So, you are stuck at home and a lot of the usual things you would do for your business are not possible at the moment.
Just like you, the current situation has affected my business- in the past few years I’ve been living a digital nomad lifestyle abroad and I was just at the point of making some good connections both personal and business-wise in my local community of Sheffield. This has been a lot harder under lockdown. However, I think there are still a lot of things that we can all do to spread the word about our work, using the online opportunities that we have.
I’m going to give you five tips that I think will make a difference for your ability to influence others online:
Own your personal brand
People are scared of owning their personal brand, I think for broadly three reasons: they don’t like the idea of having one; they don’t want to come across as boastful; they don’t know where to start.
You have a personal brand whether you want one or not. If you don’t spend the time to control yours, you can’t affect how a potential client might see you. If you don’t spend the time to share your brand, you are missing out on potential opportunities from people whose missing ingredient is exactly what you could provide, but they have absolutely no idea that you exist.
Think about the ways that you want to present yourself on social media and if there are any key platforms that you feel you could represent yourself better on. LinkedIn is my favourite. As well as giving you a professional space to explain a bit about what you do (especially if you don’t have a website) it provides all sorts of under-utilized opportunities, like the publishing function, which I discuss in my article here.
Understand what influence means and how you can grow your influence over time
What is influence? Essentially it is about getting people to do what you want, without forcing them to do so.
I got interested in the area of influence through my work as a social entrepreneur. Time and again I saw that it wasn’t necessarily the greatest ideas or the most extravagantly talented people that changed the world. It was those who understood how to influence others and to take people on a journey with them.
If you follow the five points I have presented here, it will serve as a simple way to grow your influence over time.
By the way, I have a completely free book about influence and if you go here, you can download a copy (you don’t need to sign up for anything).
Know your audience
This always matters, but especially now because what your audience is feeling and how you should approach them has been conditioned by the crisis we are facing. We’ve probably all seen recent examples of online entrepreneurs being a bit crass about the opportunities they think people have right now, when for many it is a struggle just to put food on the table. The more that you can present your authentic self to your audience and the more that you can approach them in a collaborative way- more ‘let’s achieve this together’ rather than ‘here is my wisdom, get on with it’ the more they are likely to want to work with you.
Try everything, but do (at least) one thing well
Maybe you prefer writing, or making videos or podcasts. There are so many things that you can try and you might be surprised what you like or are good at if you have a go at something new.
You don’t have to be good at everything though. Try to pick one thing and work at it until you can communicate well in that medium. Then share it, share it and share it again. Save time by ‘repurposing’ everything. Perhaps you could present the same information in several different ways to several different audiences, or use a blog post as the basis for an email campaign etc.?
Know that you are needed like never before
I actually think this is the most important point right now.
It might seem like you are not needed as much right now because the people you would normally try to engage as clients are more worried and have less money than a few months ago. But, they need what you are providing. They have had freedoms taken away from them at the moment but you can use your unique gifts to help bring new and exciting aspects of the world alive, things that will help them to build their own businesses and make them happier, healthier and more fulfilled.
We need you to step up and to find a way to influence them online.
Finally, in order to help others, you need to influence yourself too, to take good care of yourself, and I know that is hard right now. Despite my hopefully upbeat tone about the steps that you can take, I’m not being flippant about the massive challenges facing us all or the stress you may well be under. However, I hope this article helps you to feel a bit more positive about your business and some of the things you can start to do to more effectively influence the world, online.
Author Bio
Alex Swallow is The Influence Expert, helping people to grow their influence so that they can have a bigger impact on the world. He has a background as a social entrepreneur (particularly around trying to get more young people involved on charity boards) and as a charity Chief Executive. He is currently the Chair of a Sheffield-based charity called The Suit Works. Educated at Cambridge and Sussex Universities, he has also worked as a political intern for two MPs and as an Assistant Language Teacher for two years in Japan.
You can view his website and find him on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and on Twitter.