This is a topic very close to my heart because I hate being visible as anyone who knows me will tell you. Like many Social Media Managers, I love doing other people’s social media but I absolutely hate doing my own. I hate showing my face on anything social media-wise!
So I completely understand how you feel if you are a business owner who hates showing your face on your social media. It has to be done though, because people buy people, so I’m gonna give you a few tips:
Make it easy on yourself.
If you have a product-based or creative business, you can show your audience how you make your products. This can be an easy video or reel for social media. You can do process videos, background videos, showing people your studio, your setup – people absolutely love seeing that sort of content.
If you’re an artist and you’re creating big canvases for example, get yourself a cheapo tripod (they can be as little as £20) and then you can do time-lapse videos of you working on a piece.
If you’re a service-based business something you can do is ‘B roll’. This is essentially where you do your normal work and you have a camera rolling while you’re working, maybe just a few times a day. Then you can use that video, put some music over it and put some captions over it to say whatever you like about the work that you do. Have a look at my Instagram and you will see that I’ve done a couple of these B roll videos, mostly with my cat on knee because that is my usual work setup!
Show your day without showing your face.
Take pictures of your pets, your hobbies, what you like to do when you are out and about. Take videos of you walking to a meeting or heading to a different location. Stick the photos and little videos together in a reel with some music over the top, and your audience will feel like they are coming with you on your day.
Have a brand photoshoot.
Have some professional photographs taken if you can. I had a mini-shoot with Emma Boyle which was amazing, and was perfect for what I needed. Emma finds out bits about your business and she works out with you what sorts of shots you’re going to need for your socials. So for me, I had some shots of me looking at my phone, on my laptop, as if I was on a Zoom call etc. Emma really puts you at ease – I for one don’t like having my photograph taken, but really it was just like having a chat with Emma for an hour, and she took some fabulous photos while we were at it. You can see in the photos that I was relaxed and at ease.
Having brand photos makes it so much easier to post and be consistent, because you have those images that you can just throw up if you’re not feeling like you want to take a selfie, or you don’t want to talk to camera today.
Do a little work on your mindset.
Think about why you don’t like showing your face and why you don’t want to be visible. I worked with Clear Day founder Helen Calvert and it’s it’s helped me massively. I still hate being visible but I can see why I hate it now, and I can think about why that’s happening and I can override it. A lot of what was stopping me would be things like ‘I haven’t put any makeup on today’ or ‘I haven’t done hair’. Those sorts of things used to stop me putting photos on socials. I’ve realised that is such a barrier. One of the things that Helen says is ‘this is your face. This is it. The world sees your face all the time.’ What really stuck with me was she asked ‘how different do you think your face is with makeup? It’s still your face’. That’s been a big mindset change for me.
Show up as you are – if you flap about waiting till you look perfect you probably won’t do it because you’re too busy. While you have something to talk about that is in your head that you’re feeling passionate and engaged about, that is when you’ll be engaging to your audience as well. When you have the ideas is the time to get on camera and just ignore the fact that maybe you don’t have makeup on or maybe you’re not feeling that confident.
I also recently did a Feisty 90 session with Sarah Steinhafel, which has helped me because I talked to her about how as soon as I’m busy or I have a lot going on in my life, I just go absent on social media. Sarah helped me to understand that is overwhelm. What I need to be doing – and you can do too – is having a bank of content that I can just check off when I’m feeling overwhelmed or have scheduled which is even better.
Focus on what you are good at.
Think about what you are actually good at and what you really want to do. Who are the clients you really want to work with? Once you nail that down your messaging gets easier and clearer. At which point you will feel more confident being visible, because you are talking to people with whom you genuinely want to work.
The more you do it, the more comfortable you get with being visible – so practice in supportive places like Facebook groups or only to ‘close friends’ on Instagram (you can limit who can see your stories). Even when you are being visible to your whole audience though, think about who you’re actually talking to. Who is likely to be looking at your content? The people who are following you on social media are people who are supporting you, who want you to do well. Sometimes it can feel like you’re talking to the whole world, but in reality you are talking to your nice little portion of social media followers.
Work with me!
If you would like some help with figuring out how to be visible your way, why not book in for a Power Hour with me and we can discuss the best ways to go about it for you and your business?
Sam MacMahon
Business Manager and Social Media Lead
Clear Day
August 2023