BMP211 Holly Worton ~ How to Redefine Visibility & Create Deeper Connections Online

Today’s Guest

Table of Contents

I’m back again, with another solo episode! Today, I talk about how to redefine visibility and create deeper connections online. This is a topic that I’ve been going on and on about lately (Jo Casey and I explore other aspects of this issue in next week’s episode)

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What You’ll Learn

Why I think we need to redefine how we choose to show up online
How you can start creating deeper connections online
Specific tips and ideas on how to go deeper
How to figure out what you like and don’t like, and what you might want to change
New ways you can start getting visible by having deeper conversations

Things I Discussed

Connect With Holly

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Transcript

The transcript for this episode can also be downloaded here (no opt-in required).

Holly: Hello and welcome to the Business Mindset Podcast, episode 211. This is your host Holly Worton, and I am back with another solo episode. Today, I am going to talk about re-defining visibility; so, this is going to be another one of those experimental episodes, like the last few of my solo episodes have been. It is going to be more about sharing, than it is about teaching; it is going to be more about reflecting than: ‘how to…’ or ‘seven steps to visibility’. You may have seen, or heard, some of my posts, and videos, that I have been doing for the past couple of months, about how unhappy I am, I guess, with traditional online marketing methods. I feel like there are so many formulas, so many cookie-cutter solutions, so many templates, so many blueprints, out there and people are following them. Just more of the same-old, same-old, same-old – everyone sounds the same – and very few exceptions to that. It feels scammy sometimes, it feels crappy, it feels above all very superficial.

So, a couple of months ago, I got together some of my business friends, and we did a couple of videos on what we decided to call: Instinctive Whole Brain Marketing. We did first a recorded video that you can find on my YouTube channel – I will link to that in the Show Notes – and we also did a follow-up video, which was a live call, where we invited other people to join us and just talk about marketing and talk about the way forward with marketing and explore how to do things differently and how we wanted to do things differently. So, today’s episode is kind of a solo continuation of that, of the reflections on this. And, this episode is also kind of leading up to a thing that I am doing later this month, which I am also calling: Redefining Visibility, a 7-Day Adventure. I am not calling it a challenge, because I am sick of challenges; I never follow through with them, I think a lot of people don’t, and I wanted to do something different. So, I will talk a little bit about that at the end of the podcast, but basically it is a seven-day thing that I am doing from 28 August to 5 September, and that’s seven-days plus a weekend to catch-up. And, what we will be doing is exploring deep visibility, how to really create deep connections online, no more just ticking the box and doing the marketing thing for the day. No more daily live streams or superficial stuff. We are going to be looking at: what works for you; what doesn’t work for you; what you want to see more of; how you want to join in the conversation online; how you want it to be for you. So, I will be talking about that more at the end, as I said.

So, what I wanted to talk about today, is about how we can explore – and this is an exploration – how to create connections that are deep and meaningful; because I am going to guess, if you are listening to this podcast, you have a business that creates deep and meaningful change in the world, your work is deep and meaningful, it is not superficial work. So, if – and this is a question for you, and for me, and for everyone to think about – if our work is meant to be deep and meaningful, and life-changing, and business-changing, why are we stuck on creating such shallow connections online? Why are we stuck broadcasting rather than creating relationships? And I kind of know the answer to that, because if you have been following me for any number of years, you may know that my business, or businesses before this, what I am doing now with business mindset, had to do with social media. So, I had my Tribal Publishing business which was helping authors use social media to connect with their readers and promote their books. And then, that kind of evolved into Socially Holistic which was helping women entrepreneurs in holistic businesses learn how to use social media to connect with their clients. So, when I ran that business I was very much onto connection; about creating conversations, about connection with individuals, about building relationships rather than broadcasting. And, choosing one or two, or three, whatever you can handle, social networks that you love and just focussing on those, and doing those really, really well, rather than trying to be everywhere. Here’s the thing: because social media was my business I kind of had to be everywhere myself, because I had to play around with all the social networks, I had to play around with the different types of content, and when my business evolved from that, I kind of kept doing that, kept being active all over the place. How did I do that? By broadcasting, not connecting.

