Posting everyday on social media can become overwhelming, especially for a freelancer or an online business owner.
Since you are wearing so many hats in your business, having to crystallize an idea for content, creating that content and posting it on social media can be formidable.
In this blog post, I’m going to be showing you 5 ways to be visible without posting everyday on social media.
Let’s be frank, its not easy to show up everyday and I know that we always talk about having a solid strategy and a content plan so that you won’t get overwhelmed, yet, it’s still super stressful.
When it used to be just pictures, we were still required to post high quality ones, then carousels came and it became sort of mandatory to use them.
Now, add Reels, add TikTok, add videos, it’s now more stressful than it was and its taking its toll on many business owners.
The truth is, social media helps you amplify your message, reach a wider audience, narrow them down, cultivate new relationships, and acquire a sort of celebrity status.
But you can do all of that without having to burst your head thinking of what to post on Instagram for the next 6 days.
You can increase your visibility online without having to go through mind-boggling strategies that eventually lead to wearing yourself to a shadow.
Let’s take a look at 5 ways you can maximize your online presence that doesn’t include showing up too often on social media.
1. BLOGGING
One pretty interesting thing about blogging is that it helps your website show up in search engines through carefully created SEO strategies.
If you are regularly updating your blog with articles that your target audience are looking for and you’re using the relevant keywords, Google will continue to rank your blog.
If you have a website and you are not updating your blog regularly, I’ll advise that you start doing so quickly.
When your blog is ranked in search engines, it drives traffic to your website and it gets you in the faces of the people who need your offerings.
Now, many people have this erroneous beliefs about blogs. Some say blogging is dead and video is the next hot cake.
Blogging can’t be dead if search engines like Google still take you to a blog post anytime you make a query.
Blogging can’t be dead if people still depend on websites to drive traffic to their businesses.
And finally, blogging can’t be dead if it’s one of the best ways to educate your audience and build relationships with them.
One really great thing about blogging is that it’s a long form content that can be repurposed into short-form content platforms.
So for example, these article can be repurposed into a video for YouTube, a TikTok video or a Reel, an Instagram carousel post or even converted into audio for a podcast.
Your blog is the hub of all the content you share online and just one article can be repurposed into multiple posts for social media.
And with a good lead magnet, your blog can help you convert website traffic to paying customers.
2. EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
I created a Substack account in January and I didn’t publish my first email until the end of April. As of now, I have 50 subscribers and counting, without even talking about it on social media.
There are many platforms that can help you deliver your newsletters to people’s emails, and for now, the one I use is Substack.
If you are a writer, Substack is a great platform to reach out to your audience, it’s just like Medium, but the difference is that it goes straight into people’s emails.
Email newsletters are a good way to be visible without posting everyday on social media. You own your email lists, meaning that you own the subscribers and you can reach them anytime.
When social media sites go down, you can still reach your audience or customers in their emails.
Create a good lead magnet, something you know that your target audience would really be in need of and set up a nurture sequence that’ll last for months.
Put this lead magnet on your website and in your blog posts so that as they come there, they opt in and are automatically added into your nurture sequence.
The good thing about the nurture sequence is, if your content is evergreen, you’ll be showing up in your subscribers’ emails weekly (or as you’ve set it up) and you are creating top of mind awareness.
But in order to achieve this, the kind of email service provider you choose matter a lot.
The various types are MailChimp, Convert Kit, Mailerlite, Flodesk, SendPulse, and so many others.
To the best of my knowledge, MailChimp is the only email service provider that will allow you start for free until you have reached 1000 subscribers.
With the free version also, you can only create one audience. But once you subscribe to the beginner’s plan, you get much more.
So sign up and start sending email newsletters so that you can show up without having to post on social media everyday.
3. PODCASTING
Podcast are for now, my favourite platform. While I don’t currently have a podcast, I listen to podcasts almost everyday.
