Simple Ways to Increase your Visibility on Social Media

Having a strong social media presence can boost your visibility to your target audience as well as your credibility as an expert.

Additionally, improving your visibility and engagement on social media can open up opportunities for speaking engagements, interviews and other PR opportunities and in some cases client work and referrals.

Here are some simple and quick tips for doing this:

01. Focus on your niche or specialist area of expertise

You should hopefully have already decided what your area of expertise/niche is. On social media it is important to have a niche and to participate in and around that space and with your target audience in a targeted manner.

Participating randomly on social media for the sake of it is quite simply a waste of time. Social media can be a time drain and requires effort to do it properly, but as with everything, if you are investing your time and effort in building and maintaining a strong online presence and brand, you need to have a visibility strategy.

02. Add value and Engage with your Audience

Engagement is important on social media. Engage with your audience and talk with them. Add value by sharing interesting content or advice or answering a question. Engage with a wider target audience (not just your followers) and add value and help them out. This will make you more memorable to others and can be a start of a good relationship

So you can add value in a more targeted manner you should also research people prior to reaching out to them by reading their bio and blogs and keeping an eye on their posts. This can help you add value in a more meaningful way.

03. Use trending hashtags and other relevant events

Keep a calendar of events and trending topics that you might like to engage in using your social media planner or networking planner. Plan your posts ahead of time where you can and add trending hashtags to engage with a new audience.

If you are attending an event or conference, engage with their hashtags for some pre-event and during event networking.

04. Build a community around your brand

Social media is about being social and engaging with your audience. A great tool for doing this is to also build a community around your brand and support your contacts and connections.

This might be by creating a space online (or offline) for your community. Alternatively, it might be about creating a hashtag or theme that your audience and community can engage with.

05. Promote yourself on Social Media

Don’t be afraid of blowing your own trumpet. Be your own PR person by sharing your accomplishments with your network. For example: promote events you are speaking at or attending; articles you have written; clients (subject to confidentiality requirements) and jobs you have worked on etc.

If you don’t do it, why should anyone else do it for you. It is becoming the norm for people to be more vocal on their social media platforms about what they are doing and their achievements. If you don’t feel 100% confident with doing it yet, find a buddy to cross-promote with to make it easier.

06. Network with the media and other influencers in your area of expertise.

Social media, especially Twitter, offers great opportunities to become visible to reporters and editors of online and offline publications and other media. Follow reporters and editors that are interested in your area of expertise and network and interact with them by liking or retweeting their tweets and adding value to the conversation. (see above for add value).