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1) Social Media Platforms
2) Search-Engine Platforms
3) Other Connection Platforms
4) Summary
If thereās one thing I can tell you for sure, itās that having a corporate job and running a business (leaving out all the other things like family, life, etc.) makes being visibleā¦and CONSISTENTLY visibleā¦in your online coaching business truly difficult.
This is not an excuse, it simply IS.
But, I want to remind you how crucial visibility is to finding your tribe and helping them find you. If youāre not out there, they canāt find you, and they canāt work with you. And, if you have no clientsā¦well, you have no business.
So, I want you to take a moment to jot down when you can be visible and what that looks like for you. The BEST advice I can offer you is to NOT get on every social media platform. When I first started my business, I did just that, and I regret it to this day. It was absolutely overwhelming trying to post everywhere. Do yourself a favor and pick one social media platform and one search-engine type platform.
Hereās the thing, there is no BEST platform. They all have the potential to help explode your business. Here are three key things to keep in mind:
1) Where are your ideal clients hanging out? (chances are, your dream clients are there as well)
2) Where do you enjoy hanging out?
3) Where can you commit to hanging out CONSISTENTLY? Not CONSTANTLY, but CONSISTENTLY.
And the MOST IMPORTANT thing of all to ask yourself is this: Where am I committed to showing up consistently and connecting with people and building relationships? Solid, long-lasting businesses are built on creating relationships.
Having said that, I want to remind you of a few things to keep in mind as you create your visibility strategy using social media. The numbers are truly NOT important. Iāve seen people with 120K followers who have 3,000 likes on a post and not a single commentā¦NO ONE engaging with them. Then Iāve seen accounts with 320 followers, 132 likes, and 35 commentsā¦people engaging and interacting. Let go of the numbers and create connection.
And remember, what we post is FOR OUR AUDIENCE. Our audience can be potential clients, coaches, collaborations, possible new friends, etc. Create your content for your audience. They are human beings who are craving human connection. And if theyāre your current or ideal/dream potential clients, they are looking for you to offer advice, teach them and solve their pain points. See my How to Attract Your Dream Clients and Turn Them into Paying ClientsĀ blog for more on this.
Before we dig into some great ways to be visible, I want to hit on one last important pointā¦especially for those of us who are introverted and/or perhaps never really had to SELL how incredible working with you isā¦itās your primary job to tell you tribe, your followers, WHAT YOU SELLā¦how YOU can solve their pain points. If you want to thrive in your business so you can leave your 9-5, youāre going to have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and start offering the services and products youāre selling.
Letās go through some of the most popular platforms at a high level so you can determine which might be a good fit for where your clients are and where you feel comfortable.
Social Media Platforms
Broadly speaking, it seems like the whole world is on Facebook. In my opinion, it should be one of the two primary places you devote your time to when creating your visibility strategy. What I have found is that itās a great way to foster relationships through conversation because the space to write is much more than other platforms. Plus, the ability to build your own tribe and join tribes through creating a Facebook group makes building relationships easy.
Use your business page, group, and other groups to post with CONSISTENT frequency. Again, Iām not saying CONSTANTLY. Figure out what schedule you can stick toā¦and stick to it.
What about social posts? If you canāt commit to doing one every day, can you create three on the weekend and rotate them through your social platforms and other Facebook groups? What days will you choose to post? Monday, Wednesday, Friday?
Remember to be very intentional with your posts. They should do AT LEAST one of three things:
1) Entertain
2) Educate, and/or
3) Inspire/elicit action
End every post with a question (to incite engagement) or a call-to-action (promotion to work with you).
And with video being so big, think about doing a live stream in your group. Can you work in one a week? Maybe once a month? Remember youāre building your know-like-trust factor and showing up on video where your potential clients get to see your smiling face and hear your voice is a powerful way to connect.
Since weāre building relationships, itās critical to remember to respond back to those who are commenting on your posts.
A great way to grow your tribe is to increase your visibility by collaborating and doing Facebook group live stream swaps. These interview-style live streams are a great way for each person to highlight their expertise, expand audiences by sharing audiences, give more value to your own tribe by bringing in guest experts, and simply have some fun with it!
Hereās where you can find me on Facebook.
And here is my fabulous FREE Facebook group, Emerging Empowered Entrepreneurs: Leave Your 9-5 and Thrive as a Coach. Come join us!
Instagram is another big player in the world of entrepreneurial connection. While itās more of a visual platform, thereās definitely space to put out connecting, captivating content. The space you have to write content is less than Facebook, but much better than Twitterās limitations.
