It’s easy to be very distracted right now. To feel like you’re doing really being visible because you’re spending time commenting on socials about the state of the world and/or sharing your opinion about the way your government or your neighbour or your friends are responding to covid-19 (amongst other things…). 

Being visible in this way certainly has its purpose.

• It helps you to find your voice.
• It gives you confidence about expressing your opinion.
• It builds visibility resilience when people express conflicting opinions to you and you learn how to navigate your way through such conversations with grace.

But not all time spent on socials is equal and when social media is part of your work environment it’s imperative that you’re able to perceive the difference between expressing your opinion about things unconnected to your business or work, and actually working.

Fortunately, developing discernment around this isn’t particularly hard.

If the conversation doesn’t either relate to your business, your vision, your mission, or the work you’re putting into the world, then think of yourself as having got up from your desk and walked to the water cooler. You’re in a conversation yes, but you’re not working.

If:

• the conversation is connected to your work,
• you’re talking to the community you’ve fostered on your social platforms,
• you’re setting up an ad,
• you’re engaging in a group you facilitate, or
• you’re having a conversation with your peers or with people who might benefit from your work,

then you’re working.

The problem I’ve found for myself is because everything is so fluid on socials, it can be easy to jump onto socials for a work purpose and then find yourself sucked into a conversation you don’t really care about with a person you don’t even know about a topic that has absolutely nothing to do with the work you’re in there to do.

It’s the equivalent of walking past the water cooler and finding yourself there an hour later talking to a friend from school, or friend of a friend, or a complete stranger who doesn’t work for your organisation but has, by chance, wandered into your building.

If this happens to you regularly, invariably you’ll also find yourself saying to people ‘I just don’t have enough time right now to really focus on work.’

Or you might feel like you’re ticking the visibility box in your business because you’re being visible in the virtual world, on social media, and that’s how you grow your business. Right?

Wrong. You grow your business on social media by being strategically visible to the right people.

Showing up and speaking up about any old random topic with any old random person doesn’t help the visibility of your brand and in fact, can harm it.

So it’s imperative that you’re clear about how and when you’re using the different social media pages and groups you’re connected to or that you’ve set up. To know which are personal and which are work-related and then get clear about when you’re engaging with each.

Social media can be a boon for your business or you can unconsciously use it to sabotage yourself. To keep yourself small and safe. To be faux visible.

Now’s not the time for faux visibility. In 2020, the only type of visibility worth focusing on is the real thing. That is; actions and behaviours that are going to increase the visibility of your brand, your work, or your business.

If you’re confused about what those actions need to be, we can help you. We support our students to identify exactly what you need to focus on, and when, in order to increase the visibility of your business or brand. 

Our aim is for you to get better visibility results by doing less. 

It’s not magic, it’s strategic.