It’s not unusual to feel powerless when it comes to major events and transitions happening in the world. But you can do more than you may think to make a difference, even just from sitting with your phone or computer.
Currently reading: Using Your Online Presence As A Force For Good Share on X
If you’ve not thought about this before, you’re not alone. Usually it’s a reactive feeling to a big event or transitional period, and once it wears off, you carry on as you were. But thinking more consciously about your role can be a big help in alleviating anxiety and help you build resilience for when things do crop up, because you’ll be comfortable with your plan or checklist for what you did last time.
You may also be interested in these posts: Easy Ways To Give Back Through Your Blog Or Business and How To Sensitively Address Serious Events As A Blogger, Influencer Or Business.
The first section of this post looks at reviewing your online presence, and the second is a dive into some actions you may want to take. You can also use this post to create a task list for yourself to use in future.
Why review your online presence?
It’s good to do a review every so often, and it can be better to do it separately to a brand refresh or theme change so you’re not automatically grouping it with your look and feel.
Instead, you’re asking yourself these questions:
- Does my website (or social media) accurately represent who I am today?
- What am I choosing to say/show about who I am?
- Is it clear what my values are – what I stand for (and against)? (Being neutral is also a valid conscious choice).
If you’re choosing to be more explicit about who you are or something you’re representing, here are some advantages to doing that:
Clarifying what you want to talk about (and how). For example people may get to know you as a source on a particular health or social issue, or immediately think of you when a certain topic comes up.
Attracting like-minded people. Showing the belief systems you support means you’re establishing common ground and a theme. People who like what you’re saying will encourage their friends to follow you too, and you’ll be recommended to similar accounts on social media.
Saving time. Creating in-depth resources on a specific topic – or even just a page of links and numbers if it makes sense for what you’re doing – means you can quickly point people to more info easily if you get asked a lot.
Another option is to create an FAQs page that you can just link so you aren’t always repeating yourself explaining your stance or journey so far, or repeating the answers to personal questions you get asked a lot.
This can also be an important step for protecting your mental health, especially if you talk about any emotionally difficult topics or people come to you for advice. A standalone page or resources means you can take some of the weight off, even if it’s more of a “Start Here” page.
Inspiring other people to do similar. One voice can become a lot of voices, and a lot of voices can change the whole world.
You have a platform and can make a difference – even impacting just one person can be a major step or change a life. It’s not always about volume. Sometimes it’s just important that you know you’re there trying to do the right thing to help people.
01. Things to review
Who you’re following – Do the people and companies you’re following share your values? Do they share things that make you feel anxious or uncomfortable? Are there any brands you previously worked with, or worked with temporarily, that you don’t need in your feed because they feel out of alignment for you now?
This is an important thing to review every so often, as not only will people look to see who you’re following, you’re likely to be recommended to similar accounts and so you want to be associated with the right audience for you in order to reach more like-minded people.
Where you’re spending your time – E.g. are there any Facebook or WhatsApp groups that make you feel worried, anxious or stressed? Are there any social networks you want to have a passive stance on or move away from altogether? Where is your target audience hanging out?
Who you’re linking to – What types of businesses and websites are you supporting by helping them rank better in search results or drawing attention to them by linking or tagging on social media?
Who you’re affiliated with – Whether it’s through ads, sponsored posts, affiliate programs, or something else, double check those companies are ones that you’re happy to support?
How you’re interacting – This has a few different parts, including:
– Being a supportive engager (following, engaging with and sharing people, legitimate small organizations and businesses in affected areas).
– Reporting fake accounts and false information that you come across, especially when bad info could be a direct threat to safety.
– Explaining to/helping friends and family (online or offline) who may not realize what’s fact and what’s fiction.
– Sharing things from legitimate sources to extend reach.
– Reviewing before reacting – including fact-checking and considering the goal of the content. If something is very dramatic, it’s likely been designed to manipulate your emotions, and even a negative response to it extends its reach. Be cautious of content that has been designed solely to create anger, upset, or indignation.
02. What to do (and where)
So now you’ve completed your review, how exactly do you use your online presence as a force for good?
What makes sense for you?
