3 ways to be more YOU online

Hey, I’ll admit it, I’m socially awkward. And this is the very reason I can share with you ways to be less so online, cause I’ve worked through my awkwardness there. Don’t ask me about IRL situations, lol.

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Transcript

Are you so baffled by how to act and what to post on social media that you pretty much just don't do a whole lot or post stuff that even bores the heck out of you? Hey, I'm Steph from Coffeelike Media, and I'm laughing. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing with you because it's a really common response to just be like, I don't know how to do this, and to just not do it well.

Well, I am here to insert a little bit of you in your social media. I have three distinct tips that I'm going to give you in order to humanate, which should be a word, your social media presence. I don't care what platform you're on.

You're probably being too stiff or not posting enough that has your personality come out. All right. So July is audience growth month at coffee like media, and I am here to really pump you up as far as finding more of your people.

So I am doing it. I'm giving away. We are giving away one free podcast audit every week the first four weeks of the month.

I'm taking that fifth week off. You can go to stepfuccio.com to find all the details on Mondays at 06:00 p.m. my time: 12:00 p.m. New York time can find me online announcing the winner for that week. If you enter and you do not win, you still get a special prize at the end of the month.

So you have absolutely nothing to lose. You have everything to gain, especially an audience, especially more of a podcast audience. I'm also doing two episodes a week during this time period, even with a sore throat.

So I am committed to growing your audience this month. So let's get to this tip. One, watch others online.

One thing I learned early on in my teaching career, I used to teach communications to adults. Funny that, right? Is that you need to see a lot of samples in order to get familiar with how things work in a specific genre and social media. Each social media has their own way of talking.

There's a specific way of communicating in each social media. I primarily am on LinkedIn, so I'm experimenting with Instagram. I'm on Facebook because Denmark is on Facebook, and I just have to be there in order to function.

But mostly I'm on LinkedIn. And I've been on LinkedIn for so long that I know how things work. I know how people talk to each other, and I know what posts are generally accepted there, what are pushing the boundaries, and what would just be like, what are you doing? So consume stuff and pay attention to yourself.

When you do, if you notice yourself laughing at a particular post, analyze it for a second. Say, hey, what's happening in this post? Is this a post that I would like to post? This type of post? Not the same thing. Don't copy and paste, but pay attention.

If they're telling a specific joke. If they're telling a joke and you are, you go, oh, why aren't I telling a joke? You don't always have to talk about your podcast content. You can talk about other things connected to your podcast or the content that's in your podcast, like the subject matter.

But pay attention and think, could I post something like this? You know what? There's a saying you have to become like an apprentice before you become a master. I'm ruining the phrase, but you know what I mean? You have to play around with how other people do it before you find your own voice. So you know what? If you need to copy and paste somebody else's post and insert your information, don't paste it there.

Don't publish their post, but copy and paste it over and insert things like replace things that are more of what you would say. Try that. Do that with some other hashtags, too.

If it is the same content area. You know, you don't have to create everything from scratch. We work too hard in trying to be original all the time.

You know what works for a lot of companies that make tons of money from marketing and advertising, which podcasting is a form of marketing, whether it's the end goal is for money or for community building, it is. They have people study what already worked. So study what already works and decide which ones feel good for you.

Don't do things that make you feel gross or not. You do things, repeat things, copy things, test out things that feel like you. Number two, be talkative.

Have you ever been in a cafe or a restaurant and you're having such a good time with your friends? The people from neighboring, neighboring tables lean over like somebody does lean from a neighboring table. They lean over and they say, hey, I heard you talking about blah, blah, blah. Listen, I have to tell you this.

Depending on the culture, this may not happen. But if it ever has happened to you, that happens online. People won't necessarily lean over in social media and say, hey, blah, blah, blah, blah, and join the conversation.

There's a lot more wallflowers than there are active people. That's just how it is. A lot of people get stuck with not knowing how to communicate on social media.

