Simple Tips to Create More Visibility
I hope you enjoyed a wonderful, happy summer with family and friends….. It's the beginning of September and a wet day in Germany. The rain is welcome after many, many hot weeks. Thursty trees and plants are soaking up the water and so am I. Are you ready for fall?
Ok, now lets talk about creating visibility for your business. I will share some of my strategies with you, which are easy enough for beginners or people who like to keep it to the basics.
-
Creating visibility online
-
Going out and meeting people
Today we will cover online visibility
Most of us know how to do it… many actually do it… some desire to do it… some talk about doing it… some never do it 🙂
Creating visibility online can be easy, but it’s good to have a simple strategy to get better results: how to effectively create visibility.
-
Writing posts and articles
-
Posting on social media
-
Creating videos
Writing blog posts and articles is a great way to share your expertise with others and get your tribe, (ideal customer) interested in your service or product. It’s very simple…. especially if you like to write. Before you start you should know a few things about your customer.
-
Who is your customer?
-
Where to find them online?
-
What is their problem?
Do your research by asking people, doing surveys and talking to experts… for example a social media or a business coach. …After you collect your information, write a blogpost about a subject that will help your customer with their problem.
Easy isn’t it? Let me give you a simple example: Let’s say you want to help people with their communication: your customer might be people who have “bad” communication skills, the solution to the problem could be a blog post or an article: How to learn effective ways to have better communication with your customers. The result for them would be a more peaceful life and happy customers, yippeeeee.
This is a very simple example, but I hope it makes it easy to understand. Now the next step is to post it. If you don’t have your own blog you can post it on other people’s blogs or on Ezine. If you are on LinkedIn you can use their publishing platform, which will be great for visibility.
Two more things before I forget: If you plan to post it on several platforms, make sure to change the title and some of the text. Google does not like exactly the same content posted on different sites.
Just in case you suffer from “perfectionism” and want to make sure that your spelling is right; find a professional editor on Fiverr, where everything costs $5, or Elance. Outsourcing some tasks is a great way to get help and get things done.
Creating simple, fun videos
This is one of my favorites. You can create simple videos by sharing information that relates to your business. In my case it’s anything that relates to coaching, or to help people live more successful, fulfilled, happy and balanced lives.
You can use your phone, or a simple HD flip camera, a tripod, and a simple editing program called moviemaker. Moviemaker is a free movie editing program that comes with windows. It’s very easy to use. I am not a technical geek, so when I say easy….. it’s easy.
Some of you might need extra hand holding, just look into a schedule at your local college or find a student who can help you until you feel more comfortable. After you created your video you have to upload your videos to youtube, or another hosting platform. When your done with it, post links to them on social media and embed the video on your blog.
Simple strategies to be visible on social media
Ok, now it can get a bit confusing, I will share some of my favorite sites and strategies with you. No matter what you use, start with creating an appealing profile, to tell people about who you are and what you do.
-
Facebook
-
Twitter
-
Instagram
-
Pinterest
In order to be effective on social media you have to use a strategy and post things that are of interest to your audience. Do not post: Buy my new product, look at me, I know this, I want to sell you this… click here… download this….. it does not work
I will just tell you about the most basic strategies I use. For more detailed knowledge check with an expert. All of them offer free training videos. I like Wendy McClelland and Amy Porterfield, Kim Garst, but there are man more.
Think about what inspires you and post things that inspire you and your audience or tribe. Something that will help them with their problem. Be social, be interested in others, connect and respond, be human, be fun, be kind, be creative. Make it about them, care about them.
Facebook is one of the most popular social media sites. People share other people’s posts and write some words to add a personal touch. You can like other people’s posts and maybe leave a nice comment. Make it personable and positive, nothing worse than people who spill their drama on social media.
If you want more visibility and post business related themes, it's a good idea to create a facebook page to post your business related content. Facebook has instructions on how to set up the page. Spend some time to find interesting videos on youtube, or podcasts, blogposts, audios and post links to them, along with links to your own material.
Once in a while you can share a post from your business page to your personal profile. In order to be more effective I would suggest to create a facebook ad in order to be more visible. Unfortunately facebook is limiting how many people can view your post. Paying for ads or boosted posts will get you more visibility. I will admit here that I have avoided advertising, although many experts say it works very well when done right.
Instagram is one of my favorites. If you like to be creative and take pictures it might become your favorite too. It should reflect who you are, your desires, your personality, your creativity, how you express yourself. It took me a while to understand #hashtags, now I love to use them, actually I find it very creative.
They should represent the content of the image and your brand. I use: #dowhatyoulove #outwalking #lifeisgood #becreative #effectivecommunication #lifepurpose #behappy #makeyourlifework #instagood #createyourlife #healthylifestyle. The key is to have fun with it, lot’s of fun. Like with any other other social media, comment back when someone leaves a comment for you and when someone likes your image pay it back and go to their page and like some of theirs.
Pinterest is fun too, great for creative, visual people. First you create boards by themes and then you pin images onto the boards. Some of my boards are related to business with inspiring quotes, one is about vision boards, one is about music I love, one is about creative projects…Many creative ways to express yourself. You can also create a board with inspiration relating to your business and then post links to your blogpost in the text field. Be aware it can be addictive 🙂
Twitter, is fast and you can only post 140 characters. Otherwise the strategies are the same. Retweet other people’s posts when you like them, reply to other people, thank them when they retweet your posts. Start conversations and create relationships.
Content ideas to post: inspirational quotes, business tips, links to your or other people’s blog posts, links to free offers, or to videos that you find interesting and which fit into my subject matter.
Hashtags are also a good way to be found by people who are interested in what you have to offer. #healthylifestyle #lifepurpose #businesscoaching #improvecommunication, whatever is relevant to your business. Make it fun, make it supportive, be there for people, be personable. Contact them personally when you see someone needs help, offer them support.
Ps: don’t buy twitter followers or facebook fans it will not help. Grow your followers using simple strategies, like follow your followers and engage in the conversation.
Oh wait ..one last tip to simplify posting on social media and save time is: Hootsuite. A great service to schedule your post on several different media sites from one dashboard. You can schedule your postings for several days. They offer a free and a paid version.
I hope these simple and fun tips to create more visibility in your business will help you. If you have some other suggestions please leave a comment.
Have fun with it all
and please leave a comment.