It's easy and passive to say, “Yes, I'm genuine, I'm putting myself out there, and I'm showing how relatable I am!” and an entirely different thing to actually DO it.
Your honest effort to hold up your product in every selfie, repeat your patent-pending acronym and spread yourself across all of the platforms is actually holding you back from making the impact you want to make.
Here are 3 Ways to Check if You're REALLY Being Yourself in Your Social Media:
1. Your avatar is YOU. Not you in a costume. Not you with sunglasses covering up the most recognizable features on your face. Not your logo.
WHY: You can read up on this if you want. There are studies on it. There's something menacing and threatening about a person or animal whose face can't be seen. You see it in movies — Stormtroopers with masks on. Bane in The Dark Knight. Next time you watch a movie, notice how the bad guys always have some kind of disfigurement or mask on, covering their face. This is ESPECIALLY true for side character bad guys. Having a covered face makes them less human and makes it easier to kill them. You know any movie character is probably going to get killed off pretty quick if their face is covered.
WHAT TO DO: Don't ignore the psychology and storytelling of it, guys. And psychology and storytelling matter a LOT in online sales. Just use your smiling face. Show you’re a good guy and you’re here for the full journey that your clients are going through, and you’re not getting killed off anytime soon.
2. You're perfectly okay with your spouse, loved ones, teenagers, parents, EVERYONE seeing what you post online.
WHY: I struggled with this one for a long time. I wanted to have my online persona separate my real life persona, and I was saying weird things (especially in my fitness coach days) that I would probably writhe in embarrassment if my dad ever saw them. In fact, I BLOCKED him from my Facebook page to make sure never saw my stuff. And yet all of my manifestation practices involved my dad being aware of and hyper involved in my business. No wonder my previous ventures never took of, huh? Major disconnect there.
WHAT TO DO: Ask a best friend (who’s NOT in business or aware of the inner workings of online sales and entrepreneurship) if your email sounds like YOU or like another version of you. Ask your spouse if it sounds like you’re drinking the sales punch, or if they like how your messaging is a happy combination of personality AND professionalism. You can totally be both!
3. You’re responding with REAL, compassionate, understanding, and relatable phrases.
WHY: Because it’s easy to tell who’s paying attention and who’s not by the quality of their responses. If you’re being really vague and commenting on Instagram or Facebook Groups with “Love this insight!” “I love that!” “So true.” “Love your take on this!” and “This is so good!” then bad news — you’re starting to sound like a bot.
This is MUCH WORSE if you’re responding in emojis only.
When you do this in groups, it looks like you’re just trying to cover your bases and you’re going through your list with your fingers happily hitting Ctrl+V over and over.
No one likes the idea of being “on someone's list.” (Trust me — I had a beachbody coach who checked in every week on Sundays with her scripted questions. It doesn't feel good.)
On top of de-valuing the very people you want to help, there’s no real evidence in your comments and responses that you actually READ the post. Double de-value.
That’s not you. That’s you falling victim to the peer pressure of “You have to be EVERYWHERE to build your following” which is totally not true.
Be yourself! It's a lot easier!
WHAT TO DO: I know leaving in-depth answers takes a lot of brain power, but it works. People recognize your honest, relatable input. They start to friend request you. They like your page. They join your group. And they start sharing your stuff with their friends. When you respond like a human who’s passion about your mission, people pick up on it and follow your lead.
Respond like a human. If deep, meaningful comments don't pop up when you read someone's post, then don't respond. (There's always the double tap or “like” button for moments like that.)
Okay #truthtalk — I don’t follow all of these guidelines all the time, either. But we all have room to grow!