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Perspective 6
Popping in and out of the Social Media Cage
How to get the best from social media in the Work it Out Way.
As Individuals, social media promised us something wonderful. It offered connection. It offered conversation, discovery and even community. And for a while, it delivered. We were able to meet people we would never have met otherwise. We could share ideas, find others who cared about the same things, and start conversations that crossed borders, time zones, and backgrounds.
But like so many things, it didn’t take long before social media got pulled into the old business ways. These platforms, which began as places to connect, slowly became commercial engines. The goal shifted quietly from relationship to visibility, from conversation to marketing and from human interaction to performance metrics.
Posts became part of marketing funnels. Conversations became content and pieces of content were carefully crafted, not to serve, but to sell. The purpose became to generate clicks and to create leads. Many of us stopped thinking about the people we were speaking with and started thinking about conversion rates. Whether we realised it or not, every post began to hold a quiet undercurrent that made us ask "When and how will this turn into a sale?"
Even when our intentions were good, the system pulled us back. We became trapped inside algorithms that rewarded visibility over depth, audience-building over real relationship, and performance over authenticity. Slowly, the platforms trained us to think like marketers, even when what we really wanted was something much simpler, to connect with others, and to build something meaningful together.
But here’s the good news: social media doesn’t have to trap us. We can use it differently. In fact, that’s exactly what the Work It Out Way allows us, and enables us, to do.
We don’t need to use social media to build audiences. We can use it to find people. We can be there not to sell, but to listen, share our purpose and to quietly bump into people who share our mission. Social media can simply become a meeting ground, a place where some of the first conversations may happen.
And when we meet someone who resonates with us, someone who cares about similar issues, who wants to build a kinder peaceful world, who shares our concern for a particular group or community, who want to help our children learn a better way of being or to look after our planet, something wonderful can happen. The conversation immediately changes. We stop thinking, “Who can I sell to?” and instead ask, “Who can we explore this with?”
And that’s where the real shift can start to happen. Once we’ve found those people, we can take a very deliberate next step and leave the platform. We can step out of the algorithm and move into our own circles of contribution. These are small, real communities where the pressure disappears, and authentic relationships grow.
Inside these Work It Out circles, we are no longer bombarded by distraction, adverts and clickbait or playing the algorithm’s game. We’re no longer passively scrolling and being manipulated by systems that reward clicks, likes, or performance. And most importantly, we’re no longer pulled back into that old business reflex of trying to monetise every interaction.
In our circles, we are protected from the external commercial world that constantly tries to drag us back to transactions and marketing tricks. Here, we can simply have the conversations that matter. We listen to each other. We talk about who we want to help, what problems we care about, how we might do something useful for others, the impact we want to create, and the work we can do together.
From these real communities, businesses can naturally emerge. But they’re not built on selling. They’re built on contribution. People collaborate, share resources, create programs, offer services, and invite others in. And it’s always focused on shared purpose, never just personal profit.
In this way, social media is returned to what it was always meant to be: a place to find the right people. But the real work, the real relationships, and the real business happen once we move beyond the platforms that are owned by others and step into our communities of purpose.
We don’t build funnels anymore, we build circles. We don’t build audiences, we build communities. And from those communities, we build businesses that serve, contribute and make a real difference. We are all building an amazing legacy together.
This is how we reclaim social media, not by rejecting it, but by using it for what it can genuinely offer. With AI we have the chance to find those we are meant to build with. And once we’ve found them, we step into the real work, together.
As Individuals, social media promised us something wonderful. It offered connection. It offered conversation, discovery and even community. And for a while, it delivered. We were able to meet people we would never have met otherwise. We could share ideas, find others who cared about the same things, and start conversations that crossed borders, time zones, and backgrounds.
But like so many things, it didn’t take long before social media got pulled into the old business ways. These platforms, which began as places to connect, slowly became commercial engines. The goal shifted quietly from relationship to visibility, from conversation to marketing and from human interaction to performance metrics.
Posts became part of marketing funnels. Conversations became content and pieces of content were carefully crafted, not to serve, but to sell. The purpose became to generate clicks and to create leads. Many of us stopped thinking about the people we were speaking with and started thinking about conversion rates. Whether we realised it or not, every post began to hold a quiet undercurrent that made us ask "When and how will this turn into a sale?"
Even when our intentions were good, the system pulled us back. We became trapped inside algorithms that rewarded visibility over depth, audience-building over real relationship, and performance over authenticity. Slowly, the platforms trained us to think like marketers, even when what we really wanted was something much simpler, to connect with others, and to build something meaningful together.
But here’s the good news: social media doesn’t have to trap us. We can use it differently. In fact, that’s exactly what the Work It Out Way allows us, and enables us, to do.
We don’t need to use social media to build audiences. We can use it to find people. We can be there not to sell, but to listen, share our purpose and to quietly bump into people who share our mission. Social media can simply become a meeting ground, a place where some of the first conversations may happen.
And when we meet someone who resonates with us, someone who cares about similar issues, who wants to build a kinder peaceful world, who shares our concern for a particular group or community, who want to help our children learn a better way of being or to look after our planet, something wonderful can happen. The conversation immediately changes. We stop thinking, “Who can I sell to?” and instead ask, “Who can we explore this with?”
And that’s where the real shift can start to happen. Once we’ve found those people, we can take a very deliberate next step and leave the platform. We can step out of the algorithm and move into our own circles of contribution. These are small, real communities where the pressure disappears, and authentic relationships grow.
Inside these Work It Out circles, we are no longer bombarded by distraction, adverts and clickbait or playing the algorithm’s game. We’re no longer passively scrolling and being manipulated by systems that reward clicks, likes, or performance. And most importantly, we’re no longer pulled back into that old business reflex of trying to monetise every interaction.
In our circles, we are protected from the external commercial world that constantly tries to drag us back to transactions and marketing tricks. Here, we can simply have the conversations that matter. We listen to each other. We talk about who we want to help, what problems we care about, how we might do something useful for others, the impact we want to create, and the work we can do together.
From these real communities, businesses can naturally emerge. But they’re not built on selling. They’re built on contribution. People collaborate, share resources, create programs, offer services, and invite others in. And it’s always focused on shared purpose, never just personal profit.
In this way, social media is returned to what it was always meant to be: a place to find the right people. But the real work, the real relationships, and the real business happen once we move beyond the platforms that are owned by others and step into our communities of purpose.
We don’t build funnels anymore, we build circles. We don’t build audiences, we build communities. And from those communities, we build businesses that serve, contribute and make a real difference. We are all building an amazing legacy together.
This is how we reclaim social media, not by rejecting it, but by using it for what it can genuinely offer. With AI we have the chance to find those we are meant to build with. And once we’ve found them, we step into the real work, together.
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Work it Out! is part of Diversiton and is non profit making.
Copyright © Diversiton 2003-2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Copyright © Diversiton 2003-2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.