RWL034 How to Build a Captivating Online Presence for Remote Business Success

Remote Work Life Podcast and Community

Speaker 1

0:00

Hey, it's Alex from Remote Work Life here. Remote Work Life is a growing community and podcast where tech and digital marketing professionals from around the world with a shared interest in remote work come to learn how to grow a remote career or business from those who know the world of remote work best. I'm your host, alex Wilson-Campbell, and I'll share with you interviews from SaaS and product and service CEOs, leaders and entrepreneurs and talk about the benefits of remote work. You are very welcome if this is your first time and if it's not your first time, well, thank you for coming back and listening to me and I hope you've enjoyed the episodes the 30 or so episodes that I've put out there so far. The latest was with Andy Treber. Actually, have a look at that episode and in fact, if you downloaded it or tried to download the episode last week, thursday, there was an issue, I believe, with the duration of the episode. It was nine minutes, but in fact, the entire interview itself extended to almost 25-30 minutes. So please, if you did attempt to download it last week, please go back to episode 31, I believe, and listen to the interview in its entirety, and I apologize for any inconvenience there. But yeah, throughout this whole period. We're into a really festive period now, so I wanted to really treat you with some really great interviews, of course, from people like Andy Treber, but I've got a number of other CEOs coming up as well.

Speaker 1

1:40

More about, really. It's more about, I guess. It's more related, I guess, to how businesses, how remote businesses, are perceived in the eyes of potentially people who want to work for them. So if you are again, if you're a manager, if you are a hiring manager, if you are a leader or CEO within a remote business, perception of your business is really important, as it is with any business. But I think, especially so when it comes to remote business, because obviously remote work is still not perhaps as much in the forefront as other you know, more traditional, co-located businesses are. So I guess, as remote business people, as remote business owners, as remote hiring managers, you have to try that little bit more to actually, I guess, attract the kind of people that you want your business, whether that be customers or whether that be, you know, people who potentially will be hired by you, and that's really what I'm going to focus on today. But just because I'm talking to remote hiring managers and remote business owners, that doesn't mean that you know, if you are looking for a remote role, that you shouldn't listen into this podcast as well, because it will give you some good insight into what to look out for when you are doing your I guess, your auditing of your next potential place to work.

Speaker 1

3:21

I run a group called the Remote Work Life Accelerator and I guess about 80 to 90 percent of the concerns and problems that are raised within that group are all around. You know scammy, dubious, you know hiring practices that go on via social media, especially, and online as well. So, yeah, as I said, if you are looking to be hired by a remote business, these are things that you should take into consideration when you are doing your searching. But, as I said, more importantly or not not more importantly, but the the emphasis is really going to be in terms of helping you, the hiring the business owner, to understand how to best present yourself in the eyes of, you know, your potential hires. So there are four things that I've really, I suppose, picked out as being important areas that you should consider when it comes to presenting yourself in a way that can really endear you in some ways or really at least help you to appeal to your next potential hires, or even your customers actually as well. I mean, this is more about hires, but, yeah, it can also help you to appeal to your customers too. So you know, the first thing really the things I've identified is really related to, for example, somebody coming to your website or reading up about you online, and this is all related to that, without any sort of form of contact with you, directly at least, anyway. So this is what all this is related to.

Speaker 1

4:59

So this is in no particular order. So the first thing are the visuals that you have. So that could be on your website, that could be on your social media profiles, and when I say visuals, I mean photographs, I mean videos of your business. Those are really important, I think, especially as a remote business, because what I've seen too often is our websites, our social media profiles, where you've got stock images or you've got photos that perhaps a bit out of date or in some instances, there's no photographs or no videos at all.

Speaker 1

5:35

You've really got to work hard to show what it's like. You know, to reveal what it's like behind that, uh, that curtain. You know you want to sort of uh, cut out any mystique, any sort of um, you know any questions about who owns the business, who's behind the business and this. Obviously this applies as well to co-located business. But obviously we're talking about remote business today and we, as I said before, we have to work that little bit more, more than a co-located business, because you know, there's still so much that's unknown about remote businesses that we have to really work hard to show what's there.

Speaker 1

6:14

So if you look at um, you know there's certain websites like I don't know. Um help, for example, is a good example. When you go to their website that you'll see if you start scrolling through the website, you'll see lots of photos, you'll see videos across their social profiles about the people within the business that talk. You know that really sort of help you to pay, help people coming to the website really paint a picture what it's like and what kind of people work there. And, as they say, pictures, pictures, sort of like just it's more than a thousand words in many instances because you can just get a feel for things and you can. It can help you to to really, as I said before, to to feel that sense, that of who is behind that business and what they're all about, how they dress, what they do, where they go, the excitement that they have at certain events or how serious they are when they're at work.