So, I signed up for this fantastic social media programming, scheduling service called Meet Edgar, which is not cheap, but I really liked it and it seemed to be the right solution for me, because I have so much content and people always say to me, “oh Holly, you have so much content; you have videos, you have podcasts, you have blog posts” and, yeah, so I have a ton of content of different types, and it kind of made sense to use Meet Edgar to get that content out there, to recycle it, to put it up in front of people’s minds again; in front of people’s eyes, so they could see it, they could maybe find something they may not have come across a few years ago, and find something useful and read it, or listen to it, or watch it, or whatever. So, like I said, it kind of made sense, except that’s broadcasting. And so, I feed all my stuff into Edgar and it all goes out, it goes out of my Facebook page, and it goes out of my LinkedIn profile, and it goes out on my Twitter profile; but is it really serving a purpose? Are people really clicking on those links and going to my website? Or, is it just filling up my social media profiles and broadcasting noise out there? I am going to be honest, I think it is the latter. And I have been thinking a lot lately about how to get that content out there, especially the stuff that I know is really good, like a lot of the videos, the podcasts, without just blasting at people. So, that’s something that I am still figuring out, and I don’t have an answer to; but if you are broadcasting, if you are blasting the stuff out, think about how you feel about that. Maybe it works for you, maybe it drives a lot of traffic to your website, maybe it is getting you great exposure, maybe it’s building great connections. For me, I am not 100% sure that it is working for me in the best way possible. I think I am kind of being annoying and – full disclosure here – I think I am being annoying. No one has said anything to me, but then who would? So, again, evaluate what you are doing, and whether or not that is actually working for you, or whether it just makes it look like you are busy on social media; because I think it really looks like I am busy on social media, but it is just Edgar. Edgar’s doing all the work for me.

So, look at how you are behaving on social media, look at all the different social networks that you have profiles on, and are you enjoying them? So, I was just going over the list of what I use: I would say that I spend most of my time on Facebook; I’m not really doing Facebook lives, I have a private group, I have my page, sponsored posts every once in a while. I put my content on my page, and I have my personal profile which for quite a while had become the place to share all of my business stuff. So, all the new business stuff that went out on my Facebook page, I would also share it to my personal profile. And my personal profile was very business-y; it wasn’t very personal. So, I started sharing more of my Instagram photos to my Facebook page, so that leads me into a whole other social network. I use my Instagram more for personal stuff, than I do for business stuff, so that added more of a personal element to my Facebook profile. It added my cats, it added my salads – because I love photographing my food – partly because I’m nosy and I love seeing what other people eat, especially when it is health food; and my walks of course, because I take a lot of photographs on my walks. And I have received a lot of feedback from people, who either follow me on my Facebook personal profile, or who are friends with me, saying how much they love my photos of my walks. So, that’s one thing I know I am doing well, because I take beautiful walks and it allows me to share that experience with other people, so that I like. So, that’s kind of my Facebook. So, I’ve made a conscious effort of making my personal profile more personal, and that’s partly because I started seeing a lot of people complaining about how they were un-friending people who were using their personal profile for business use, and I thought: you know what, me too! Like, I am tired of that, part of the reason I friended of my business acquaintances on Facebook is because I wanted to get to know that more personal side of their lives and I am not doing that myself. So, think about how you are using Facebook, both your page, your group if you have one, your profile and how what you like see other people doing, and what you are doing and how you might like to change what you are doing. So that’s Facebook.

That leads naturally into Instagram. So, Instagram, as I said, I mostly use it for personal use, I scroll through my Instagram feed, I would say that it is at least 90% personal stuff. That again, a pretty even mix of my walks – so nature picture – cats and my salads. So, that’s mostly I would say 90% of what my Instagram feed is. And then, you know I would say 5% or 10% business stuff; and that’s mostly posting any webinars I have coming up, or my podcast episodes, which I do sporadically, I am not even good about doing that every single week. So, Instagram for me is mostly personal and that’s how I like using it. I like showing people the personal side of my life, rather than just doing business stuff all the time. That’s why I think it is so important that I link all of my Instagram stuff to my Facebook personal profile.

