#002 | Why You'll Never Keep Up With The Kardashians

Many - aspiring and existing - leaders today have a misguided sense of what constitutes a successful online presence. In a world where everyone is trying to keep up with the Kardashians, it is easy to confuse likes and followers with real results. 

Building your leadership status involves driving up your own visibility within your organization, industry, and professional network. How? By strategically increasing your online presence.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Increased exposure equals increased opportunities. But, you want to ensure that the right people see your message.  
2. Don’t try to be everywhere, just be where your target audience is. Platforms come and go, let’s focus on a few that you know will stand the test of time (for example LinkedIn).
3. Give yourself time and don’t make comparisons to others. If positioning yourself - as a leader in your industry - was easy, you wouldn’t be reading this newsletter. Consistency will pay dividends over time, but first you need to know what to do. 

How do you define your online presence?

Your online presence is, and isn’t, exactly what you may think. You can very well exist online, but that doesn’t equate to having a presence. Your presence is a deeper layer that showcases who you are, according to:

• the actions you take and the content you produce;
• how people perceive you, what they say about you, how they engage with you.

Are you conveying expertise, trust, and credibility or are you non-existent in the minds of your potential customers or future employers/partners?

Taking the time to develop a robust, accurate and trustworthy personal brand helps you to become known for what you are good at, differentiates you from your peers, and positions you as a leader.

When others in your industry and your following see you as a trustworthy and reliable leader in your field, they begin to understand why you’re the best choice. It gives you the opportunity to set the narrative on who you are as a brand and set yourself apart from competitors.

While you can build credibility over time, having a strong online presence matters now more than ever. And it’s not going backward. 

 Don’t be left behind.

To help you develop a strategic plan around boosting your online visibility and credibility, follow these 3 tips:

1.Think audience, not followers

Your online presence doesn’t improve with more followers. Rather, your following improves with a stronger presence. So work on cultivating a quality, niche audience of individuals who are interested in and can benefit from what you have to offer (your expertise, your passion topic(s), etc.) . This will translate into more engagement with your posts. 

2.Get personal

(I said personal. You don’t need to share your private life): Share your thoughts on a given topic or experience and share your emotions. How did it make you feel? What memories does it bring you back? You want your audience to relate, to feel something when they read your content. 

=> Power Tip: Pay attention to small nuances in your captions to see if you can find any patterns. A study recently found that leading off with a key stat in the caption resulted in more engagement.

3. Engage with others

I’m sure you’ve probably heard this a million times, and now, for the million-and-oneth time: If you’re serious about developing your online presence, you need to have an active account. So that means publishing quality posts regularly (let’s start with 2 posts/week - consistently), responding to comments on those posts, liking and commenting on your audience’s posts. Do this 10min/day and I can guarantee you’ll see some good results.  

Last but not least. Did I talk about consistency? Yes, I did but here is why it’s important. Consistency is the difference between having a profile and having a presence.

If being able to make this type of commitment means only having one profile, then so be it. Better to have one vibrant online presence than to have three that are subpar.  

See you again next week.

With your success in mind…Darine