How to Show Up Online In Business

Are you inadvertently growing your competitor’s business right now?

I know, that seems like a strange question to lead off with when this blog is all about showing up online.

But, to be quite frank, if you’re not SHOWING UP for your audience, for your community, then you are 100% growing your competitor’s business.

Now as a small business owner I ABSOLUTELY know that growing your own business is hard enough, so growing someone else’s isn’t an option!

So, the only question to be asked is “Are you showing up in your business?”

If you are, then congrats, you are among the few and not the norm. And although you are showing up, keep reading as there might be some great tips in here for you too!

And if you’re not showing up, then the second question for you is, “WHY not?”

For some small business owners showing up is hard. Getting in front of a camera, giving a piece of yourself to your audience, letting them get to know YOU, like YOU and trust YOU seems harder than it should.

For a small number of small business owners, they actually seem indifferent to showing up. My thought on this is that it is because they haven’t yet had explained to them the power of growing your business this way, growing a community.

We all have competitors in business. Some are the store next door or the website vying for the same keywords and some of the corporate giants with marketing budgets that resemble your entire gross profit!

But here’s the thing, no one does business like you!

And you attract people who like the way you do business, who like you, who trust you.

This is the competitive edge against corporates – YOUR personality! They might have the marketing budgets to penetrate the noisy marketplace, but you have you and the ability to attract a loyal audience who want to buy from you, refer new business to you and buy again and again.

That’s what makes a successful business. A COMMUNITY. And building a community starts with showing up for your audience.

Learning who your audience is, is fundamental to marketing success.

Knowing who your WHO is – what their pain points are, what their dream points are, what keeps them up at night, how you can solve their problems, challenges and how you can delight them.

Once you know who your who is (oh, and this changes, so it’s not a set and forget them, it’s a work in progress thing!), the next step is to work out where they “hang out”. After all, if you are going to start showing up to stand out online, then you want your ideal client/customer to be there to hear you, see you, learn from you, buy from you – don’t you?!?! No use showing up where they aren’t hanging out!

So, what does SHOWING UP really mean?

From a fundamental point of view, it means being the main character in your business. It means you can’t hide behind your logo or your products or services, it means you build a business by building trust with prospective customers and actual customers.

From a logical point of view, it means letting the audience get to know you! Physically showing up in photos, videos, putting personality into your copy and attracting an audience who wants to do business with you.

Communities need a leader, and you need to be that leader.

For some the thought of showing up for their community, their followers, makes them feel ill – video or showing their face just isn’t their thing.

And that’s ok, as long as you realise the longer it takes to get over the fear of showing up, the more you are helping to build your competitors business. 

I know that seems extremely harsh, but in 2022, with our marketplace being SO competitive and SO noisy, the quickest way to build a successful business is to build a community and that community needs a leader they can know, like and trust. If you don’t show up, then that cannot happen.

So, let’s get practical. Here’s some my straight forward, no bullsh*t steps that you can take to help you progressively feel more confident in showing up online to build your brand, to build your community:

1.       Take photos of you holding your products – making the product the hero of the photo – but you’re still in it
2.       Use Stories – Facebook and Instagram – they only last 24 hours – that’s not long – you’ll sleep for half of that (maybe ?!?!)
3.       Use features on your camera like time-lapse or slow-motion or boomerang to make interesting videos of your day
4.        Put the camera in front of you and press record – don’t touch it no matter how many mistakes you make – just keep talking. Get used to talking to the camera.
5.       Get a professional photoshoot done – those pros can make people look amazing!
6.       Use cool filters like those available through Instagram or one of my favourites an app called Snow. It puts my makeup on for me! Now, side note, you don’t have to have makeup on to do a video – that’s my choice, you do you. There’s no right or wrong.
7.       Write yourself notes and stick them in places where the camera can’t see. That will help you keep to the point you want to make in the video. Sometimes the art of actually writing points down, helps them stick more inside your head! Remember what the audience can’t see they can’t see!!
8.       Stop comparing yourself to others – it probably took them 10 takes to get that video right and they probably look that sensational because they have great light or a filter over the top! I know people who have their hair done once a week – so they always look amazing in videos! Stop comparing! And plus, the person watching it is more likely too worried about themselves to worry about you and what you look like!
9.       Stop with perfection. Perfection is a trap because even if you think something is perfect, someone else won’t because perfection is subjective. So, stop trying to achieve something that’s never going to happen. You use ummms and arrhhhh and filler words in real life, so why would you like or try to imagine that you won’t use them on a video! Just be YOU.

Before I finish, I have a challenge for you – a showing up online challenge!

There’s no time like the present to start showing up online. And even if you do show up often, still do the challenge – I promise your audience will reward you with likes, comments and connection.

The video challenge is going to be about you:

1. Think about 3 things your audience probably don’t know about you (and jot them onto sticky notes and stick them where you can see but the camera can’t)
2. Pick up your phone press record
3. And tell your audience those 3 things!

So for example, if you need an intro, try something like this script:

“Hey guys, I am doing a video challenge and the challenge was to tell you 3 things about myself that you probably don’t know – so here goes … 1, 2 3 (tell them the 3).”

Then, as an extra, you can then prompt your followers to interact, so you finish off by saying:

“Ok now it’s your turn, what are three things I don’t know about you? Tell me in the comments or better still do a video too and tag me (tell them your tag link)”.

There you go – that’s it – done and dusted! You’ve make a video to share to your audience that tells them more about YOU!

Now, full disclosure, I don’t like video. I’m not sure many people do but I do it because it works and it’s 100% necessary for my business to succeed.

As my friend Michelle Brown says so eloquently “I am more stubborn than I am scared” – this is exactly how I feel about video – I am too stubborn to fail at showing up even though I don’t like it! Perhaps you feel like this too?

Don’t build your competitor’s business by not showing up for your audience. Show up and let your audience get to KNOW, LOVE and TRUST you.

PS – make sure you tag me @jenndonovan_ when you take on the challenge and let me cheer you on!

If you want some extra support in all things small business, then head over to my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group! I would love it if you share your “show up” challenge video there, so we all can cheer you on!

CONTACT JENN:

Do you need some extra assistance with your social media strategy, and some tailored advice around showing up more online for your business? Then I would love it if you would book a discovery call with me here!

And don’t forget to join my Like Minded Business Owners Facebook group. It is a great place to get ideas, seek feedback and generally get some awesome support! The business owners in the group are so great with sharing their expertise with others, it’s such a wonderful community of supportive people!

Or you can DM me on Instagram or send me an email [email protected]

I wish to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Yorta Yorta People, on which I conduct my business today and pay my respects to their Elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples reading this blog post today.

About the Author:

Jenn Donovan of Social Media & Marketing Australia. Jenn’s a coach and mentor from rural NSW and is all about empowering business owners to earn what they’re worth so they can make a bigger difference in the world. The Founder of Buy From a Bush Business, Co-Founder of Spend With Us – Buy From a Bush Business Marketplace and host of the very popular podcast Small Business Made Simple, Jenn is all about community and humans interacting with humans! H2H Marketing – human to human marketing. Jenn talks the talk but importantly walks the walk! Jenn’s online community is over 320,000 with her famous Facebook Group currently at almost 351,000 members and still growing every day. She’s the major of her own little online city!

Get in touch – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au

On Instagram - @jenndonovan_

On Facebook – Jenn Donovan

Or on LinkedIn as Jenn Donovan