I hear all the time from women who are confused or stressed about being visible online to grow their business.
We know it’s important, we hear it all the time, but often they hide out because they’re not sure how to do it, or how to do it in a way that feels good for them, and not overwhelming or too scary to “put yourself out there.”
Before we talk about the hows, it’s important to establish why it’s key to your online business’ success.
Why does visibility even matter anyway?
1. It makes you memorable.
This is how people find and remember you. I lets people know that YOU are their person, you are the one who can help them. People have to be able to find you!
If you’re looking around at everyone else being visible, scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, etc. but not putting yourself and your stuff out there, guess what? You’re consuming everyone else’s visibility, but not producing your own! Which means, tough love here…you’re showing up for everyone else’s business, but not your own.
Now that you realize it, know that it’s not too late, and you’re not too far behind.
2. It builds the “know, like and trust” factor.
This is the intangible key that makes people want to buy from or hire you.
With “know, like & trust” in play, your potential clients feel like they:
Know you enough to know that they relate to you and that you “get” them, their needs, their desires. They know you have some things in common.
Like you enough to believe that they would enjoy learning from or buying from you, maybe even that you’d be friends in real life.
Trust you enough to know that you could help them.
Think about the people you follow, have purchased from, or would like to purchase from. Can you see how each of these factors is at play?
3. It establishes (and requires) consistency.
Often, there’s this belief, perpetuated by a lot of the ads and posts that we see, that says something like, “If I put one post out there with my big idea then I’ll book out my services or program right away.”
And when that doesn’t happen after the first, or maybe even the second, time we announce ourselves to what feels like the whole world, we get discouraged, we think we’re failing, and then we start hiding out.
The truth is that people are watching. They’re always watching. Not in a creepy way, but more like, “Hmmmm, she seems really excited. I’m going to see if this actually turns into something, and she sticks with it and keeps showing up for it because she believes in it.”
It may be totally unconscious on their part, but it happens. And then when you do keep showing up, they start to recognize your name, recognize what you talk about, your photos, your writing style, and then they might check you out.
THERE ARE NO OVERNIGHT SUCCESSES.
People who appear to be overnight successes have been working on things behind-the-scenes for a long time before anyone noticed. They may not share that in their posts, often because they’re selling something that sounds like it can make you an overnight success.
But business-building takes work. I don’t say this to discourage you. I say this to be real, and because I know you’re not afraid of putting in the work.
So much of this work is consistency, and being consistently visible. If there’s one secret to business-building it’s this: consistent visibility with a consistent message. It starts right now.
For support and accountability on getting consistently visible, grab Christine’s free workbook, The Top 5 Things To Do To Get Your First Or Next Client, and connect with her in her private Facebook community, Life With Passion Society.
Originally published at www.huffingtonpost.com on April 10, 2017.
Originally published at medium.com