What you think of yourself is often not what others think of you…
The friendly bird from twitter inspired this post for a few reasons. The first reason would have to be the new LIST feature they’ve recently added. You get to categorize your followers or other people’s followers in list, the list help you organize your followers. I think it is a cool feature because you get to decide which people you want in each list and only get updates from that list.
The most interesting part of this exercise is naming your list, think about it you are categorizing people you’ve probably never met into a list based off their tweets. Some people make it easy, they categorize themselves as artist or actors and bloggers… but what about the people you follow but you have no idea what they are really about, so your perception kicks in. You might think of yourself as a trendsetter or an influencer but your peers might categorize you as something completely different. Try it! Visit your twitter list and you will be surprise at some the list you belong to.
Obviously the twitter lists are meant to be positive, I have yet to see someone classify other followers as assholes or big mouths or drama queens (I’m sure it’s out there) but what about what people think about you in real life? You might think you are reliable, social or even likable but in reality people think you are selfish, arrogant or evil.
How do you change people’s perception? Where do people get their perception of you? As of late I’ve been learning you can’t dictate to the people, you can’t force feed the perception of yourself onto others, at the end of the day they decide who “you are” you don’t have to take stock of it but it is important for you to know. What you can control is your output! What you put out into the world for them to learn about you, whether trough twitter or in real life…The perceptions people hold of you might be wrong but if enough people believe it, it might become your reality. A bad perception might prevent you from getting a great opportunity or might get you into a lot of trouble. What I suggest is ask your friends and people around you a series of questions that may help you understand their perception of you. That’s if you care, and want to know.
Be careful what your output is going to be, saying you are amazing might not necessarily mean people are going to believe you. You will be judged by what you do and not what you say…
What I learned today? What you think of yourself is often not what others think of you
Marcus Troy