But what they will do is they'll kind of check out the rest of your stuff. They'll eavesdrop on the rest of your social media, and they'll probably go to the link that's in your bio and check out your podcast. Sometimes there isn't a high conversion rate from social media to podcasts, but there is some, which is why we do it.

So be social online. Talk to people you're talking to, tag people and invite them into the conversation. Tag people you know will comment and have that conversation publicly.

Don't do it in a way that's forced, where you plan out what the conversation's gonna be. That's gross. But do it in a way where you're, instead of talking in your dm's, you're talking publicly.

When people see that, they'll appreciate your friendliness. They'll really. They'll like the conversation you're having.

Cause they already like your content because that's how they found you. They already like your content area, so they're already invested. So now all they have to do is get comfortable with you, and then they'll go listen to your voice sometimes.

So two is to be talkative in public on social media. Three is to show yourself, come out, be vulnerable, be you. Don't try to be someone you're nothing.

On social media. I don't really do super fancy, okay, I'm starting to play with a little bit of fancier, visually fancier things on Instagram. But for the most part, I share a lot of different kinds of process posts where I'm talking about behind the scenes stuff. I share things I'm really excited about, usually in the moment that I find them.

So they're really sloppy looking posts, but they have a lot of thought on why I connected to them. That's me. Those are the kinds of posts that I tend to put out into the world because I want to find people that resonate with the stuff that I'm posting.

What is your personality, and how can you show that on your social media? If you're funny, be funny. If you're serious, be serious. There is a little bit of a factor of the topic area that you're in.

If you're, like, really goofy, vulgar, funny and you have an accounting podcast or a history podcast, history, one that would probably actually work. I mean, it really depends if you have, like, a mental health podcast and you have really kind of questionable humor. Maybe, maybe not fully be yourself, but find that Venn diagram of overlap.

That's my Venn diagram. Find your Venn diagram of overlap where your personality and the content area that you're in with the kind of communication rules of that content area and the communication rules of the social media space. So those three things find that overlap and be you within that. Show yourself and people will want to hear you.

Be yourself and people will want to get to know you more. And personality podcasting is a personality driven medium. If you show your personality way more than info dumping or sharing lots of information or pictures or flashy, whatever, if you show your personality, you're way more likely to convert someone over to listening to you than if you just share really interesting information.

You can share both, but if you just share information, you're not as likely to get people to come over to your podcast. Even if your podcast is built on authority and being an expert in your field, people can find that stuff in text form. They don't need to listen to your voice.

What they need from your voice is humanity, and humanity is connected to your personality. So be you. Okay, to recap the three steps.

One, watch others online and test out what they're doing with your voice and information in it. Two, be talkative in public. Talk to people.

Engage with people, do the back and forth on social media. People will see that and they'll be curious about what else you do and say, and they might convert over to being a listener. Number three, show your personality.

Be you online, and people will be more likely to fall in love with you and want to listen to your podcast. I know it sounds intense, you can only have so many people courting you at once. But don't worry, it doesn't always get creepy.

More so if you're a woman, but that's a whole other topic. But basically be yourself and people will want to hear more of you. Please.

With all of these, make sure you have your listen link in your profile so that when they do see these things and want to hear your voice, they can do one click and go over to a play button. Please, please, please. I find too many profiles where I'm trying to find their podcast and I can't find the name and I can't find a play button.

Have the link in bio and Instagram have the link below in LinkedIn have a link. I believe you can have links now in threads, right? Wherever you are, make sure that people are not more than one or two clicks away from hearing your voice. Put a link in your profile.

I know that seems obvious, but so many people don't do it and it drives me nuts as a listener, helping people convert over to being a listener. All right, let me know if you use these. Tag me at @stephfuccio or at @coffeelikemedia.

I'm in both places on a number of different platforms, except for I'm not on x and I'm not on TikTok. See you in the second episode this weekend that we're doing for audience growth month here at coffee like media. Two episodes a week and one podcast audit.

One free podcast audit winner. See you next time. Bye.