I tend to find that there isnāt as much interaction on Instagram as there is on Facebook. It seems that people scroll through and hit Like, but often times arenāt taking a moment to actually read the content. Do the best you can to capture their attention by putting text on your image and making the most of the first few words that can be seen when scrolling. When people DO comment, sometimes the comments donāt make any sense or theyāre just an emoji. So, for me, itās not been as interactive as Facebook.
One limitation that can be cumbersome is that you can NOT include links within your post. You can only point people to the one link in your profile. So, you have to be careful when you change that link, especially when you have a new post that points to it, but the link has changed. I get around this by typing the link into the body of my post. It helps, but then it has to be copied and pasted into a browser by interested person. Itās a bit clunky.
As itās a platform for your content, be sure youāre also using it to promote your business and your offers. Just like Facebook, itās FREE advertising!!
Definitely make use of the Instagram Stories feature. Itās best used for sharing the ābehind the scenesā of your business and a peek into your personal life outside of your business. You can absolutely use it to highlight all the amazing things going on in your business, including your offers.
Be sure to use all 30 hashtags in your posts (you can use only one hashtag on your Instagram Stories) to help your content get found by your potential clients. I have heard different theories on putting your hashtags in your post versus the comments. Iād say, experiment and see if you see a difference in one versus the other. I have found that putting my hashtags in the body of my posts works well for me.
Hereās where you can find me on Instagram.
LinkedIn is a social media platform mainly geared toward professionals and heavily for corporate America. Like other social media platforms, it enables you to network with others. One thing is it specifically used for is looking for a new job. So, employers and recruiters are also on there looking for job candidates. Also, like other social media platforms, you can post an image and content.
Since I straddled working my corporate job and running my business for almost three years, I left my profile as my corporate job. Having left at the end of 2018, I then deleted my old account and started a new one for my coaching business.
As such, itās still a relatively new platform for me for my business so I donāt have too much feedback for you just yet. I do like that I can connect with other entrepreneurs in much the same way as other platforms.
You can connect with me on LinkedIn HERE.
Twitter has been around a long time. While many celebrities are on Twitter, I havenāt found it to be too useful as a visibility tool or strategy as an entrepreneur and Business Coach.
Youāre very limited in the number of characters you have to actually convey a message that makes any sense. Plus, they have now even limited the number of hashtags you can use to only TWO.
You CAN include links in the body of your message and that is a big benefit which makes it easier for your visitors to pop directly to where you want to take them.
You can follow me on Twitter HERE.
Search-Engine Platforms
If youāve ever used Pinterest for personal reasons, you know that it is very visual. Pinterest is also pretty amazing for business. And because itās a search-engine like Google, your tribe is looking for you instead of you looking for them!
Pinterest has the potential for amazingly rapid growth when it comes to putting peopleās eyes on your work. It is particularly worthwhile if you write a blog as it is a powerhouse for driving traffic to your website.
One thing thatās important to note, you really have to have a solid strategy that includes being on Pinterest A LOTā¦like constantly! While I do use Tailwind to help me Pin a lot, I also Pin manually. For me, the combination works well.
Getting a traction requires a pretty big dedication of your time. And I want you to rememberā¦itās not about the numbers. At one point, I had 70.8 THOUSAND monthly views (WHAT?!?!!?), HOWEVER, not a single client came from my massive amount of monthly viewers. So remember that big numbers DONāT mean lots of clients.
A beautiful thing about Pinterest is that your Pin never dies the way it does on other platforms as people scroll right on by. You do want to be cautious about Pinning things that have a deadline. Itās not that you canāt Pin it, but if itās something like a challenge that has an end dateā¦and your Pin lives foreverā¦it could cause frustration for the person who is excited about your challenge only to find out it took place a year ago.
I have an in-depth blog for you to check out where I go into great detail about setting up and using Pinterest. Check it out HERE.
A down side is that there really isnāt interaction from those who follow you. So be absolutely certain that the link connected to your Pin works and takes them to a place where they CAN interact with you. An advantage of Pinterest over YouTube is that you take your potential clients to your website to learn more about you and how to work with you.
Check out my Pinterest account HERE.
YouTube
Like Pinterest, YouTube is a search-engine where your tribe is looking for YOU. Should you decide to use YouTube as one of your platforms, as with any social media, be sure you can be consistent in posting your videos. Whether itās once a week or every other week, whatever you decide, just stick to your schedule.
