Get Real and Profit: Create your own Reality Show

Take some friends and their families, put them on a deserted island with minimal survival equipment for a month, film it, and put it up on YouTube. Just joking — this is obviously not the best idea for promoting your business on social media :)

Seriously, though: a major building block of promoting your business on social media is the PERSONAL Reality Show.

This Reality Show Method is something that major celebrities and renowned bloggers/vloggers use to stay in touch with their audience and establish that priceless human connection we all want.

Just take a good look at big names like The Rock, Miley Cyrus, Gary Vaynerchuk and many others who expertly use this tactic. We almost feel like we know them, at least a little bit, even though they are complete strangers.

They don’t feel like a ‘product’ or ‘brand’ that is designed and curated by a PR team.

When they show their human side, simple details about their life, they are immediately 100 times more relatable, likable and trustworthy.

Just like those who follow The Rock, people will follow you on social media because they want to know what is going on with you, as a relatable, live, and real human being!

The Reality Show approach gives your followers this piece of human connection while positioning you (and your brand) as someone to pay attention to.

For Social Media Directors (or even Managers), promoting your business on social media through the Reality Show Method is an indispensable way to build a loyal following while cultivating future clients — all with very little extra work.

Promoting yourself on social media properly also explicitly shows your clients that you know how social media works!

How to create the Reality Show (the Basics)

There’s no intricate science to this because it’s all about being authentic. That being said, there are two points to pay attention to: platform appropriateness and your own comfort level.

• On business-oriented platforms (i.e. LinkedIn) focus on promoting your business. Post about your activities, such as updates on upcoming webinars you’re creating or events you’re speaking at.
• On the more personal accounts (i.e. Facebook, Snapchat), keep it fun and relatable: your pets, kids, recreation, and don’t be shy to pepper in some business stuff, too.

Here is where the comfort level bit is very important: figure out where your privacy line is. Everybody has a different limit as to what kind of personal information they are willing to share. Find your boundary and stick to it.

As a practical example, you can do a “selfie story”, where — just like it sounds — you take a selfie, and tell a story about what you’re doing.

Take a picture of yourself at a networking event and shout out who you’re with and why you’re there.

Take a picture of something cool that you do on an evening or on the weekend and say a few words about it.

Add some flavor with emotive stories! Instead of just describing things, throw in some positive adjectives and descriptions of how awesome an experience is.

Now, every good story has to have its ups and downs. Don’t just post exclusively positive stuff, but don’t whine about your trials and tribulations constantly either.

Stay within the bounds of what is comfortable for you to share and keep it generally positive. Happy endings are good!

Pro Tip: for maximum effectiveness, use the harder stories (conflict, sadness, strife, challenges, etc.) in order to create additional value for your audience, beyond the emotional involvement. Share the valuable lessons that you learn from these experiences, which your readers/viewers can apply to their own life and their career. If this lesson directly relates to your area of expertise: even better!

Remember: Facebook users engage the most with faces, food, and animals, so don’t be afraid to exploit your furry friends or your charming smile.

Taking pictures of your food is touted as an annoying social media cliche, but the bottom line is: it works!

How often to post

Make sure you’re posting a minimum of one time per week.

This schedule shouldn’t be a ton of extra work for you, it is about documenting the activities and thoughts you have throughout your everyday life. Use a combination of photo, text, and video posts to create your “show”.

There are some other tips out there, but keep in mind that this is easy-peasy. Coincidentally, because of my Reality Show I actually ended up going out more often and doing more cool stuff, just because I knew that I had to keep the action up!

Important! You’re not just promoting your business on social media! You are representing yourself, so be authentic!

By using social media in this way, you can catalyze authentic connections with future clients and collaborators.

The people on social media that you don’t know well are where opportunity resides. Leverage this fringe network with the Reality Show Method.

Everybody has different experiences when it comes to promoting your business on social media. I’d love to hear any suggestions, tips, or stories that you may have!