Speaker 1

7:17

You just get a feeling for the people within the business by, you know, sharing visuals, sharing videos, sharing, you know, the, the photographs that you've had from your, from your retreats, for example. That's something that I I feel, personally, is something that's really important and that that you should try to include, not just on your website. In fact, if you're again, if you're hiring, I used to write like briefs, hiring briefs when I was helping businesses to hire new recruits, and in those briefs I would obviously put lots of. There'd be lots of writing, there'd be lots to describe a business and that would be in the tone of voice of that particular business that you know, that particular business, that that you know. But, where possible, I try to include as many, as many relevant visuals as possible, as many relevant photographs as possible, and, at the very least, be able to direct people to places where they can consume content about that particular business, to help them to break through some of the. You know that nobody wants to be reading reams and reams of, of, of um, of writing. People also want to consume that, that visual interpretation of your business as well. So, yeah, that's that's point number one I want to make and I've made it. I think I've made that point enough now.

Speaker 1

8:37

But point number two so, outside of visuals, you want people want to know what your message is. What's your message? I mean, there are obviously lots of different delivery platforms where you can spread your message. You can spread your message via your blog, you can spread your message via a podcast, you can spread your message in writing via your website, via your recruitment brief or your job description or whatever it may be, your social media profiles, your LinkedIn profiles, etc. But when it comes to your message, people want substance to that message. They want something that's meaningful, they want something that they can connect with. So that message can include your mission, what's the mission of your business, and lots of people perhaps get mixed up with what that, what mission actually, what actually that actually means. So the mission surface of that business and understanding and describing what you are into. So that particular person who's reading, those people who are reading, whether that again, that be customers or recruits, they can really get a feeling as to what you are all about. So that's the mission I'm not going to go into too much detail about that, but the mission, the values as well.

Speaker 1

10:09

So important Values. Really, values can help you to again not yet they can help you to attract people to your again, to your, to your business, and the values I mean. They describe what the culture, the principles or behaviours of the of the business, of people within the business, and that you know. That's. That's really important. I'm not again, I'm not going to go into what values are, but you understand what I'm. You know I'm not going to give into what values are, but you understand what I'm. I'm not going to give you any specific examples, but you understand what I'm saying. Where values are concerned, this is all important.

Speaker 1

10:42

When it comes to your messaging, as I said before, it's not just your website, it's your job descriptions, your social profiles. This is something that has to be, has to be aligned across all of the potential touch points where people will interact with what you're doing. So you have to make those clear as well. And, more now than ever, people, millennials especially, I guess not just millennials, but Gen Xers as well, generation Z as well they're all very interested in understanding what the business, as I said before, the mission of the business, but they're all really interested to really get beneath the surface of that business. It's not just about what products you sell or what services you provide. It's also about the substance, the meaning of your business. So values as well. The culture of business is very important now as well, or at least well, it obviously always has been important. But I think being able to articulate that across the platforms that I've some of the platforms I've described is all the more important to get the best talent, I would say, or the best people for your business, and then you know when it comes.

Building Trust Through Online Presence

Speaker 1

12:03

Another thing in terms of your messaging it's also about your vision as well. What are your ambitions for your business? Again, you know often when you're looking at hiring the best talent, they want to see not just what the business means, not just what the values are. They want to know what sort of ride they're in for. What can they expect in the next two, three, five years? You know what plans do you have for the business, because those plans can also lead them to understand where they may fit into. That you know. So I think vision also is an important part of your messaging.

Speaker 1

12:46

I'm not going to go too much more into messaging. This is probably that these are probably the three most important things within that particular category that I would describe that are important to you and then. So we've talked about visuals, we've talked about messaging. Now let's talk about, just very briefly, about people. People are, you know, showing the people, not just through the visuals that I mentioned earlier on, but showing the key people within the business, will help you to again to really stand out. The CEO of the business, the senior people within the business, the figureheads within the business not just the senior management as well, some of the people at work, so people from different departments these are all things that you know can really again help people to understand what you're all about.