Now I also have something set up in IFTT (if this then that) that automatically sends my Instagram photos to Twitter, which again adds a little bit of a personal element to my Twitter feed, which aside from that is mostly broadcasts. So, staying on Instagram for a minute, on Instagram I love sharing my personal stuff and I love seeing people’s personal stuff on Instagram. If someone follows me and I check them out and I see that their Instagram feed is purely business branded stuff, whether it is inspiring quotes, or tips related to their business, I usually won’t follow them back because I think that’s really boring. That does not interest me. I want to see people’s personal stuff on Instagram – with maybe a little sprinkling of business stuff – but not that perfectly branded Instagram content that I know you know what I am talking about. You know how people like alternate between different types of images, and so when you look at their profile it is tiled, one thing then the other thing; one thing then the other thing; I can’t stand that. If you are doing that, and it works for you, great keep doing it; but if you don’t like that, then maybe don’t do it, or don’t do it so much. So, if you are on Instagram and you love Instagram, and I think a lot more people are coming to Instagram because it is fun and it is easy. So, if you are using it, think about what you like when you follow other people, think about what you dislike, think about how you are using Instagram; and think about how you might change how you use Instagram.

And from there, I think it is a natural lead in to Twitter, where I am sorry to say I mostly broadcast. I’m not very social on Twitter. I used to be. I have been on Twitter for years, probably 10 years now, I think I joined in 2007, on my original account. And now I just broadcast. I used to be super social. I often forget to go into Twitter, I forget to respond to people’s retweets and messages and when they tweet to me. I forget to do that. So, it is just Edgar blasting this crap out to them – I am so sorry if you are following me on Twitter – to my Twitter feed. I probably need to come up with a system to make it more personal, more social; and maybe that’s something I will start doing as a result of this podcast episode, because I have been aware for quite some time that I am not being very social on Twitter and that is something that I feel badly about and I would like to change. So, Twitter, look at how you are using Twitter; look at how other people are using Twitter that you like to follow. Think about how you can change how you use Twitter. Think about if you want to change how you use Twitter. If you do. And again, you don’t to be everywhere. I am doing a rundown of all the different social networks that I use, because I am on them all. You do not have to be on them all. I used to say this time all the time in my social media businesses, I am going to say it again: you don’t have to be everywhere. Pick one, do it well, if you find you have extra time pick another one and do it well. Don’t be on everything.

So, from there I am going to go to YouTube. Where I think it’s…I mean you can’t really blast stuff, or broadcast stuff out to YouTube, the way you can in other social networks. So, YouTube is where I create videos and I put them online. I also put up all of my webinar videos and it is quite a large library of video and audio content. I say audio because all of my podcast episodes automatically get syndicated out to YouTube as well, and they don’t get tons of views or listens there, but I think it is a good way for new people to access that content if they are not familiar with the podcast. So, that’s YouTube. I pay attention to the comments, I respond to the comments when they are decent and thoughtful. If they are just trolls, or spam, I delete them; but I don’t have a lot of engagement with people on YouTube, which perhaps is something I could improve by asking people to share something in the comments. But, YouTube for me, while I do get clients from it and I do make really good connections from it, it is not a place where I have a lot of interaction right there within the platform itself. From YouTube, a lot of times people will join my list, or email me, or get in touch, and that’s where the relationship builds, but not so much of it happens on YouTube itself. But like I said, that’s something I could improve upon by asking people questions and asking them to join in the comments. So, again, YouTube, think about how you use YouTube, think about how other businesses that you follow on YouTube, and that you subscribe to, use the website; and how you would like to change and how you could change, how you use YouTube.

Now from there, there are pretty much three other social networks that I am not really using much. I am going to start with Pinterest because when Pinterest first came out I was deeply in love with Pinterest, I started out using it for personal use; then I started using it for my business. Pinterest is great at driving traffic to your website, so if you use it properly, and pin all of your blog posts, and your content; it can be a great, great, place to get traffic going to your website. Now, I am going to say, it has been a long time since I dedicated any time to my Pinterest account. It is something I really need to spend a couple of hours on, and this is something I am going to make a note of as I am doing this episode. Something I can do is spend a couple of hours, block out the time in my calendar, and look at how I can improve my Pinterest account. And I have got a number of boards set up, the boards are full, but I really need to start populating it with new content: including my videos, including my podcast episodes. There is so much stuff that I could be sharing on Pinterest that I think would help to drive traffic back to my website, but I simply haven’t spent any time on that website in recent months and possibly the last couple of years. But, like I said, it is great at driving traffic to your website so if you are on Pinterest, and you would like to get more traffic to your website, and you would like to use Pinterest more for business stuff think about what you can do: can you block out some time in your calendar, to start pinning more of your content? Maybe spend an hour or two hours doing that, and see how that helps. See how it helps drive traffic to your website. I am definitely going to do that, I am going to put some time in my calendar, and make that happen, and see if that helps; because I think it will, it was always a great…one of the top three traffic drivers to my website.

