How to succeed online be yourself. Recently, I’ve come across many bloggers who are revamping their websites, changing direction and stating that they want to write about what they really love.  This is so wonderful to see because I think that all too often, we feel pressured by what others are doing online and we strive to emulate them and as a result, we lose ourselves and our personalities. Part of why readers come to your site is because of you. They want to see your take on what you are writing about and they seek out your opinion. I have struggled with this myself, as I tend to want to hide behind my writing, but am slowly learning to bring myself into it.

HOW TO SUCCEED ONLINE BE YOURSELF

Use your name. The idea here is to connect with people and how are you going to do that if you aren’t even using your real name? Ask yourself, why are you hiding? It’s definitely okay to set boundaries and you should, but it’s also important to be you.

Use your photograph. People are visual and it really helps if you post a photograph of yourself on your blog. Make sure that it is friendly and genuine so that your readers can feel like they are connecting with you. I used to use an image of myself wearing over-sized sunnies and a hat (which I still love), but I repeatedly got comments from people saying that they wished they could see my face.

Would you say it aloud? You know how your mom always told you to think before you act? Well, this is no different. People sometimes leave the strangest comments and I’m not even referring to the mean ones, which can be truly awful. I’m talking about the completely senseless ones which just don’t fit. Before writing whatever down, think for a second. Would you say that to someone if you were face to face? If the answer is no, then don’t write it. You certainly don’t need to sugar coat anything, but be mindful of how it might sound to another person.

Act like yourself. It’s easy to play a role when you’re online as you can be anyone you want to be. While this may work for a while, it can’t be sustained long term and people will figure it (and more importantly you) out. That will do a lot of damage to your credibility and therefore your brand.

Be social. People often forget the “social” part of social media, so try to remember that there is a face (aka a real person) behind that comment. When someone comments, respond with a genuine comment back. You may never meet that person, or even most of these people, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build lasting relationships. I’ve met some wonderful people online, who I know I can count on if, say, I need a last minute guest post or help promoting a piece that I wrote.

Keep in mind that it takes time to make friends online and remember also that people will accept you more readily and will warm to you much more quickly if you are genuine, rather than if you are playing a character. Sure, some people may not like you, but does that really matter?  Find the people who you feel you can connect with and work on building those relationships and you’ll be surprised to see how fast your blog will grow.

What’s your advice to people with regards to being yourself  online?