You Do That?

"You do that?" Words a businessperson, brand, or entrepreneur never wants to hear, but someone said them to me not long ago.

I noticed that one of my Facebook friends had an upcoming event where they could have used my services if I were closer. I responded to their posting, "If you were in the area, I would…" Their comment back to me floored me, "You do that?"

Ouch.

I thought, "How could they not know that?" I post about what I do continuously. There are scheduled posts on various social media platforms, often eight times daily. I was stunned and embarrassed because I thought I had been over-communicating and people were growing weary of my constant videos, posts, etc. That wasn't the case. Now I know that some people still don't know what I do, and that's painful!

The tough part? It's probably true for you too. It's even true for Gary Vaynerchuk. Recently, I wrote an article for another publication. In it, I referenced Gary. My editor wrote back and asked who he was. While I was surprised, I shouldn't have been. We all have circles in which we travel and have people in those circles with whom we are familiar. The challenge is when people in our own circle don't know what we do.

Here's how to begin working on that.

First, be more personal. Yes, in this digital age, conversation is King/Queen. Scheduling regular posts on social media via tools like Buffer (my preference) and Hootsuite are good, but they are different from good ol' honest-to-goodness conversation. Interact with others' posts, comment and retweet on Twitter, reply on Instagram or even use direct messaging when appropriate. I have used DM on Instagram to contact people I otherwise couldn't have reached.

Second, be more pointed. And that's the point. Stay on message and be relentless about it. When it comes to social media, it's too easy to get sucked into a black hole of commenting on things that are way off your usual message and for how you want to be known. Resist the temptation to correct others and move on. Post relevant content to your brand. Comment on others' content who are posting in your space. Like relevant pages on Facebook, set up like-minded lists on Twitter, and follow essential hashtags on Instagram. It takes a long time and laser-like focus to get noticed. And about the time you think you are sharing too much content, remember, you've only just begun!

Third, be more publishable. That means making your content interesting and engaging enough so that people will do more than hit the "like" button, but they will also share it. In his book Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen, Steve Sims says, "Don't waste your time counting likes: You'll never be able to pay your bar tab with Facebook likes." (p. 97.) He's right. We aren't out to be liked but to connect with people at their core. To get them off dead center enough to say, "This is too good not to share." Make your articles, posts, tweets, etc., too good to keep private. How do you do it? Research YOUR audience and find out what they want, then experiment. Work backward and reverse engineer what they will likely share, then do that.

Ultimately, there will always be someone who doesn't know what you do. Just make sure that people with whom you are already connected know. Use these three P's to up your presence in your tribe. Hopefully, you'll never hear "You do that?" again.