4 steps to help you build a strong online presence

Hey friends,

Last week we tackled a hairy topic: the #1 blocker to building a strong online presence. The fear that stops you from sharing your thoughts is one of the worst forms of self-sabotage that prevents you from expanding your luck surface area and reaching your goals.

However, as we know, this fear isn’t real. Now that you’re equipped with the tools to combat and overcome this fear, it’s time to get tactical.

How exactly do you build a strong online presence? Where do you get started? What do you talk about? It can get really overwhelming really fast.

Today, we’re going to share with you our 4-step guide for getting started. Ready? Let’s get to it.

1. Define your ‘why’

What is your main goal with building an online presence? Maybe you want to switch careers and show potential employers that you have the skills necessary to do the job, even though the exact title doesn’t show up on your resume. Maybe you are trying to get promoted or attract additional offers.

Whatever your goal is, it’s important that you keep it top of mind. This will help you understand your audience better. To ensure you’re on the right track, take a moment to answer these 4 questions:

• What is my goal for building an audience?

• Who am I trying to reach and connect with?

• What kind of content are these people interested in?

• What are some things I know and can share that they will find interesting?Now that you know who you’re trying to reach, it’s time to meet them where they are. This means learning what social platforms they’re active on and whether they prefer to consume information in written, audio or video form. For example, it’s no use posting on Instagram if the people you’re trying to reach and connect with spend most of their time on LinkedIn. That’s why you need to pick your platform wisely. You probably know your target audience well enough to understand their behavior but in case you’re not sure, you can always use tools like SparkToro to find out.Once you know exactly how and where to reach them, it’s time to define your content strategy.Your ‘Zone of Genius’ is the cornerstone of your content strategy. This is the intersection of things you enjoy, things you’re good at and things that would be helpful to someone else. You probably have an intuition about what this looks like for you, but if you want to be dead sure, we recommend creating 3 lists: When you’re done, it’s time to identify the overlap between them. You can easily do this by circling each item that would fall into all three categories. Voila - here’s your Zone of Genius! Hurray, you’re ready to start building an audience and can’t do it soon enough (after all, who wants to only have 10 followers?!). However, building an online presence is a long process that can take months, if not years. Luckily, there are shortcuts that will speed this up and help you gain momentum quickly. Here are five tips that will help you out:

  • Choose the platform that’s right for you

  • Discover your ‘Zone of Genius’

  • one for things you’re interested in and enjoy

  • one for things you’re knowledgable about

  • and one for things you can teach someone else (these may seem obvious to you but chances are, they will be mind-blowing insights to others)

  • Jump start your audience building journey

  • Follow people who belong to the same communities as you. They will likely follow you back.

  • Reply to people with bigger audiences

  • Always try to be one of the first 10 people to reply

  • Tag people with bigger audiences in your posts or replies

Now, it’s time to unlock these career opportunities. Let’s start building.

With love,

Team Salley

What is Salley?

​Salley helps you accelerate your career by learning new skills, such as building a strong online presence.