How do you feel about online visibility? It’s a vital part of business for many, but it can also feel overwhelming ‌too. All businesses need to promote themselves and the online world has plenty of solutions that can help.

But things like social media platforms, networking groups, and even your own website can feel overwhelming at times. So it’s understandable that more and more business owners are feeling stressed by it all and looking for ways to reduce those levels.

So if you’re looking to cut down on stress and overwhelm around the online world, here are five things that will help!

#1: Know the difference between constant and consistent

Online visibility overwhelm is often a result of misunderstanding these two words. Constantly being online can be totally overwhelming. You feel you have to be there 24/7, posting several times a day and interacting for 2-3 hours at a time, otherwise you may not be seen by everyone in your audience.

But the reality is you don’t need to always be posting in order to be visible – you just need to be consistent in your actions when you are there. And there’s a high chance that, no matter how often you post, your entire audience still won’t see it all!

So know what you’re comfortable doing and create a plan around those things. If you’re happy with 4-5 posts a week and 10 minutes of interaction a day, do that. If you’re looking to just post one thing, look to create something you can repurpose into automated content, such as quotes, promo posts, tips, etc. A blog or video are both great options here.

#2: Choose your online visibility options wisely

Stop trying to be everywhere online – it’s going to stress you out! Choose just 1-3 platforms that suit you and your clients. Do you even need to use social media or would offline work better for you? Can you work on building your mailing list or creating a Facebook group instead?

Another thing to consider is how often you’re not being intentional when you go online. Again, this can create an overwhelming feeling. So if you’re spending loads of time online, check that you’re doing what you want to do, and aren’t getting sidetracked or sucked down a rabbit hole of aimless scrolling.

#3: Get a simple plan in place to reduce overwhelm around online visibility

If you want to make online visibility easier for you, you need a plan. So, do you have an annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly plan for your online efforts – one that lists what you’re going to post, the type of content you’re going to create, and when? If not, create one, as it will help ease overwhelm and help you achieve your goals. Just remember to keep your plan simple, so it isn’t overwhelming you.

This isn’t just about content creation though, you also need a marketing strategy in place too. This will help you see what you’re planning to promote throughout the year and plan your content accordingly.

#4: Schedule and create content in advance

If you followed the above tip and now have a plan in place, it will make it a lot easier for you to get organised with your content creation, as you can batch create. Why? Well focusing on one thing at a time will help reduce overwhelm and help keep you focused and productive.

You know from your plan, the type of content you need to create and the topics. The next step is to set aside batches of time to create that content, edit it and schedule it. Look to work at least a week in advance (a month would be great!). You then don’t have to stress about having nothing ready to go or what ideas to work on. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed and need to take a break, you can, knowing you already have content scheduled to go.

#5: Watch your influencers

And finally, watch your influencers. This is a two-fold tip, really. It’s about being mindful of who you’re watching and narrowing down the noise that can overwhelm you.

So, with watching your influencers, watch what they’re doing and creating. Look to implement some of those practices and ideas into your business. This can include hiring someone to manage your social media or newsletter etc, getting someone to create your content and/or graphics, clever repurposing with your content, such as creating a video and using the audio for a podcast and the text for a blog etc, as well as carving up a blog post for social media posts, etc.

But it’s also about cutting down on the online noise too. If you’re following loads of different influencers in your niche, there’s a high chance you’re getting information overload. This includes mixed messages about action steps, FOMO and buying solutions you don’t need, and it could also damage your belief in your abilities and business goals, etc. So cut down who you’re following and limit that noise.

Do check out our earlier blogs on staying productive on social media and more on online visibility.

And if you’re looking for a more robust way of easing that overwhelm around online visibility, why not outsource it? A Virtual Assistant can take a lot of those online tasks off your plate, freeing you up to work on those things that light you up. So why not reach out and let’s see how we can help – you’ll find our contact information here.