How to be visible as a small biz owner without making it 'all about you'. (Hint: It’s actually a lot about you 👀)
Photo by Eva Blake
Over the years, many small business owners have shared with me that when it comes to posting photos of themselves as part of their marketing, “I just don’t want to make it all about me!”.
And I get that.
As the one delivering the service, you’re focussed creating the best experience for your clients and the benefits they’re getting from your work together.
You feel icky about the idea of centring yourself!
But from your potential clients POV?
Your business actually does have quite a lot to do with you.
There are thousands of coaches, consultants, trainers, guides and facilitators out there, so letting people see who you are is not only what allows your peeps to make a connection with you, but sets you apart from others in your space.
When your potential clients are looking for the right professional to help them with The Thing, they’re most likely asking themselves: “Who’s the person behind the service? What are they like? Could they be the right person to help me?”
We choose who we’re going to hire based not only on the quality of someones work, the testimonials, and whether their offerings and pricing suits us, but also on who they are as a human and whether we feel we’d be a good fit as people.
So, while your service is not ‘all about you’ from your perspective, it’s got a lot to do with who you are for your clients.
When you offer something that invites people into any level of vulnerability, like coaching work, therapy, or off-grid outdoor experiences, it’s even more important that your potential clients can see who you are and get a feel for whether they’d feel safe and comfortable with you.
This doesn’t mean you need to show your face on every post or on every page of your website. It’s good to mix up your visuals with story-telling imagery that’s not only of your face. But we do need to see who you are in some places!
The key areas I recommend sharing a photo of yourself are at the first touch-points peeps have with you online.
This means your face should appear:
in your profile photo on socials (e.g. on Instagram, Linkedin, Facebook, BlueSky, etc)
somewhere in the first 3 posts on your IG grid, so that when people land on your profile, they immediately see who you are. (You can ‘pin’ an ‘about’ post to the top of your grid.)
your ‘about’ page - this is where we’re going for more info!
ideally also on your homepage, so that when we first arrive on your website we see you there too.
IMO, these photos should be portraits where we…
can clearly see your face (aka, not a full length shot from a distance, but at least waist up)
can see your eyes (e.g. not wearing sunglasses)
are bringing the energy we want to greet our ideal clients with
feel like ourselves; comfortable, confident.
If you don’t have professional photos yet, I promise that even posting a decent selfie in good, natural light will be better than nothing for now!
Then, for other posts and pages of your site and socials, you could share storytelling images or videos, such as…
behind the scenes of you at work (this could be phone snaps, videos, or professional photography)
candid snaps of life outside of your business (if this feels good, and relevant to your brand)
Here’s a full list of ways you might consider using photography in your business down the line.
And I'd love to know, what difference has sharing your face on your website and social media made to you and your business? Comment below or email me here.