“To maximize your visibility, aim to publish at least three times a week, preferably between 7-9:00 am — the more, the better. Remember to boost your LinkedIn/Instagram profile, use clickbait titles, tag friends, and comment on current business, political, or social topics — the more, the better. Be regular, consistent, and visible. This will result in enhancing your personal brand, market recognition, and financial success” – It’s common advice from personal brand gurus.
Where do such simplistic recommendations lead us to?
The overload of “junk” content, an abundance of self-proclaimed experts, social media noise, constant self-promotion, and an increase in FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and mental health issues. Don’t get me wrong. I am not against being visible, making your voice heard, taking seats in important discussions, or building your personal brand. My quest is for meaningful visibility.
Let’s start by defining visibility.
For me, it’s the intentional process of building your voice and presence in causes that matter to you, providing value. It’s a conscious effort based on intention (your goal or mission) and action.
It can take different phases:
- Visibility = Popularity presence
- Visibility + Valuable Content = Expert presence
- Visibility + Valuable Content + Mission = Impact presence
In this article I’ll focus on Expert and Impact visibility.
The benefits of being visible are sound and clear. Since I started building my public visibility, I’ve experienced more business inquiries, invitations to speak at conferences, lectures at business universities, valuable connections and greater impact. I was able to create some social endeavors and open the doors to some decision-makers.
I always ask myself a question: “What do I want to use my visibility for?”
I don’t want to use it only to serve my ego; I want to use it for a greater purpose. I want to use my visibility to deliver valuable content on communication and leadership and advocate for value-driven business and support change initiatives. Your motivation may be different. You may say, “I’m not a public persona, I have my own business or team, I don’t need public visibility.”
Is that true?
In my 10-year career working as a consultant, trainer, and coach in the IT industry, I met many people, mostly women who shied away from being “visible”—speaking during company or industry conferences, presenting successes of their team’s projects, selling new ideas to the board of directors, giving interviews to industry magazines, and even raising their hand when the promotion window is open. If you want your name mentioned in the room where decisions are made, being included in career-shaping projects, and eventually landing a promotion, you need visibility. You can start from a “workplace visibility”.
WORKPLACE VISIBILITY
Nicole D. Smith and Angela Cheng-Cimini, Harvard Business Review contributors, give four recommendations for building workplace visibility in their article published on August 18, 2023, on How to Become More Visible at Work
- Make a move. If you’re normally someone who doesn’t talk in meetings, start speaking up or follow up immediately afterward with the meeting host. Remember, humility doesn’t equal silence.
- Deliver quality work. It may seem obvious, but be visible for the right reasons. Do good work. When people can count on quality work from you, you’ll earn the reputation as a reliable, trustworthy, and valued, needed member of the team—all of which leads to more visibility.
- Know what’s top of mind for key stakeholders. Be able to help and add value to the work of powerful decision-makers in your organization.
- Love to learn. Look for, ask about, and volunteer for learning opportunities that will expand your skills, for example, cross-departmental job rotations, cross-functional meetings. Find yourself an internal mentor.
There are a few extra points I want to bring when it comes to building public visibility both expert and impact.
PUBLIC VISIBILITY
I. Start with your purpose.
- What do you want to offer by speaking, publishing, or sharing comments online or at public events/gatherings?
- Are you advocating for some social ideas or change initiatives?
- Do you offer an expert point of view?
- Do you provide unique knowledge or research?
- Do you promote and sell your services/products?
- Do you offer education?
- Other motives?
II. Build your authority.
People need to know why trust and listen to YOU. Are you a subject matter expert in the area which you share your comments? Prepare to back your ideas by relevant experiences, knowledge, science, personal stories, proven solutions.
III. Choose your audience.
- Who do you talk to?
- Who do you want to impact and why?
- What kind of connection do you want to build with your audience?
- Where is your audience?
- What kind of content is your audience looking for?
IV. Think carefully about your affiliations.
Decide who you want to be affiliated with? Are the partner organizations match your values, mission, goals, brand reputation? Review business or industry organizations you belong to, events, and conferences you participate in, communities you support. Brand reputation of the partners and events you engage with impact your personal brand.
V. Be authentic.
It might be tempting to create a “Wonder Woman/Superman persona while presenting/publishing. It sells well. I know. We see success stories, happy faces, perfect lifestyles all across the media and magazines. At the same time, we strive for authenticity, real-life stories that combine all shades of life: adversity, pain, hope, and success. Being authentic doesn’t mean flooding the internet and public speeches with your personal life. Before sharing another post or speech, you can consider using these questions: “How does it serve my audience? What’s in it for them?
The next time you hear somebody talk about enhancing visibility.
Ask “why do you need it”?
- Do you want to become popular?
- Do you want to become an industry/market expert?
- Do you want to make a difference?
Let me close by paraphrasing the message popularized by Peter Parker (Spider-Man).
With great power, there must also come great responsibility.