How to Amplify Your Professional Presence in Your Industry

Ever want to be more recognizable in your field?

These days, in the age of TikTok stars and Instafamous celebrities, it may seem daunting to attempt a personal brand revamp. After all, unless you have an assistant and an ability to learn clever dances (isn’t that what these platforms are all about?), you don’t know the first thing about where to begin.

Where should you post? How often? What should you post? How do you build real business relationships on social media?

The whole thing can seem like a waste of time. Maybe it’s easier to just go back to flipping through your latest issue of Harvard Business Review.

Or maybe you should make a change.

It’s All About Creating Real Connection with People

Even back when I was starting out in my career, I was responsible for the communications and management of communities. For my first job out of college, I assisted my boss with her role in the local Rotary Club and was the ghostwriter for their newsletter. When she took me to my first Rotary meeting as a guest, I had to pretend I didn’t already know all of the people I was introduced to because I had been writing about their projects and programs for months. They told my boss they loved the latest newsletter and referenced one of the articles I’d written and she just laughed along. I didn’t care if they thought it was her writing…I loved creating the connections between them.

I’m really good at communicating and building relationships online. It’s what I’ve been doing in one way or another since I first got online and discovered chatrooms in the Prodigy/Altavista/pre-Facebook days.

Photo by Sander Crombach on Unsplash

It’s how I ended up living in Israel for a semester in college. It’s how I met some of my best friends. It’s how I met my husband.

Then, when I started working in an association in Bethesda, Maryland, I was responsible for collaborating and communicating with the international chapters and their leaders. At about this time, social media began to open up and I started using it to build virtual chapters for the association.

Now, as the community manager for an online community for the association industry that’s been around for over 11 years, I notice when someone starts making waves in a good way in the community.

What is it that makes someone more effective than another person when they are online? Why are some people so successful at creating opportunities for themselves in social media groups when others struggle to get to know other people?

Sometimes I forget that it isn’t natural for some people to communicate this way. Even if they are on social media all the time, it’s kind of like how some people are really great at working the room at a networking reception and seemingly having a good time doing it, but others are miserable. We all do these things regularly, but only some are really good at it. Why?

Let me share an example of someone who purposefully and effectively acted to boost his online presence. I can’t remember when I first noticed him, but his name seemed to show up more and more in front of me. For our purposes here, let’s call him Casper.

Be a Giver, Not a Taker

Out of nowhere, there it was…his name, Casper, liking my posts.

Sometimes he would leave a brief comment. Occasionally, he’d leave some words that were a little more thoughtful and in-depth. And not just on my posts, but he was engaging with others in the online community I managed.

I hadn’t ever met Casper in person, but he was becoming a known entity (at least his name was) in my part of the social media communities I hung around in and, like a new kid in the playground, people had noticed.

Then, one day I was looking to put together a panel to interview on my podcast and I posted a request for a person with a specific type of experience. There was his name again – responding as a volunteer. And, because I had noticed Casper responding to my posts and others’ comments, I felt I could trust him enough to make for a good guest on the podcast and I invited him to be on the panel. Plus, I was curious!

Watch for Opportunity and a Chance to Join In

Perhaps not surprisingly, he was an excellent guest. Personable and helpful with great advice, people loved him!

After his appearance on the podcast, he didn’t disappear from the group. In fact, he continued to engage and even brought others to the group. And as more people began to recognize his name, I could see more professional relationships were forming for him in the exchanges that were happening in the group.

Willing to Ask for Guidance from People Who Know the Terrain Well

Then, one day, he reached out to me to ask if I might be available for a virtual coffee and 30-minutes to an hour of my time, which he said he’d be willing to pay for if I’d just share my rates.

I told him I was happy to meet with him if he would also be a sounding board for some of my questions about the group we were both a part of and some ideas in exchange. (Honestly, it is refreshing not to have someone ask to “pick my brain” with no acknowledgment that they are asking for me to give my time and experience to them for nothing in return.)

During my meeting with Casper, I heard him share his ideas for what he wanted to do along with questions about a couple of different directions he could take. He wanted my opinion, which I shared.

It was a remarkable meeting in that he was always very mindful about giving more help than he received. He even followed up our meeting with several text messages and emails with follow-up thoughts. Giving.

Helpful, useful, caring, listening, …the kind of person you want to know better.

There are some people, the more cynical of you, who might imagine that Casper was being manipulative or maybe disingenuous with his approach.

I understand. We are all familiar with the more Machiavellian types who move and maneuver through our lives. We can find these slick types in every industry and often, they are recognizable as soon as they ask for something. Their intentions, even with a kind word, are suspect.

However, this was not the case with our hero, Casper.

Share the Spotlight with Others

Since my meeting with Casper, he has continued to engage in our online community group and in other similar industry spaces. He continues to engage, answer questions, offer help, and occasionally share what he’s doing.

But he also isn’t afraid to give some shine to others.

He regularly supports others’ work and will freely give kudos and kind words to other people he knows. He tags them in comments so that they are sure to be brought into the light for others to know about and see.

He also regularly looks for ways to share little bits of his personal life… his kids, his wife, his books, his home office setup… all of this giving a little more of a glimpse into who he is as a person. These are safe ways we, as part of the community, are able to feel that we know him a little bit better. If we were to meet up with him at an in-person reception, we’d easily strike up a conversation because he’s made it easy for us to know more about him, to feel a little more at ease.

These visual cues, these little stories and glimpses behind the scenes are fast-tracking our sense of trust.

In effect, he is the perfect example of taking the actions any person needs to take to boost their professional presence online.

The opposite of a lurker, he is very much engaged and a part of things. And, when I look at my group analytics I can see the proof of that.

Since I first became aware of Casper, I have watched his online presence explode and now he is booking speaking engagement after speaking engagement while at the same time, exploring some consulting work, expanding his network, and this is in addition to his full-time job as an association executive.

(I know all of these because of his posts…see what I mean about offering glimpses of behind the scenes?)

What Makes Casper So Special?

Any person can do this. So why don’t they?

What Casper is doing is not by accident. He is intentional in engaging others and supporting the group. He is practicing good interpersonal relationship building.

And it’s hard, but not as hard as some people make it.

It may look at first glance like he’s spending an awful lot of time on social media for someone who is so busy with so many new opportunities. But that’s his ROI. It is how he’s creating those opportunities. He is chipping away daily at the Sisyphean task of becoming known and respected in a community, in an industry during a pandemic. And it is working for him.

How Can You Be More Like Casper?

All of us can be more like Casper. All it takes is purposeful action with an intent to build relationships and, hopefully, awareness of how people can work with us.

What do people need to know about you in order to hire you, invite you to speak, or connect you with the right person? If you can’t answer that question, then no one else is likely to be able to answer it, either.

When I work with people on their online personal branding, I often start by asking them what words they want to be connected to their name. It is essential to identify how you want to be known by people.

Then, in what ways can you support or help others? What’s easy for you to do to help others?

And then, once you have their attention or the opportunity arises, what would you love for them to do? Become a contact? Refer you business? Partner with you? Hire you?

Give more than you take and focus on the relationship-building and the other people you are connecting with less than the transactional needs you might have in mind.

If Figuring This Out Seems Difficult

In the coming days, I’ll be sharing more about how you can become more like Casper. If you’ve ever wanted to boost your personal brand online, be sure to check out the blog for the next article in this series and I will walk you through how to create your own personal branding strategy.

Tweet me @kikilitalien with your questions or comment below!

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