How to stand out with your online presence in 2020 and beyond
As part of a series of content to celebrate International Women’s Day 2020, we spoke with Laura who has shared valuable lessons and advice to support other women in the workplace who are making brave career changes or are hustling to get a business off the ground.
As part of a series of content to celebrate International Women’s Day 2020, we spoke with inspiring women that are part of the Escape The City community. They share their valuable lessons and advice to support other women in the workplace who are making brave career changes or are hustling to get a business off the ground.
Meet Laura Amenta, the founder of Palms Up Club. Laura was part of our Startup Accelerator in 2017 and has since been on a mission to bring her technology knowledge into the world of wellness and wellbeing.
Let’s dive in with Laura’s six top tips to improving your online presence…
1. Don’t try to speak to everyone
This can be difficult because we may feel that if we niche down it will make potential clients or customers feel excluded and that we will miss out on potential income. When you feel this fear, always remember the saying “specific is terrific”.
Online users are more selective than ever before because there is so much content out there. What consumers are really looking for is someone that really understands their unique situation and problems to provide a customised solution.
In order to provide this customised solution, you need to make sure you know your target audience and keywords. This will help you avoid confusion and speak to the right people, at the right time.
2. Nobody cares about your business
This sounds tough, but the truth is – people are overwhelmed with online accounts, platforms, and a wealth of content. The human attention span is at its lowest. We only have a few seconds (max!) to get the attention of an online user.
We have to understand that people aren’t interested in you. What they are interested in, is is how you can make their lives better or easier through your work.
Once you understand that you can look at your communications and content and ask yourself: “Do people immediately understand what I’m doing and how exactly can I impact their lives in a positive way?”
3. Stand out with a strong and consistent brand
Your branding is a result of how a customer or user feels after they’ve interacted with your business. A strong brand strategy includes things like your:
- Mission, vision and values
- Brand look and feel
- Ideal client and personas
- Value proposition
There are amazing free tools to allow you to DIY your brand so that it’s consistent. These include:
4. It’s time to change your mindset about SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) describes the process of increasing traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
In the past, people found ways to cheat the algorithm, including methods like keyword stuffing – but Google has caught up on this and the algorithm is getting more smarter, especially with AI and machine learning. There are fewer opportunities to trick the system!
We’re coming back to the initial idea of SEO, which means you have to provide users with an amazing experience (also on mobile) – plus, lots of valuable and relevant content.
5. Content is queen
High-quality content is incredibly important as the online user is more educated than ever before. You have to level up your content marketing game if you want to improve your online visibility.
Content has to provide real value for people. Keep it simple, but consistent. Choose one content form that you enjoy creating and that your audience enjoys consuming. Publish it weekly or bi-weekly and repurpose the content across different platforms and channels. Consider:
- Blog posts
- IG TV videos
- Podcasts
- Infographics
6. Aim for quality, not quantity on social media
There are almost 3 billion social media users worldwide, so it’s really important to stand out with an interesting feed and coherent branding.
There is a trend shifting from quantity to quality, for example – Nano-influencers are increasingly popular. They have lower follower counts (under 10k) but they usually provide a more authentic level of dialogue via increased engagement and trust.
There is a common misconception with social media that you need a certain number of followers. It’s not about reaching as many people as possible, it’s about reaching the right kind of people. This leads to a higher conversion rate, which results in sales!
- Connect with @palmsupclub on Instagram.
- Visit @escthecity on Instagram and watch our series of #IWD2020 IGTV videos.