Increase Your Visibility Using Social Media
Social media is one of the most powerful visibility tools. It’s instant, can be accessed anywhere, and can really widen your presence. But to use social media to boost your visibility, you have to see it for what it is.
Social media is a broadcast tool.
You post with the goal of reaching more people.
Now, these people can be those inside your organization or those outside. Always make sure your posts don’t violate company policy. Be professional in your posts and your shares. And don’t forget to maintain an executive presence if your social media requires you to go live or record a video.
The good news is, if you utilize social media strategically, you can really boost your visibility, credibility, and position yourself as an industry thought leader.
1. Social Media Platform
Which social media platform should you use? There are so many to choose from. There are a lot more social media platforms out there, and more will continue to pop up every year. The key is researching which platform best matches your visibility strategy. Just choose two or three; you don’t have to be everywhere.
- Facebook + Instagram – Facebook and Instagram are great for consumer-facing businesses with many engaging visuals to share. Photos and videos do really well on these platforms.
- Twitter – This platform is great if you want to share your thoughts in a brief quick spurt. Twitter is also a strong platform if you quickly want to respond and react to what people are saying.
- LinkedIn – This is the strongest platform to target businesses and working professionals.
Ray Dalio is an excellent example of a high-level executive utilizing social media to increase their visibility. Ray is a hedge fund manager and is a co-investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world. He is very active on LinkedIn. He posts almost every single day. His content ranges from quotes, to videos, to articles. You can expect his business content to revolve around topics of the economy, finance, and work. His newsletter is called principled perspectives. He publishes this on LinkedIn regularly. Ray uses LinkedIn as a way to stay visible, and it works.
The most important thing you can do is research which social media platform you will utilize.
2. Consistency
To really increase your visibility, you’ll want to be consistent. If you are proactive with your posts, offer valuable insight and tips, people will begin to turn to you both internally and externally as a source of expertise. This is how opportunities happen.
- Posting Schedule – To be consistent, you will want to implement a posting schedule. This means deciding how often and on which days you will post your content. For example, you can post one post three times per week. Choosing the same three days at or around the same time each day will keep your posting consistent. This way, your audience can expect you to show up at that time.
- Valuable Insight – Your content needs to be beneficial to your audience. If your posts aren’t valuable, you will lose your audience. For example, if you want to be considered a thought leader within the stocks and bonds industry, you will want to consistently post content that gives your audience insight into this industry. You can post about stocks that are performing well or which stocks to start investing in. The more consistent you are, the more you will engage your audience and increase your visibility.
Consistency in posting is critical. Keep a consistent schedule and be mindful of your posts. Make sure your messaging is valuable to your audience.
3. Your Audience
Social media is all about reaching more people. When you post, you will want to consider who your audience is and who you want your audience to be. This will help you as you create your content.
There are a few things to consider as you create content for your preferred audience.
- Language – Do you want to reach an industry-specific audience, or do you want to reach anyone interested in your industry? Depending on what you want, you will need to consider the language you use. For example, if your audience is industry-specific, you can create posts and share content with technical language anyone in your industry can understand. However, if you are hoping to reach a broad audience, you will need to use less specific language.
- Your Goals – Is your goal for social media to gain more clients? Or perhaps you want to use social media to increase your thought leadership amongst your peers. Decide what your goals for your social media are, and be sure to create your content around your chosen audience. For example, if your goal is to gain more clients, you will want to post regularly about the services you offer. You can do this by posting testimonials from current and previous clients.
- Audience Expectations – You will want to consider what your audience needs from you. Do they need you to give resources, do they want to take courses from you, or are they looking for encouragement? Consider what your current audience wants from you. An easy way to figure out what they want is to check which posts have the highest engagement. Once you see a trend, you can create content based on what your audience finds most valuable.
As you prepare to utilize social media, be sure to keep your target audience in mind.
In the end, social media is an excellent way to reach more people. Be sure to pick the right social platform for your content and audience. The more consistent you are, the more visible you will become.
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