Showing up online builds trust, expands your reach, and unlocks opportunities you might otherwise miss. The reality is that so much of life, interaction, and social cohesion is formed online. I am big on real relationships, in-person everything, making connections for the long term. But your LinkedIn, your Instagram, your online social presence is a front porch to the work that you do. If you’re building or growing just about any enterprise, you need to maintain and grow your online presence. It builds trust, and trust attracts resources.
Michelle Vryn wrote a brilliant article this week in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about the imperative of online presence for nonprofit leaders – really, anyone in leadership: “Nonprofit CEOs Can’t Afford to Stay Invisible.”
For Vryn, this imperative to get online extends beyond sharing posts from your company or delegating soundbites to a team member. Rather, it means building a personal brand. You need to show up as you, communicating about the work you are doing not just at the office but across life. She quotes author Amanda Litman, “you literally have to be yapping online.”
This is yapping with a vision, though. It’s purposeful. It builds trust. You need to find ways to cut through. She highlights the new partnership between influencer MrBeast and the Rockefeller Foundation because the YouTube influencer is just that — very influential. He has millions (900 million!) followers who listen to what he says online.
You don’t even need 900 million followers (great if you have that!). You might just need a couple. I have posted ideas, updates from our nonprofit, books I’m reading, etc., posts that got like four impressions, one like, but that’s all they needed. Most of those posts sparked just ONE connection. One phone call. One email where I was introduced to a new partner. All because I posted online. When people are curious about the pace of scale at our organization, I always point to LinkedIn as one of the key tools that has driven our visibility forward. I have ideas on exactly how to do it (part of my Impact Model framework paints that picture), but the key is really just showing up. Imperfect is better than not even trying.
Being visible means sharing more than just the work your organization is doing. It means sharing the way you think about that work. It means sharing behind the scenes on the moves you make every day. When you are expansive in the way you share, you bring others along with you by lifting up the key ideas that shape the work you do to carry out your mission and achieve your vision. You build language around your internal processes so that you can build reputation, knowledge, and visibility externally.
A few years ago, I was listening to a brilliant panel on innovation and heard this: “The nature of innovation is that you are struggling with imperfection, but you are heading in the right direction. If you’re not failing enough, you’re not trying hard enough.”
And the reality is, I don’t think it’s a matter of failure or not. It’s more of a check-the-box situation. Did you post or did you not post?
Vryn lifts studies that connect why this matters and shares practical ways you can start today:
📇 92% of professionals are more likely to trust organizations whose leaders are active on social media
👩🏻💻 74% of Fortune 500 CEOs maintain at least one social account
🎥 Post a brief video every two weeks about a program in your organization
📲 Don’t pass it off to someone on your team or assume the company social is enough. Your voice matters.
Start small. Start today. It’s not about perfection. It’s about connection.
📰 I suggest a couple sentences to start: choose one story from your week (bonus if you pair it with a photo) and one thought you have about that story. Happy posting!