As of 2-3 years ago, the podcast market was not really crowded, especially in Nigeria.
But as of now, we have thousands of them in the country and if you combine that with around the world, it’s over a million.
Think of podcasts as YouTube videos, but without the videos. You pick a topic that is pretty interesting to talk about and you talk about it, record yourself doing so, edit and publish them on podcasting platforms.
Podcasts help you to build a community of like minds, and if you speak from your heart regularly, you’ll build relationships with your listeners.
I’m aware of the pandemic of podcasts that interview young and immature people who come to share very despicable thoughts on the platform.
But those ones are just to gain clouts and gather listeners who will eventually move unto the next fad.
If you want to grow your podcast, ensure that your content is relevant and extremely valuable.
You can go a step further by inviting people to speak on your podcast so that you tap into their audience and expand and you deliver value.
The good thing about podcasting is the fact that you can listen to them on the go. You don’t have to actively listen, like you do for YouTube videos, but you can have your earphones plugged in and you listen to them while your hands are busy.
How do podcasts work? First you need to get the right gear like microphones, and then plan your content out. You can outline them on your computer so that you know what to talk about.
One thing you don’t want to do is to script them out because otherwise, you risk sounding very robotic and very unoriginal.
After you’ve finished recording, editing, and producing your podcast, you can upload it to hosting sites like Lisbyn or Anchor and they’ll generate your RSS feed for you so that you can submit it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other players.
For more information on how to go about podcasting, read this article by Buffer.
4. YOUTUBE
My second favourite after podcasts is YouTube. Videos are the most consumed type of content in the world today and so you can never do it wrong with YouTibe.
With a YouTube channel, you can create really strategic videos on YouTube, creating what is super relevant for your target audience.
YouTube is a very popular social media platform nowadays. It’s excellent for personal use, but it can also be used by businesses to build a brand.
Google has started to show YouTube videos in their search engines, therefore, the videos you upload will not only show up on YouTube but also on Google.
Creating a YouTube channel is free and even uploading your content is free. In fact, YouTube will pay you for using their content once you meet their requirements.
Millions of people rely n YouTube for education and entertainment purposes, showing up there with your own content will help to increase your visibility.
YouTube has recently launched the YouTube premium, a paid subscription that allows you to watch videos without ads, play videos in the background, and allows you to play videos when you’re offline.
So more revenue for the owners and more income for you.
There are different ways to earn money on YouTube and the first one is through adsense.
AdSense is Google’s program that lets creators in the YouTube Partner Program get paid and you can get started by setting up the AdSense account from within YouTube Studio.
Another way to make money on YouTube is by setting up affiliate links in your description and in your videos too.
You can also do brand collaborations and sponsorships, sell digital products and so on.
With YouTube, you can be visible without having to show up on social media everyday and still make money off it.
But your content has to be relevant and interesting for your target audience.
If you have multiple things to share, YouTube allows you create categories for your videos.
For example, on my YouTube channel, I have several categories. One for teaching videos, one for Vlogs and another one for tech tutorials.
It helps my audience narrow down what they are looking for.
You can record your podcasts and upload them as YouTube videos too to expand your viewership.
5. OTHER PLATFORMS
You can still become visible without using social media by leveraging other platforms like Substack (I mentioned that before). Asides the fact that it drops in people’s emails, Substack has an app that people can visit your profile from.
Then there’s Medium, which is a good platform for writers and readers. Pinterest, more or less like a search engine where you can pin your blog posts and your videos. It can single handedly drive all the traffic you need to your website.
You can also use other people’s platforms. For instance, being a guest on someone’s podcast or YouTube video, writing a guest blog or switching up email lists with someone else (yes it’s a thing).
All these are ways to be visible without posting everyday on social media.
Conclusion
For all of these to work, you need a good content strategy, one that will allow your content be delivered an autopilot while you sleep and plan for the next phase of your life.
For further reading, check out this article on how to increase your visibility as a creative.