So, that leads us to the last two sad platforms that I am on; which are LinkedIn and Google+. Does anyone use Google+ anymore? I really don’t know, I don’t really. I have stopped putting stuff there and it is a shame that Edgar doesn’t populate your Google Plus feed because I think that might be useful in driving traffic to my website; but I am not doing it manually and I could hire someone to do it manually, but I am not 100% convinced that it is worth my time or my money if I paid someone else to do it. LinkedIn: oh LinkedIn. I have basically been broadcasting out to my LinkedIn profile from MeetEdgar with all of my content stuff. Is it driving traffic to my website, probably not, but I haven’t sat down to do the analytics. It is keeping my LinkedIn feed active, and LinkedIn is a place where I really used to love it, I think it can be great, I know for a lot of businesses it is their primary means of getting clients. For me, I don’t think that’s ever going to be the case, but I do think I could probably spend some time sprucing up my LinkedIn profile, because it has been a while since I looked at it or updated it. So, that’s something I could do. So, if you are on Google Plus, if you are on LinkedIn, think about how you are using those websites, are they worth your time? If they are, how can you change what you are doing? If you are following other people on those websites: what do you like that you see? What do you not like? How can you change how you are using them?

So, that was kind or a run through of my social networks, what I think I am doing right, what I think I am doing wrong. What I like about what I do, what I don’t like about what I do. And from there, let’s talk a little bit about creating these connections that are deep and meaningful and how we are going to do that. So, I love my Facebook group, I probably also, as I said earlier, need to spend some more time in there, making it a really great place to hang out. It goes through waves, it goes through ups and downs and I think that also kind of coincides with how much time I am spending in the group; obviously the more energy I give it, the more active it is. And that’s a great place to create connections. So, how can we create these deep and meaningful connections? I think it goes to taking those conversations and those people that we meet online and maybe taking the conversation elsewhere. So, I have the option to have a Skype tea or coffee with me and every once in a while, I will invite people to use that link to book in. It is not a sales call, it is not a discovery call, it is just a chat – let’s get to know each other and hang out for half an hour. That’s really fun, and I like doing that, but I have been promoting it enough to get many of those. So, I will include the link to that in the Show Notes, so if you would like to have a cup of coffee or tea with me on Skype, please do that. I would love to chat with you. So, that’s one way you can do it, you can take people off Social Media and get them on your email list, or better yet, have actual conversations with them on Skype, or Zoom, or whatever you use to speak to people. I think that’s a really, really good way of doing it.

We can also create more deep and meaningful connections with people through the content that we create. So, we can choose to either create really shallow Facebook live videos – just five-minutes just to be visible. We can choose to create really shallow blog posts where we just kind of touch on a topic and that’s it. Or, we can choose to create content that really resonates with people, that goes deeper, and that helps people to get to know us and therefore create deeper and more meaningful connections with them. So, whether you create podcasts, videos, webinars, blogposts…whatever – think about how you can go deeper. Instead of just dashing off a blog post or a newsletter just to say that you have done it, so that you can be visible, spend more time. Spend more time making it longer, deeper, more meaningful. And maybe focus on sharing, rather than teaching. I think maybe doing a mix of both is good, but I find that when I write my newsletter to my list and I share about what’s going on for me, kind of like what I am doing in this podcast episode, rather than teaching and saying: ‘How to do this’; or ‘Seven Topics on How to do That’. Instead of teaching, I share. I share what’s going on for me, I maybe give some tips, I maybe give some help but it is mostly like I am experiencing this thing, it is kind of crappy, what do you think, are you going through this too? That’s when I get people hitting reply to my newsletters, and saying: yes, me too. I have been going through this, I have been thinking the same thing. That’s what creates connections for me. So, think about doing sharing posts, rather than teaching posts, or both. But add sharing posts into your mix; whether that is a sharing blog post, or sharing newsletter, or sharing video, or a podcast episode, or a webinar. Or, whatever. Just have, put that out there. Put out a deeper bit of what’s going on for you: what’s been going on in your mind; what conversations have you been having with friends that maybe you could make more public. Because, that’s how the whole instinctive whole brain marketing videos came about; that was part of a conversation that I was having with so many online business friends; and then we decided that we needed to make that public, so that we could have that conversation with other people.

