Despite the thriving and evolving digital economy, leaders still need to strike a healthy balance between their company’s online and offline presence if they want their business to remain relevant to current and prospective customers.
To enhance your daily presence in their personal or professional lives, it’s also essential to listen so you’ll understand their needs because that will help you come up with some of the best solutions that are well-timed and informative.
Below are 15 additional tips, from members of Fast Company Executive Board to equip you with the essential tools to stay authentic and active in your targeted communities.
1. KEEP IT REAL.
Wherever your presence is, online or offline, it must grow from an authentic core. If your company has a strong vision and mission that springs from the leaderships’ and employees’ yes! then your brand should remain powerful, authentic, and aligned. If the company is one thing in real life and tries to appear a different way online, that’s when you start to see the fractures. – Viveka Von Rosen, Vengreso
2. PUT YOUR BRAND’S PROMISE IN THE NAME.
Develop a simple brand name and promise. Ideally, that promise is in the name. For example, Apple is “Think Different.” One of my clients is “The Lifestyle Investor.” Another is Rich.Life. Another is BillionDollarExits. All deliver the promise in the name. – Mike Koenigs, The Superpower Accelerator
3. TIME YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENTS ACCORDINGLY.
Having a powerful online presence does not have to mean having an overbearing online presence. Make a game plan for your social media interactions, and make sure your posts are actively representing your brand while staying true to your company culture. A well-timed, informative, and engaging feed will enhance your following online while also giving your team time to focus on offline business needs. – Brandon Pena, BrandON Media Group
4. BUILD YOUR NETWORK VIA INFLUENCERS AND IN-PERSON EVENTS.
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the most popular ways to connect with your audience. You can also leverage social media influencers to help you build a larger following. Offline events, such as conferences and trade shows are great ways to connect with your target audience in person. – Kristin Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC
5. CONTRIBUTE TO A PODCAST OR PANEL DISCUSSION.
Participating in podcasts or panel engagements are powerful platforms to become associated with. They are socialized on multiple channels and recordings are available offline. – Britton Bloch, Navy Federal
6. GET CLEAR ON YOUR CORE VALUES AND LEADERSHIP STYLE.
Maintain your authentic leadership. As I recently wrote in this article, it is important to get clear on your core values and leadership style. A leader who is honest about themselves provides an environment that brings some calm and comfort to an otherwise chaotic world. This will translate to a powerful online and offline presence because it is real and true. – Steve Dion, Dion Leadership
7. TWEAK YOUR CONTENT DELIVERY.
The key is to understand the nuances of both platforms and different derivatives within, so you can tweak the content delivery while being authentic and consistent across the board to amplify your impact, by striking the right chord with the target audience. Overlapping online and offline strategies can expand your reach while creating meaningful engagements. – Gayatri Keskar, Material ConneXion
8. COVER EVERY MEDIA BASE.
A strong offline presence is usually a side effect of a strong online presence. If you’re a thought leader in your industry, appearing everywhere from social networks to podcasts to videos, from your own blog to external publications writing about you, you’ll also find yourself recognizable in actual physical events. – Yoav Vilner, Walnut
9. CREATE QUALITY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.
The biggest key to achieving a powerful presence both on and offline is branding. Powerful brands spend more time creating quality products and services than nearly everything else, with the exception of brand promotion. Powerful brands also tend to do better during economic cycles because their brand can outlast negative external factors. – Tyrone Foster, InvestNet, LLC
10. BE A PROBLEM SOLVER.
Knowing who your audience is and the problems they’re trying to solve every day. Without knowing who your audience is, you cannot create authentic content that will be valued by the people you’re creating it for. – Bill Staikos, Medallia
11. JOIN AND CREATE A COMMUNITY.
Be authentic and share value that helps your ideal customers with their problems without selling for both channels. You can deliver this value online through thought-provoking social media posts, articles, podcasts, and your website. Offline, attend or speak at conferences, join networking events and offer to help others potentially outside of your industry to create community. – Matt Domo, FifthVantage
12. ENGAGE IN THE METAVERSE.
The inevitable migration of commerce into the metaverse is prompting many companies to create an online and offline linkage strategy. The first step is to make sure there is an authentic connection between the two spaces. For us at InfiniteWorld, we support brands in bringing real-world products, like sneakers, into the metaverse through the creation of NFTs that correspond to the actual shoes. – Yonathan Lapchik, INFINITE WORLD
13. INVEST IN ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.
Advertising in physical space is a great way for a digital brand to have a powerful offline presence. Whether it be taking over a city through blanketing digital signage at a specific hour or creating a permanent presence at a major transit hub, great out-of-home advertising can extend your digital brand offline. – Chris Grosso, Intersection
14. CONNECT YOUR ONLINE AND OFFLINE WORLDS SEAMLESSLY.
Stop treating online and offline as two different things, because online and offline aren’t the separate worlds they once were. Think of the last time you were out without your phone—they’re two sides of the same coin. For individual and corporate brands alike, consistency is key and the only way to achieve that is through authenticity. Each encounter, each experience, needs to feel (and ideally, be) connected to the next. – Jason Cottrell, Myplanet
15. STAY CONSISTENT WITH THE VISUAL NARRATIVE.
Brand consistency is fundamental in online and real-world user experiences. Visual and narrative consistency conveys the brand character and echos the brand awareness, contributing to general brand perception. Naturally, users will interact with a brand in multiple ways, and for a brand to solidify its identity, its style and tonality in cross-channel communication need to be in sync. – Goran Paun, ArtVersion