How sharing your SMALL successes can benefit your business

After a few weeks when I felt like I was wading through treacle, doing all the 'right' things but coming across one frustration after another, I suddenly had a couple of days where everything felt better. Things went right.

It made me feel so upbeat and positive I shared a quick post on LinkedIn:

"Amazing how quickly things can change. Last week felt a bit lacklustre and plodding. Couldn't understand why I was procrastinating something I wanted to do, and eventually realised it was because I wanted it to work so much. So this week I tentatively launched a new tourism partnership (quietly, but got instant & fantastic response). Then the week got even better, with some good news on potential sponsorship from a brilliant & ethical company with wonderful people to work with, I took over as Head of Comms (voluntary) for Tourism Management Institute, and put in place plans to revolutionise business support in the tourism industry". 

I wasn't sure how such a gushing post would go down, given that LinkedIn is currently full of so many negative stories of people struggling in business and losing their jobs. 

The response was amazing - so many 'likes', comments, post views and a deluge of really positive emails and a couple of invitations to do some interesting work. Something else happened too - my subsequent posts on social media and articles elsewhere also got a good response, even on totally different topics. 

I've thought about this a lot since, and started looking at the balance of positive and negative stories on social media, and the responses they receive.

My conclusion: share your small successes!

It's likely you'll get a good response that could have a real impact on your business. 

I'd like to stress 'small' successes. It's the tiny triumphs, the little steps forward, the small obstacles overcome that people seem to like right now. It makes sense that during a time of such murky news and misery people want to read positive stories. I'm not sure if major successes would be so impactful - are we ready to believe in big 'wow' stories right now?

Is it perhaps the idea of small triumphs over mild adversity that we like?

Perhaps the reason why that particular post was so well-received was because it showed a small transformation - from feeling lacklustre and plodding to getting a fantastic response and receiving lots of good news? 

I think everyone needs to feel optimistic and believe life will get better. Sometimes this is hard. If you have a story of a small success to tell, please do share it - you'll help others feel more upbeat and believe that 'better' is possible.

It's motivating for everyone to hear how things have improved, how you've managed to achieve something, how things can turn around. 

Sharing success - in whatever way works for you - has another effect too. Most people like to have a good positive story to tell, and they'll want to share it even more. 

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