So, you know, think about what kinds of things do you want to talk about? What kinds of conversations do you want to be having? And make those happen, make them public, share with people, engage in visibility with a purpose. Not just the purpose of ticking off your boxes of saying: yeah, I was visible today, I did this thing. But, being visible in a deeper way, contributing to a conversation that matters. Being deep and meaningful, connecting, conversing. Authentic visibility is something that so many people talk about, but it is often really superficial, so think about how you can go deeper, think about how you can create those important, meaningful connections with people. Let’s redefine authenticity. Let’s share more, let’s share the deeper stuff, talk about the deeper stuff and redefine how we show up. Redefine authenticity; redefine visibility.

So, I would like to invite you on my free-thingy, which I said earlier is not a challenge, but it is a seven-day adventure. So, I am doing this at the end of summer. So, starting 28 August through 5 September; this is: Re-defining Visibility, it is a seven-day adventure. It is an exploration of deep visibility which is designed to truly create connections online. So, like I said; no more ticking the box and doing a daily livestream, or a blog post or a YouTube video; let’s play deep connections, conversation; redefine visibility. Because, I am sick of the old school online marketing gimmicks. What worked years ago isn’t working now. In fact, what worked last year, I think is not working today. Because there is so much noise online and there are so many people daily Facebook lives just to be visible, crappy blogposts that don’t delve deep into the topic, and content that feels like a waste of time to read, or watch, or listen to. Like I said, I have been guilty of this too.

So, I think it is time for something different. It is time to redefine how we show up online. What we are going to do is we are going to work through this together. We are going to re-evaluate what we like, what we don’t like, and what we want to change and how we want to show up online. This is not a blue print, it is not a formula; it is not a cookie-cutter approach; we are going to look at what works and what doesn’t work for each and every one of us individually. So, here’s what we can expect: a daily email with a specific topic for you to think about; with one action step for you to take. We are going to have sharing and conversation in my normal Facebook group. We are going to have a live call at the end which you can join or not. We are going to evaluate how it all went and how we are going to move forward from there. So, you may have noticed that the dates are actually nine-days, not seven-days, that’s because there is a weekend that falls between those dates. We are going to use those dates to catch-up if you need to, or just have a rest. So, the actual content is spread over the seven-days. If this sounds good, if this sounds like something that you are interested in, then I would love to have you join me on this. So, head over to HollyWorton.com/RD (that’s redefining visibility) and that will get you to the page where you can learn a little bit more about this and sign up and join us. I am super-excited about this, I really looking forward to doing this and I hope you will join me.

So, that’s it for today. Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought of this week’s episode. You can email me at: [email protected]; or you can find me on Facebook; Twitter; or Instagram and get in touch. I would love to give you a shout out on the show if you would like to share what you thought, and also, I would like to invite you – are you interested in being a special guest; a special guest on the Business Mindset Podcast? I would love to chat with one of my listeners on a future episode. I would love to hear about who you are, what you do, how the podcast has helped you and your business; what are your favourite episodes; and how changing your mindset has changed your life and business? Does that sound good? Head over to HollyWorton.com/Guest and fill out the form. I would also love for you to join me in my private Facebook group: Business Mindset Alchemists, so that we can continue the conversation there. Podcast is such a one-way conversation it is broadcasting more than anything, so I would love to get some feedback from you in the group: Business Mindset Alchemists is a group dedicated to exploring Business Mindset and how you can get the mindset you need to achieve your dreams. I would love to see you in there. So, if you are a woman entrepreneur go to: HollyWorton.com/group and you will be redirected to the Facebook Group.

As always, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode please leave a quick review for the show on iTunes, it would mean the world to me. Thank you so much and remember to visit hollyworton.com/211 for the show notes on this episode. Thank you.