How to show up confidently online…
I recently celebrated completing one of my 2024 goals which was to write an article for a magazine. The main reason I secured this opportunity for myself was because I kept:
Showing up online,
Showcasing my expertise,
Talking about the topics I’m passionate about.
This is what got the attention of the editor of Equestrian Trade News and prompted her to get in contact with me about writing this article.
But showing up regularly online isn't as easy as many of the social media experts may like you to think, is it?
Even I find it difficult at times, and it’s a significant part of my job.
But that’s why I’m writing this post - in order to offer up my best tips and tricks to help you show up confidently online, and bring you more opportunities for your business. There’s no gatekeeping here, these are my 10 best tips to help you!
Create a marketing strategy
Without a strategy, you've got no guidance on what you're creating, why you're creating it and who you're creating it for. Knowing these things makes creating content so much easier. But it also creates a framework for:
Planning content
Knowing what to post and when
Launching a new product/service
Which platforms you need to be on
What your key messages are
Your core brand values
Which in turn affect what content you create and whether or not it’ll work for your business.
Repurposing content is your best friend
When creating content, you don’t have to create something new each time. You can recreate, expand upon and adapt the content that has already performed well. In fact, I’d recommend it for a few reasons:
Your entire audience won’t see every bit of your content. Key messages need repeating.
It saves you so much time. You know a topic has performed well, you know what you’re going to say, you just need to adapt it for different content types and different platforms. This post is a repurposed bit of content. I wrote an email to my email list first, and I’m using that as a guide to write a more in-depth blog post. I’ll then break this down into further social media posts
You can often create more content by repurposing something, than by trying to create something new each time.
Want to know how to repurpose? Start with the long-form content and break it down. You can read more about this here.
Figure out what you enjoy the most
If you enjoy creating content, it’ll be much more engaging for those who are consuming it. As a result you’ll get better engagement and more leads/conversions from it. So ask yourself these things:
What content do you enjoy creating the most? Is it blog posts? Reels? Maybe you love a carousel post or creating for LinkedIn?
Which platforms do you enjoy being on the most?
You may then want to think about focussing your efforts here. That said…
You need to know your ideal client
I don’t just mean their demographics and psychographics. I’m referring to:
Where they hang out online
What content they like to consume
What their struggles are
How your product helps them
What they go onto social media for
Once you know these things you can start creating content for them as well. The best solution is finding the crossover between the content you love creating and the content they love consuming, as well as the platforms you love creating on and where you can find them online. That’s the sweet spot.
Build your confidence slowly
Stop thinking that you have to start by creating the very best video production, or the most complicated graphic. Sometimes just starting is enough. Putting yourself out there and creating content for your business is a brave thing to do. Heck starting a business is brave let alone everything else that comes with it. Chances are you didn’t start your business to be a content creator, but unfortunately unless you’re already an established business, you may not have the funds to hire a marketing team or freelancer. So you’ve got to do it yourself.
Start small and work your way up.
Rather than talk to the camera, you could film some behind-the-scenes of your work day and pop some text on top with the key message. Once you’re confident filming these behind-the-scenes with you in it, you could move on to using this footage and adding a voiceover. Then once you’re confident with that you could talk direct to the camera. It seems counter intuitive but the more you use these smaller steps to build confidence, the quicker it’ll be even if it feels like it takes an age.
Collaboration over competition
Another great way to build your confidence and show up online is to collaborate with another likeminded business owner. You’ll find yourself more inspired and excited because you’re working on it with someone, and this will shine through in your content and make it more engaging. You’ll also get access to each others audiences, and this creates a great chance to grow your community further.
Create a content creation habit
Whether that be once a week, once a month or even the first thing you do on set days of the week, set aside time within your schedule to regularly create content. When you get in the habit of creating content, the creation of it becomes so much easier and you start to create systems that help you make content creation quicker, easier and more productive.
Linked to that…
Don’t force creativity
Staring at a computer or your phone waiting for inspiration to strike isn’t going to help. If anything it’ll make your content creation stagnant. Instead, do something else if creativity isn’t coming to you. This could be go for a walk, read a book, meet with friends for a coffee. Do anything but content creation and then have your notes app ready to pop down content ideas as they come to you.
Consume content from different places
Don’t just look within your industry for content inspiration. Listen to different podcasts, look at content from other industries, read different books. Looking at your own industry is great but there are often trends from different industries that you can adapt for your own business. Equally there may be different content ideas and formats that you can use as inspiration. There is so much inspiration out there, but sometimes you have to look further afield!
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Remember, your content creation system doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does take time to build confidence creating regularly. Start small and work your way up, don’t try to do everything at once!
