Showing up isn’t an all or nothing proposition. As part of my campaign against perfectionism, I want to encourage you to show up for your brand, business, or project EVEN IF YOU DONT FEEL 100% PREPARED. Not great at Instagram Reels? Make something super-simple. Haven’t perfected your latest blog post? Add “Part 1” after the title and share what you have knowing you can update and revise later. Thinking about starting a newsletter but not sure what to write about? Write about not knowing what to write about … and how to find ideas

Showing up is about being PRESENT. It’s not about being polished or having the exact right thing to say. Yes, you can just drop in and say “hello.” SRSLY. It’s great to be the person on social media (or in business or out in the world) who has the impactful product or the well-researched presentation. But it’s also important to be the person asking, “How are YOU today? What’s going on in YOUR life? What are YOU working on?”

I really do believe strongly in the value of creating space for others to talk about themselves. Social media, at its worst, is vapid and self-absorbed. It’s selfies and influencers and we’re all marketing something even if it’s just ourselves. But it doesn’t HAVE to be that way.

1. Organic marketing isn’t all about selling. It’s also about sharing a story and giving value. The call to action can be “join my mailing list” or “visit my website” or even “buy my product” EVEN IF THE POST is about sharing a personal story or three tips or a fun fact. (I’m going to go out a limb here and say it’s also OK if the call to action is “be good to yourself” or “smile at a puppy today.” I, for one, am not a marketing robot and I hope you’re not, either.)
   
2. Organic marketing IS about drawing a connection between your product or service, your social media presence (connection), your story as a human on the planet (trust building), and the space where those interested can find said product or service. Organic marketing is the space where you can be open for business and also open to making friends, meeting collaborators, and nurturing like-minded creatives. Sales are cool. Community is cooler.

Social media, at its best, is about community. We build community through authentic expression and a willingness to be vulnerable. That doesn’t mean you have to share your squirmiest secrets. It does mean you can allow yourself to be a work in progress and share your process with a community that is evolving right along with you.

Keeping that in mind, showing up can take on any form you need it to. The only “rule” to showing up is making a practice of presence. You have all the say in what form that presence takes in your social media space and for your brand, business, or project. You get to decide how often. There is no hard-and-fast number for posts per week. Find your sweet spot — is it one blog post? Three Instagram posts? Daily tweets? All good if you can do it with creativity and joy. If you can do it with a sense of serving your community.

You also have full say in what your content pillars are, what your main social platform is, whether your posts are text-based or video-based or graphics-based. Yes, there are metrics that point to some types of posts performing better than others and certain platforms being a better match for certain products or services. You can study those trends and performance indicators if you want to. But you don’t HAVE to. You only have be your genuine, wonderful, unique, creative self and show up in the way that feels good to you and is meaningful to your community.

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