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Relatability in Your Content Equals Trust from Those You Serve

Don’t just be a superhero in your content…

…let your audience know you live and breathe just like them.

One of the best ways to leverage social media is to illustrate your expertise and show your audience how your particular thought leadership can help move them past the hurdles and challenges that are currently showing up in their lives.

That’s a remarkable ability.

This process not only develops an authentic connection, but, it presents you as a superhero to those you serve.

And rightfully so.

When you factor in all of the education, conversations, random insights and experiences that you’ve encountered over the years that’s contributed to the development of your particular expertise in your space of influence…

…no one does it quite like you, 🙂

Although you have some special superpowers…

…that’s only a piece of the whole pie when it comes to building a memorable and referable online presence.

You see, if you ONLY share stories that show off your game-changing insights, that’s actually hurting, not helping your cause.

How so?

Well, to some people in your audience, they would be intimidated by your thunder and be too scared to even consider hiring you to help them with the roadblocks they have in their businesses and lives.

To them, you seem untouchable, and couldn’t possibly understand THEIR particular challenges because they seem to be beneath you, or that you wouldn’t spend your precious and valuable time helping them work past their seemingly insignificant problems.

As a result, you need to compliment your invaluable expertise with stories that illustrate that you’re a human being and have been in their shoes, too.

Be relatable to your audience

So, how do you achieve this balance?

It’s a matter of mixing in social content and blog articles that not only showcase the value you

offer your audience through your expertise, but also sharing stories that illustrate your life as a business owner and life as a human being.

Although you have an amazing gift for helping people in the way you do, you also live on this Earth just as they do, and even though that would seem to be a common sense assumption, when people are in pain and seek help, it’s important to remind them that you’ve been where they are and you know exactly what they’re going through.

Remind them of this by sharing who you are, who you serve and why you do what you do through the content that you share.

How to be more relatable in your image content

When you effectively strike the balance between superhero and relatable human being, that keeps your audience invested, engaged and inspired in you and your specialized help, which, ultimately leads to cementing familiarity and trust, which then develops into sales when the moment is right for them to buy, because who else would they turn to??

It’s a win-win all around, isn’t it, 🙂

So, what can you do to strike that balance?

Speak in your own voice

This is one of those suggestions that sounds like a piece of cake on the surface, but, in fact, this is one that takes a while to develop.

In my experience, it took me roughly 6-8 months to finally get my writing to a place where I actually felt as though it sounded as if I were having a conversation and not simply writing ideas on a page.

It was a bit of a chore, but, the juice is worth the squeeze.

Once I started to feel more comfortable in my style of writing, I noticed the reaction to these pieces changed dramatically – and by dramatically, I mean members of my audience started to pay more attention and actually ENGAGE the posts.

And here I thought that no one was reading, 🙂

When you write in your own voice and incorporate your vernacular, pacing, humor, personality and tone, that will automatically qualify in a slew of people into your audience.

Consequently, it will also qualify OUT many people, as well. And no, that’s not a bad thing – you’re curating an audience that wants to be under your tent and follow your every word.

In addition, when you share content in your natural voice for your audience, you’re gaining their attention in a unique way because no one else presents specific thoughts and insights quite like you do.

Speaking in your own voice is step one in building a community of advocates, cheerleaders and referral partners.

Share the missteps and failures

If there was someone who was completely resistant to implementing this concept into my own social media and blog content, it was me.

For years, I was under the impression that sharing the failures was a monumental sign of weakness, and I’d avoid it at all costs. I also figured that these types of stories would signal everyone to pull out their tiny violins and they’d play a symphony for me.

Over time, I learned the lesson that vulnerability is actually empowering, and, it’s a signal to your audience that you completely understand where they’re coming from because you’ve lived through massive challenges, as well.

Although you’re living your best life achieving all of the goals you set out to meet, you have fallen down and had situations blow up in your face more than once, and it’s important to point out those failures because it gives your audience the opportunity to learn from your mistakes.

These types of stories also creates connection and camaraderie.

Think about some of the many challenges that you’ve faced and overcome within the past couple years. Think about each individually, write them down and share them with those you serve.

That will go a long way to become more relatable.

Illustrate your process

Although amazing image content of you captured on stage is a wonderful way to illustrate you at the height of your superpowers, balance out those images with lifestyle portraits that break down the fourth wall between you and your audience by sharing portraits that showcase your process.

What does work look like to you? Do you work mostly on a laptop? Do you have an office? Co-work space? Or, work wherever the wind takes you that day?

How do you brainstorm ideas? Do you write ideas down in your phone or laptop? Voice record? Moleskin? Have a wall of post-its or a whiteboard filled with scribbled thoughts?

What does working with a client look like? Is it all virtual? On the phone? In person? In group settings?

Once you translate all of these answers into lifestyle portraits, you, then, are able to demystify the process of what working with you looks like for your audience.

You’re giving them the opportunity to easily envision themselves on the other end of that phone call, Skype Session or one-on-one consultation with you talking through their current, mental roadblocks.

If they can envision it, they’ll be more apt to do it.

Share objects and props that have emotional resonance for you

Although speaking photos and branded lifestyle portraits of you are compelling pieces of content, if you post similar photos of your face day-after-day, month-after-month, that gets pretty damn predictable and boring.

It’s important to spice it up with a variety of image content that doesn’t simply include you.

Although there are quite a few avenues to explore with respect to this idea, one of the main ways I direct my clients to keep their feeds interesting is by sharing images of objects that mean something to them in a way that translates to their audience a deeper sense of who you are as a person and professional.

For example, I’ve shared images of my cameras with my audience and talked about the gratitude I have for discovering this passion for serving others with my art.

For my clients, I’ve captured images of a variety of objects – jewelry, pens, watches, trinkets, coffee mugs, toys, dolls, books, etc – that they’ve used to tell a personal story and give their audience a more insightful peek into what motivates them every day to do what they do.

And that’s the key to sharing these types of images – use these photos in a way that will relate your human being qualities to those you serve. It doesn’t matter if they owned the objects that you share – they’re relating to the emotion and sentiment that you hold for those objects.

These types of shares draw your audience into the conversation, which will go a long way to developing their level of trust they feel towards you, and by extension, the specialized help you can offer them.

When we inspire our audiences to feel and not just think, that gives them a greater sense of connection, and ultimately, it leads to more sales.

That’s why it’s absolutely essential that you talk to them in a way that meets them where they are and reminds them that you knowhow they feel and want to help them get where they want to go.

It’s that simple.

John DeMato is a NYC branded lifestyle portrait photographer and content creation expert who serves speakers, authors, coaches and high-level entrepreneurs across the country. His 50+ e-book, S.H.A.R.E. M.A.G.I.C.A.L. I.D.E.A.S., lays out the how, what and why behind creating a memorable and referable online presence – sign up to get your FREE copy today.

John DeMato
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