A three-step guide to posting about yourself on social media

Recently, a friend of mine from my CliftonStrengths coaching certification course asked me for some advice. He said that one of his goals is to consult for his field of expertise and that he knows posting on social will help him be seen as an important expert, but that he struggles with imposter syndrome isn’t comfortable posting about himself. He asked me if I could share any insights or tips about getting comfortable doing it. Here is what I shared with him:

What can you offer?

The first step in putting yourself out there is thinking about what you’re best at/most confident in and start to compile a list of potential content related to that. Ask yourself these questions:

-          What are your thoughts on your area of expertise?

-          What books, articles, podcasts or videos have helped you?

-          What have you been working on/helped others with that might be valuable to others?

Take some time to dive into these questions and write out your answers. Don’t feel like you have to rush. Most of the time your initial responses need to be fleshed out to have the most value. Once you can answer these questions well and succinctly, you’ll have a good idea about what you could share on social.

Develop a content schedule

The second step is to develop a content schedule and calendar. Think about how often you should post. On a platform like LinkedIn, two to three posts per week is reasonable and fits within the platforms algorithm. Less than that shows LinkedIn that you’re not serious about posting and more than that doesn’t give people to digest your most recent content. A good way to do this is to pick two days per week that you’re going to post (I post on Mondays and Thursdays) and keep a document (Microsoft Word, Google Docs, etc.) that you can keep your content for easy copying and pasting once you’re ready to post. Do what’s right for you that doesn’t place undue stress on yourself (you should never be thinking, “oh, geez, I didn’t post today!”)

Just do it

Once you’ve figured out your content and schedule, then just do it! Yes, posting on social and putting yourself out there can be scary, but it’s always worth the risk of feeling uncomfortable. Here’s why:

There will be any number of people who will see your post, and I group them into three buckets: First, at the back end of the bell curve are a few people who think what you post is silly or maybe even incorrect. These people might “unfollow” you on LinkedIn and you won’t even know they unfollowed or disliked your post, as LinkedIn won’t notify you. Then, at the middle of the bell curve, you’ll have a large group of people who will see your post, but take no action. They won’t click or comment, but that’s okay because they at least saw your post and might think about it again in the future. Then, at the other end of the bell curve, you’ll have a group of people who react positively to what you posted, either through an emote response or a comment. These are people who found value in your post or simply want to support you in what you’re trying to accomplish. These are your true supporters, and this is the group that should keep you motivated to post more.

As we say in the CliftonStrengths coaching community, sometimes you just have to do something that you’re not good at. There’s no way around it. There’s no other strength you can apply and no one to do it for you, you just need to do it! What’s the worst that happens? Remember, you can always delete a post, but you’ll never know the responses to your post if you never post it!