the Teacher groups I am part of — one is for k-12 teachers who bullet journal while the other is a k-6 teachers community. I feel the Sticky System is very generic and can be used by any grade level — you don’t even need to be a teacher, if you are doing a workshop, you can use it there too, that’s where I saw it in use first.

Why do I struggle with sharing?

If you are thinking why I am struggling, this is why:

1. When you put something out there and then share it amongst people who have been doing what you are talking about (classroom management, teaching) for much longer than you have, you might feel a little bit of trepidation on how this will turn out. Will they like it? Will they hate it? Will they call it out and delete my post? It can’t be that bad, Kriti, it’s a good system and easy to use and which teacher does not love stationary?— you gave them context. You were looking for feedback and ways this can be improved and hoping that it might even help someone.
2. Am I spamming them with my article? If this turns out to be a success (X number of likes) and someone genuinely likes my work, should I share my next post there too? Will that be too much? Or if I don’t get much response should I just let it be? I think this applies more to Facebook. I actually don’t worry much about Twitter for some reason.
3. How long do I have to wait before I call this over? I waited an hour and got no response from any of my teachers and ended up here, writing my fears, putting them out there,… I guess we move on from our Internet adventures when a new article or idea comes up. No?

Tell me about your adventures with being more ‘out there’. How did you get over your fear (or you just did not have this fear at all) of sharing your work even when you really wanted to share it.

Thanks for reading. 🙂

Feature image on VisualHunt.com