Is what you’re saying appropriate for your presence or not? For example, if you run a home decor blog or business, people may not like you sharing your political views, either because they don’t agree or because they’ve come to you for escapism. However, there is nothing to stop you starting something separate, where people are welcome to follow you for an entirely different type of content. Alternatively, you could keep activity to your personal profiles, where you can control what’s openly public and where the content is clearly associated with you personally but not necessarily your blog or business.
If people look to you for commentary or direction or expect you to take some kind of stance, you could create a dedicated page where you provide information and potentially updates (for example you could embed a different social media feed and create a list of linked resources). You could noindex this page or create it on a subdomain or through a separate landing page provider (see our suggestions for free and cheap landing page options.
Blog posts can also be a good option for this if you’re planning to talk about different things that can be interlinked, for example a post on the general context and your views, and a post on how you can do something to help. Remember you can make blog posts private or password-protected if you’re looking to limit the audience.
Another option is to take a step in a different direction and contribute to other people’s content and takes. For example, you could guest on a podcast that shares similar views to yours, which gives you the chance to speak about something you’re passionate about and expand your reach on that angle without needing to make changes to your own content schedule or commit to a long term project yourself.
When you’re considering all this, think about the tone you want to adopt. Will your content be rant-based? Action based? Reassuring? It could be a mix of all three.
What is appropriate for you?
Sharing helpful information – This could be on a landing page or via pinned/highlighted social media posts. It could include a key summary, links to official resources or officials to contact, helplines, ways to donate (and reasons you’ve chosen these particular fundraisers or organizers), petitions and so on.
Creating a community – Starting a private Whatsapp, Slack, Discord, Facebook group, or similar for people to share in a safe space. This can work better for rants so they become a discussion rather than just being negative, or for people to discuss things back and forth, or as a command center for action if that’s needed. It also means you have more control over who is contributing in the community and helps people share things they wouldn’t want to discuss publicly.
Offering monetary and non-monetary options – For help, support and guidance. People often want to help but don’t always have the money to do so. Helping them with ideas for things that are more about giving time than money can rally people into action. This could be things like offering personal support to people affected, knocking on doors, helping arrange an event, designing or printing flyers, reading books or listening to podcasts to curate a list of useful resources, moderating community posts or comments, sharing information on social media, and so on.
Things to add to your website – for example, is there a fundraiser related to what you’re talking about that can be added to your page or linked from your sidebar? Would a website header bar be appropriate to draw people’s attention to a specific page on your site?
Where are the boundaries of your expertise or cause?
You don’t want to take on too much, especially if what you’re covering is a long-term or lifetime thing (as opposed to something time-specific like a natural disaster or a particular fundraising event). You can’t track everything happening all the time, so having clear lines is important. It could be one thing that’s too much, or a general direction something is heading in.
Equally, people may see you as a friend or go-to to lean on. This can become very overwhelming very quickly, especially if you’re sensitive to people’s issues and/or also working through your own challenges. Having some empathetic responses ready to go/in mind with a link to a resources page for people to seek professional support is a must.
Dealing with negativity
Some people will be negative regardless
Don’t be afraid to share your views even if not everyone agrees with them. Not everyone will agree with you on everything – people may leave a negative comment because they disagree with your political views, but they may also leave a negative comment because you painted your walls blue or they don’t like the amount of sugar you’ve used in a recipe. Healthy disagreement is a part of a normal, functioning society.
Decide where your red line is
Some people don’t like any negativity – it can go against the ethos of the community you’re trying to build or be a distraction from what’s important, or can heavily affect your mood and outlook if you’re an empath. Others are happy to have people disagree as long as it doesn’t get personal and lead to direct insults or trolling.
It’s totally up to you where your red line is, but it is important that you’ve consciously decided where it falls. You can have community rules of engagement, or terms on your website that express the rules you expect clients to agree to.
Once you have your rules in place, stick to them – no exceptions. It can be hard for people to get used to you having boundaries in place if you’ve not had (or consistently enforced) them before, which is why it’s important to stick to them.
Use the tools you have in a way that works for you
Blocking, turning off comments, deleting, even just ignoring. Some people may not like it, but then they didn’t like things before, so what’s the difference? You have a right to protect your peace.
Sometimes people are just having a bad day, sometimes the stress of major events or upheaval or something personal can take its toll. It can be useful to have a bit of a buffer to allow for people feeling worried or stressed and behaving out of character. But don’t ever feel bad about blocking someone who is repeatedly disrupting your peace.
Pin for later:
No Comments