This piece first appeared in the new edition of In Treehouses. It’s all about the social web, and you can pick up your own copy for free right here.
Why are you on Twitter? Why do you Skype? Why did you send that last email?
The social web is everywhere, it’s powerful, and it’s growing.
It’s also just a tool. A way of reaching your destination. But although the social web is here to be a helpful aid, it often ends up enslaving you.
You become addicted to checking email or adding more followers, rather than using these things to improve your freedom and to build your business.
Freedom business is about working on projects that matter to you, to your own schedule, from anywhere in the world.
But what if you’re checking email every five minutes, when you’re supposed to be doing your work?
Or tied to a phone contract that stops you from working flexibly?
Or booked in for Skype calls around someone else’s schedule?
At its best, the social web can help build your freedom business. At its worst, it can vastly hinder it.
Of course, it’s not the social web itself that’s doing this – the tools are the same in either instance – but rather how you’re using it. And so the rallying cry goes out – “be mindful”. Consider how you’re using the tools at your disposal. Don’t just jump on the bandwagon of a new social network – ask how and why you’re going to use it.
Will it help your business? Will it help your freedom?
In all you do on the social web, be mindful of what you’re trying to achieve.