Speaker 1

13:38

The ceo, you know, I think is is important that it's that that particular person is, is visible, that lead, you know that leadership, so to understand again what they're all about. So you know, if you're a ceo yourself, then your linkedin profile may be one important area that you need to address so that people can understand what you're about. You need to get something up on your website as well to describe who you are, what you're about, what the business is about, how you see the business, the story behind the business as well, where I suppose you're involved. These are all things that I this is all feedback I've got from potential job seekers who, you know, often come to me saying that they're concerned about or not concerned, but that they want to know what they're getting themselves in for before they actually step into that interview or at least even send their resume or a personal statement through. So, yeah, these senior figures in the business as well, people from different departments, it's just again about being visible, about being there so that people can figure out, as I said, what the business is all about, the different departments, how they all interact, et cetera, et cetera. So that's the people.

Speaker 1

14:58

And then the fifth thing sorry that the fourth thing. So we've talked about visuals, we've talked about message and people. Just very briefly, what do other people say about your business? That's the fourth area. What do other people say about your business? So you know that could be through reviews that other people have posted and conversations that people have on social media platforms. Glassdoor, although it's not a social media platform, it's more like, I suppose, a job board with some social aspects to it. Glassdoor can be a good place where people actually do their research on your business. I know you can't affect directly, necessarily, what's written on there, but I think those reviews, those comments on what people say about you, the way in which you can affect them is obviously through the great work that you're doing, and it's good to be active, therefore, on social media so that you can build up your, build up the reviews there and build up that that's that credibility, and build up that that profile and so that people can see what again, what you're all about and what people have said about you. That can put people at ease far more than it can you know, than if you were, for example, writing about yourself. I think reviews are always the probably the best way in which you know you can market your business and, in fact, you can even probably find ways to use those reviews within your documentation, within your website, your hiring literature, to actually show people that you know the effects that your products, your services, are having on your customers. So those are just four ways in which you can really, I guess, begin to help to.

Speaker 1

16:59

I don't know allay people's fears and anxieties around applying for certain jobs when it comes to interacting with people who are posting things online about potential jobs and potential careers, especially within the remote area. I don't know why. Well, I do know why that is because, as I said before, remote businesses are still very much not well, they're not in the spotlight as much as I would like them to be. They're probably not as well known as I'd like them to be as well. So we have to work, as I said before, that little bit more than other businesses to get you know, to get that credibility that we, that we, I believe we deserve. But, yeah, you have to work for it.

Speaker 1

17:55

If there are any questions you've got for me following following this, this podcast, if you need any help with any of that, as I said before, you know this is just a podcast, so it's not necessarily that structured in the sense that I've just really talked about four key things that people have said to me in terms of their feedback that they want to see, that they want to understand about a business. But there's, there's so much more I could talk about when it comes to putting these sorts of things together in a much more formal way. For example, when I'm coaching, for example, I would I would encourage a job seeker to audit a business in a very structured way. I'd encourage them to go to LinkedIn. I'd encourage them to do informational interviews with individuals within the business. I'd encourage them to look at the website, do background research about a business before they begin to interact and before they begin to to send any kind of cv documentation, resume, onto that business.

Podcast Rating Request for Growth

Speaker 1

19:03

Where a business is concerned, I you know if, if I was helping that business to hire, I would interview the key personnel within the business um, put together documentation in the form of a a which would include sort of like a job description, etc. To help potential job seekers understand that business all the more. Because job seekers, you know, when they see a job, they believe that they can do that job, but what they really want to know is they want to know about the substance of that business, the substance of that particular team, that department, and that recruitment brief can be that that the vehicle to, to sort of really um, to really introduce it's like it's really introduce you to that person and really talk to that person in a language that they understand and in a way that sort of really engages them, rather than just a sort of, you know, a monotone job description on its own. So, yeah, if you need any help, either as a job seeker or if you are hiring, do let me know, get in touch. As ever, I will leave my details in the show notes. You can connect with me via LinkedIn. You can connect with me as well via my email as well, but LinkedIn is probably the best avenue.

Speaker 1

20:30

And if you like this content, please give me a rating. I haven't had many ratings as yet because we're still very new, um, in terms of podcasts. I haven't really marketed the podcast as such and I haven't asked for ratings enough, I guess. So please, um, leave me a rating so that you know I can share this content with as many people who may need it and as I get in touch with me if you have any questions and look out for more podcasts in the future. I'll be, as I said, over this particular period, which is the festive period, posting podcasts from some great guests to hopefully help you with your own career, with your own business, and I will see you soon.