Did you know there are all sorts of actions you can take to make your work world a better place? I don’t mean organizing your calendar and making strategic decisions about what platforms you choose to leverage. Certainly you should be doing those things, but what I’m referring to here are interesting next-level “flair” activities you can be doing to add texture to your online presence, depth to your persona and nuance to your work portfolio overall. The following aren’t necessarily “tricks,” but they are helpful ideas you may not have thought about before.
GETTING PUBLISHED BY A SITE
You can and should reach out to your chosen content platform’s support team and any relevant departments behind the scenes to ask what you can do to be featured or promoted on their site or social media.
You can write an article for a platform’s blog if they offer one or participate in an interview with a company rep, whether they offer print magazines, online-only news or a company blog. It can be competitive trying to get featured, so you need to have something to say, and you need to say it well. Fortunately, even if you’re not a highly-ranked star with a massive fan base, good writing skills or a unique and compelling communication style can often help you get your voice out there.
ASKING FOR PROMO ASSISTANCE
You can and should reach out to your chosen content platform’s support team and any relevant departments behind the scenes to ask what you can do to be featured or promoted on their site or social media. This could be something simple like having them spotlight your page or asking them for branded company merchandise you can wear in your pictures. You could even request more elaborate promotions like having them do an interview with you or asking for help with making a branded trailer for your page. The key point here is that you have to ask. If people don’t know you’re interested, how will they know to link up? Plus, the initiative and interactivity you demonstrate will put you on their radar for when they are actively seeking creators for something high-profile or more elaborate.
LEARNING CONTINUOUSLY
You can and should reach out to support teams to see if they are able to offer any advice on how to optimize growth on their platform, better use their features, optimize yourself on their site and so on. This can take the form of an email exchange, a shared link to an educational blog or access to tutorials and articles you may not even know about. On some platforms, it can even mean a one-on-one site walk-through with a rep.
BEING COMFORTABLE WITH SAYING ‘NO’
If you are offered or asked to participate in an initiative that you don’t like, you can always say “no.” You can reject their offer in a polite way. Even better, you can say you would love to do something with them, but this particular opportunity doesn’t feel like the best fit for both of you. Then, consider following that up with your own proposal, backing it up with reasons why your idea might be more suitable for your collaboration.
TREATING SUPPORT STAFF KINDLY
When you eat out, your server is a key part of making sure you have a great experience. It makes sense to be nice to them. The same goes with site support staff. Be polite to support folks and treat them as part of your income optimization team. This is especially important to remember when you have an issue, whether that issue is the site’s fault or your fault — it happens! — or some glitch no one could have predicted. The fact remains that getting an issue resolved always goes more smoothly if everyone feels respected.
Support teams are not your customer or your submissive — and even if they are, when they are working, they are site support on their work accounts! When something goes wrong, it’s easy to feel frustrated, but just keep in mind that the support personnel did not cause the problem. They want your issues fixed as much as you do. Don’t shoot the messenger, as the saying goes.
Following the above strategies can help you not only find greater success on your chosen platforms, but also improve your skills and establish yourself better through promotional opportunities, so you can emerge as the mastermind of your own career with a stronger presence in the creator community.
Cindy Partridge is a contributing model coach for Loyalfans. To explore the many unique ways creators can monetize content with one of the fastest growing premium social media platforms, visit Loyalfans.com or follow them @realloyalfans on Twitter and Instagram.