I used to hide behind my business. Oh yes. You couldn’t have spotted me even with a human size magnifying glass and some very strong varifocals. But, the thing is, if you’re invisible, your business will be too!
This episode of Little Voice Big Business is all about visibility.
We’re going to be getting more visible than my knickers on a bad clothes day. More visible than a builder’s butt crack. More visible than a strippers nips!I know what it’s like to get your head down and keep on making stuff; I love nothing more than spending hours fiddling with my website, making social media images, writing books, recording podcasts. But then, I’m done making, and the time comes to putting all that stuff out there into the big wide world, that’s when we freeze, and errrr go back to making more stuff!
Putting our work out there makes us vulnerable. We’re inviting comments. We’re inviting people to critique our work. Some people will hire us and some people will hate us. But putting yourself out there and being visible is the only way to grow your business.
Put it this way…. if you create a secret business. you are highly unlikely to get discovered.
Visibility is the only way forward, if you want to grow your business.
For many of us being visible is scary. I know it was for me.
I used to hide behind my business. I used to create a brand and then hide. I would have a small photo on my about page. Then I would sit back, feeling all safe and cosseted behind the front I’d created and just hope things would fall into my lap. It was a slow process, believe me!
But, since I made the decision to be more visible in my business, things are starting to happen.
What did I do?
I created a personal brand, with my website as my name, I launched my podcast. I started to connect with my people. I am talking to you, my people, about my work, sharing my point of view. Now I invite comments, instead of hiding behind dark glasses and a hoodie.
It does make me vulnerable. Some people are going to like what I do and find it interesting and other people are going to think I’m an idiot! And you know what; that’s actually fine. (I never thought I’d say that!)
Before we let it all hang out, it’s time to put on our big girl knickers and some kind of magical body cream which gives us thick skin and we are going to take a step each day to put ourselves out there.
Over in the Actionista Academy we are holding a visibility challenge where each day I am encouraging people to do one thing to become more visible. #hearmeroar.
What can you do to get visible?
I believe you only need to do what you’re comfortable doing. If you hate being on video, don’t do it! Don’t do anything you don’t want to do.
I’m sure you have a method of communication or a medium that you like. Do the thing that you enjoy doing and do it consistently; a little bit each day.
The more you seem to be enjoying what you do and the more you show people you’re good at what you do by sharing your successes, having a point of view, the more people are going to start to respect you. From there, you’ll start getting people coming to you and asking if they can work with you.
Lets assume that nobody really knows you other than your inner circle. They don’t know you from Adam! They’ve got no idea what you do for a living and they don’t know why they should care. It is up to you to make yourself more visible; to be seen by the right people and by right people- I mean your potential customers and clients!
The first step is to understand who these people are and where they are hanging out. I don’t see the point in being visible in the wrong places. If your customers would not be caught dead using Linkendin then there is really no effort to be on Linkendin.
Next we are going to craft your core message. This is the thing you want to be famous for. Whether it is the view of the world, an opinion. methodology, a way of working, or a niche we need to decide what the core message is. The thing that you want people to understand when they engage with you.
Let’s say I am a dog groomer. I don’t do just any grooming of any dogs. Oh no! I am one of those people that paints dogs in different colors and creates a work of art. That’s my speciality and I do it for competitions but I also do it for pop stars and fashion cautious dog owners.
The nature of what I do means it is well suited to visual forms of social media. It also means my audience would expect to see me in certain places. Therefore, I am going to focus on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. I would like to do periscope at some point but I don’t have time just yet. I’ve decided that I want to be famous for dying dogs different colors and I want to get noticed by fashion conscience individuals.
So, to get noticed, I’m going to take consistent action on these platforms. I am going to commit to posting photos on Instagram every day of my work, my workshop and also relevant dog accessories that I like and that I think my potential audience would be interested in. I am also going to create some boards on pinterest recreating specific looks for dogs and I am going to build a community on Facebook for people who like dying their dogs and having their dogs styled.
Keep it up
It’s no good starting off all enthusiastic in the first week waving my arms around determined to be seen and get known by everyone. It’s great to be enthusiastic and come at it all guns blazing, but it has to be sustainable. Don’t peak too soon and then drop off the face of the earth.
I would you rather take a more considerate approach. That is the key to visibility. Ensuring that you are being seen often. Not just everywhere for 5 mins.
If I went mad and made 10 podcast episodes in the first week and then got bored, and didn’t get round it to doing any more, it would be a big shame. Yes it was tempting, but much better to create content on a regular basis so people get used to seeing you and hearing from you. And keep on continuously adding value.
Its about being active and taking action sharing and building communities amongst your people all the time. I want you to commit to doing some things on a regular basis.
If you write a blog you would hopefully publish one piece a week. You would be posting to Instagram once a day and you would also be on Facebook a little bit each day. Do not disappear off the face of the earth. You will be instantly forgettable.
You don’t want to overwhelm yourself with a huge amount of work to do. Little and often is the key.
Be Authentic. I think it is a good idea to be open and honest about the way you work. I am not saying warts and all but injecting some humour and personality is a good thing.
People want to get to know you. When you are out there online chatting to people you are being yourself and they are able to connect with you and that is the most important thing. People connect with people. They want to get to know you and your work. Then they are going to be more likely to hire you.
I know it can feel a little bit uncomfortable the idea of putting ourselves out there. It is exposing and can make us feel a bit vulnerable. But if you went into running a business because you wanted to stay closed away and not chat with anyone or engage with anyone then you are in the wrong job! In fact you probably ought to go get a job!
The success of your business will come down to how visible you are and how much people are able to see you and engage with you, communicate with you and eventually hire you.