How to grow your online presence

In today’s digital age, growing your online presence is more crucial than ever for standing out online with so many Influencers in the industry. Whether you’re a budding influencer or an established content creator who has already made a mark online, you need to understand the role your online presence plays in your success. The more you know how to effectively cultivate your digital footprint, the more you can access better brand collaboration opportunities. Let’s get into how to grow your online presence.

What is an online presence

An online presence is your digital footprint. It’s what comes up when people google search you or search for you on social media. It’s made up of your website content, your podcast interviews plus all the content you’ve created on Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube and more. Your online presence also includes any news articles or press mentions about you or your business. 

Building a strong online presence  

Optimizing your social media pages (now that you have them!) for maximum visibility is the first crucial step towards landing brand collabs. Craft a captivating and cohesive bio that succinctly introduces your niche, passions, and personality. Utilize keywords relevant to your content to enhance discoverability in search results. 

Ensure that your profile pictures and banners are not only visually appealing but also reflective of your brand identity. Consistency is key in maintaining a strong online social media presence. Regularly update your feed with content that showcases your expertise and style. Whether it’s thought-provoking captions, aesthetically pleasing visuals, or engaging storytelling, each post should contribute to a cohesive narrative that resonates with your audience.

Diversifying content formats is equally essential to captivate a broader target audience. Incorporate videos, photos, and stories into your content strategy to cater to different preferences. Experiment with live sessions, tutorials, and behind-the-scenes glimpses to add depth to your narrative. Utilize interactive features like polls, quizzes, and Q&A sessions to encourage audience engagement. 

Don’t overthink it and don’t overlook repurposing what you share on one platform, in one format elsewhere. Ie reels can become Tiktoks and can also be Youtube shorts. 

Embrace authenticity and transparency in your content, allowing your audience to connect with the genuine persona behind the screen. Make sure to show your face! By optimizing your social media profiles and diversifying content formats, you not only enhance your visibility but also create a compelling and dynamic online web presence that attracts and retains a diverse and engaged audience.

People may come for your content or witty captions, but they will stay for YOU! Show that gorgeous face. 

What makes an online presence valuable

A strong online presence is valuable for multiple reasons. 

• Brand Building: Your online presence teaches your following and audience what you’re all about. It helps you stand out from the crowd.
  
• Visibility: The stronger your online presence, the bigger your reach. This means you can not only have a great impact but more people can find and follow you.
  
• Credibility and Authority: The more consistent you are with great, high quality content, the more you’re reinforcing your brand and affirming that you’re an expert in your niche.
  
• Audience Engagement: A strong online presence helps build a loyal, engaged following.
  
• Opportunities:The bigger your digital footprint, the more brand collaboration opportunities and partnerships will come your way.
  
• Marketing Strategy and Promotion: A large online presence gives you more opportunity to market yourself and any products that you sell. You can reach a larger audience with your marketing efforts and strategies. 

In essence, your online presence is super valuable to you as it enables you to connect with your audience, market yourself and build your portfolio with brand collaborations and partnerships. 

How your online presence affects your brand deals and income

A well-crafted online presence significantly enhances the perceived value you bring to brand collaborations. Brands often prioritize influencers who exhibit high engagement rates and consistently produce high-quality content. Why? Because high engagement rates and high quality content demonstrates a solid connection with their audience. It also highlights the Influencer’s ability to create great marketing content for the brand. 

Brands are assessing each partnership trying to understand their ROI. The higher your engagement rate, coupled with an audience they want to speak to, can positively impact a higher value brand deal for you as an Influencer. 

Truthfully, great content and a highly engaged audience attracts both followers and brands alike! Brands want to partner with people that have that genuine connection with their following and are consistent with their content.

As an Influencer, the better your engagement rate and a strong online presence helps you negotiate better deals with brands when they reach out.  When you have multiple different channels connecting you with your audience that are all strong such as a website, social media platforms and a newsletter, you’ve got more leverage in your negotiations.

To help you understand the financial impact of your online presence, let’s say you have 2478 followers. Let’s assume  a 10% engagement rate (the math is easy). This means only 247 followers are liking + commenting on your content.  As brands want to get in front of as many new eyeballs and potential customers as possible, the larger your online presence is, the higher the engagement rate, bigger your reach. 

If a brand was looking to collaborate with you, you would get paid a lot more if your audience was 24,780 with a high engagement rate vs 2478 people. Most brand collaborations are a financial game in that the brand wants to maximize their budget to reach as many people as they can. 

5 ways to strengthen your online presence

Not to fear! There’s a few things you can focus on to strengthen your online presence. 

Create High-Quality Content

Create your best online work! There’s no excuse for your content not to be high quality and engaging. By sharing well-crafted blog posts, videos, social media updates, or podcasts, you’ll attract and retain followers (and brands!). This will also help establish yourself as an expert who knows what she’s talking about! 

Engage Actively with Your Audience

Always ensure that you’re responding to your audience’s comments and resharing of your content. Love up on them! If someone asks a question, answer it! Your audience will continue to show up for you when you demonstrate that you’re listening, paying attention and valuing their feedback. 

Optimize Your Online Profiles

Ensure that your social media profiles and website are getting seen and standing out in the crowd. Use relevant keywords, professional images, and clear, simple descriptions to present a cohesive and exciting brand image. Make sure to keep information fresh and relevant.  Take a look at your profiles. Would you engage with your content?

Leverage SEO Strategies

Become an SEO (search engine optimization) master to boost your online visibility. Use relevant keywords in your content, to optimize meta descriptions, and build backlinks to improve your website’s authority and search engine ranking. Make it easy for people to find you!

Collaborate and Network

This is my favorite tip. You don’t have to go about this alone! Collaborate with others to lift each other up. Maybe it’s an influencer you admire or a brand you use all the time that inspires your next piece of content. Collaborate with them on that social media post.  Like, share and crosspost other Influencer’s content that you find valuable.  It truly takes a village!

How to grow your Instagram following organically

If you’re now committed to growing your online presence, there’s a couple ways to go about doing it – organically or buying followers. Do not ever buy your followers! Not only is that a  huge no-no with brands, but it means you’re not being authentic with your audience. If you want to learn how to grow your Instagram following organically, read this.

How to get to 10k followers on Instagram

Now that you’ve seen the power of your audience, and yes, size matters, I”m here to help you with that. A lot of the strategies I mentioned above will help you not only strengthen your Instagram audience but also how to get 10k followers on Instagram. If you’re not yet there, that’s a great milestone to reach for. You’ve got this!

How to approach brands for a paid collaboration 

Once you’ve got the winning combination of an awesome, engaged audience and you create fantastic high quality content, what’s next to find yourself some brand deals? Where are they and how can you apply? I have this article for you on how to approach brands for a paid collaboration that’s a great next read in your journey. 

Building and strengthening your online presence requires commitment and dedication. Not everyone is willing to put in the work. But believe me when I say, putting in the work, will pay off! Create that high quality content I know you can do, engage with your audience and leverage your online profiles to make it easy to find and follow you. Be consistent and authentic every step of the way.

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