YouTube is also a great place to repurpose your Facebook live streams!
As with Pinterest, YouTube isnāt really a place where many people will interact with you. There IS a place for people to put comments, but most donāt. Be sure you have an end-card at the end of your videos with a call-to-action letting people know where else they can find you, connect with you, and actually interact with you.
Unlike Pinterest where you bring people to your website, you can get lost and sort of sucked into YouTube-land where you get brought all over the place to different videos. So, itās not quite as helpful as getting potential clients to your website. Again, having an end-card on your video at least gives you a chance to tell them where to find you so definitely make sure youāre doing that.
As with all social media, be sure youāre providing tons of value that is helpful for your ideal/dream client.
Hop on over to my channel, like and share my videos, and be sure to subscribe!
Other Connection Platforms
Your Email List
The power of your email list is that itās YOURS. Plus, thereās no crazy algorithm to try to understand and keep up with. The people who choose to be on your email list WANT to be part of your tribe. And, quite likely, they are your potential clients.
Nurture them and be consistent. Share value, knowledge, education, and promotions with them.
Do you want to be on MY email list??Ā Come on over!! š Click HERE to get my The Fastest Way to Leave Your 9-5 Checklist and you can enter your email address as well as get the checklist.
Your Blog/Guest Blogging
Your blog is another great place to be visible. Itās the perfect place to share things and showcase your expertise while educating those who visit your blog and who you send to your blog.
Again, be very consistent with posting your blogs. If you can only post a blog once a month, then be sure to stick to once a month.
As youāre connecting and collaborating with people, see if thereās an opportunity for you to guest blog swap!
And if youāre blogging, Pinterest is a VERY powerful business tool for you to utilize. Hereās that BLOGĀ I mentioned earlier to give you a boatload of helpful information about setting up and using Pinterest.
And hereās MY blog!
Podcasts
Getting onto podcasts is another great way to increase your visibility. Hop onto iTunes or wherever you would listen to podcasts and find ones that are a good fit for your expertise.
Do your due diligence and listen to a few episodes to get a feel for the person doing the podcast, what topics they talk about, what types of people they interview, who their audience is, etc.
Thenā¦CONNECT with them. Please donāt just send them a pitch. They get pitched by thousands of people. Actually connect with them. Most people are on Facebook and Instagram these days.
Find them, connect with them, engage with them, and build a relationship with them. This doesnāt have to be like a three-month courting period. Have some exchanges back and forth, see if theyāre up for a Zoom chat, and as youāre getting to know each other, see if theyāre up for a collaboration. Even if you donāt have a podcast for them to be on as a swap, you surely have some way they can serve your audience.
Here are some podcasts Iāve been on (click the link to listen): Go Rogue PodcastĀ and The Brave Entrepreneur Podcast.
Speaking Engagements
These are a fabulous way to get yourself in front of tons of people! Check out conferences, summits, and other functions where either 1) youād like to attend for yourself or 2) you just want to be a speaker.
Again, connection and collaboration is going to really help you get involved. Research how to get involved as a speaker. Offer to volunteer to help the coordinator of the event. Get them knowing your name.
Summary
One of the fastest ways of exploding your visibility is through collaboration and sharing audiences. So, connect with people, build relationships, and chat about collaboration.
For your visibility strategy, come up with what you can realistically commit consistently to and then stick to it.
CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY!
So, here are four things you want to do to be visible online while still working your 9-5ā¦
1)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Find out where your ideal clients are hanging out (chances are, your dream clients are there as well).
2)Ā Ā Ā Ā Figure out where YOU enjoy hanging out.
3)Ā Ā Ā Ā Be realistic about your commitment to hanging out CONSISTENTLY in those places, providing value, and building relationships.
4)Ā Ā Ā Ā Get involved in collaborations!!
When you show up consistently online, people start to say things to you like, āYouāre on fire!ā and āYouāre everywhere!ā (even though youāre really just being consistent)! And THATāS when you get noticed by places like Forbes (Hello, official member of the Forbes Coaches Councilā¦yup, thatās ME!! š).
Iād love to know what your visibility plan is. Leave aĀ reply below and let me know what youāre committing to CONSISTENTLY.
Hugs,
P.S. Are you soooooo ready to leave your corporate job? Get my 4 Steps to Leave Your 9-5 Mini-course HERE!
P.P.S. There are affiliate links in here. If you choose to purchase using these links, I will receive a small commission. So, I thank you!! See fullĀ disclaimer.
