How To Get Over The Fear Of Showing Up
In Episode 10 of the Build Your Own Digital Community Podcast, Kristina does a solo podcast where she discusses topics that many people feel challenged by when diving into digital marketing. These topics include social media, personal branding, and organic growth online. In this episode, she shares ways to resolve these difficulties and focuses on overcoming not wanting to show up.
Kristina discusses how many young business owners are afraid of social media and the impact it can have on their business. In reality, the benefits that exist when they invest in social media (with a social media agency or independently) can be massive. As Kristina works with social media platforms on a daily basis, she initially didn’t understand the intimidation surrounding them, however, she now views learning to use social media as being similar to learning how to swim for the first time. When someone starts their own business, there is an immense pressure to be known absolutely everywhere, including on social media.
This means creating profiles on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter has become necessary and increasingly beneficial. In today’s society, a vast pool of potential clients and customers can be found on those platforms. Even still, it can feel overwhelming to figure out how to best show up on socials. To address this, Kristina gives a few pointers on how to overcome the overwhelmingness and fear of not wanting to show up.
Tip #1: Hone in on a Particular Platform
The first pointer she gives is that you do not need to do everything at once. Even as a co-founder of a social media agency, The Social Snippet is not on every single social media platform. She even gave her own example of being hesitant to start an Instagram account for the business because she and her co-founder Maria, had already established strong personal brands. This initial perspective had existed within her out of fear. A main takeaway from Kristina in this segment is that your entire business plan is not just composed of your social media. If you’re able to hire a social media agency to handle the social media for you, then you have the opportunity to focus more on what your business is doing and how you are performing. Focus on where you want to build your community rather than trying to show up on every single platform. Choose one place that resonates with you and your brand and start there.
Tip #2: Get Innovative
The second takeaway from Kristina is that you don’t necessarily have to show your face on socials. Although showing your face may be helpful in terms of building online relationships and trust, it is not entirely essential if you’re a start-up business. There are other ways to use social media without showing your face, such as using Canva to design graphics for your posts. You can also utilize product shots or behind-the-scenes images or videos to organically grow your brand. If you are worried about talking in your stories or reels, practice as much as possible and write a script to assist in making yourself more comfortable. Give yourself a tangible goal every time.
Tip #3: Go for it
The last point she mentions is the importance of completion over perfection. Simply posting one time is a great way for business owners to get a sense of how social media works. Testing various methods can then help you to refine your brand’s style and establish where your community lies. It is very tempting to record something and then rewatch it over and over again. Kristina recommends that once you’ve finished recording, just upload without rewatching it and let it be. Put your phone away and see what happens. It’s better to not worry about the small things such as how your voice sounds or how you appear on screen.
Kristina concludes the podcast with a recap of her points and reminds listeners to get creative with how they use social media. Being scared to use social media is normal, and it is best to chip away little by little to overcome fear and find your community.