A Beginners Guide to A Great Online Presence
Written by Stephanie
January 13, 2023
If you’re an online tutor, you may not have realized that you are a brand. It’s true, you are. Every freelancer needs to think of themselves as a brand in today’s highly competitive online workspace. That may sound especially daunting if you’ve just started your online teaching business or are thinking of one! But fear not, being a personal brand is not that difficult once you get the knack for it.
A foundational (and critical) aspect of creating or building on your personal brand is to have a viable online presence. It’s the type of term that seems self-evident at first but should eventually get one thinking: what is an online presence? And what is a great one?
This article will answer those questions and, better still, give you some terrific tips on how you can best establish your online presence in a way that can help boost your tutoring business. Onward!
What Exactly Is An Online Presence?
An online presence has been explained like this: “Simply existing online isn’t enough to generate an actual presence. Online presence refers to three key things:
- Visibility
- Credibility
- Reputation”
So, as the definition shows, simply being online (visibility) is not enough to establish a proper presence. You also need to have a proven track record (credibility) and be trusted in your niche (reputation). Admittedly, visibility is certainly easier to get than the other two. Credibility and reputation obviously come with time and a proven track record.
Building Your Online Presence With Yip!
So, what do you do to establish online presence if you’ve just started your teaching or tutoring business? Well, one sure-fire way to do it is to join a respected, dynamic platform such as Yip. Becoming a ‘Yiper’ means having your skills open to potential students from all over the world. You also have all the other perks of being part of the Yip family, which in turn give you the stability to keep building your online presence.
Being on a platform like Yip also makes you look more credible, because why join a platform open to the world if you don’t have something real to offer as a tutor, right? And, all things going well (and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t!), you should be able to quickly build a reputation on Yip. Talk about an uncomplicated way to quickly build your great online presence!
So, Who Are You?
As with so much in life, you need to know thyself in order to be your best self. To be a personal brand with a noteworthy presence online means asking yourself some probing questions about you. These should include:
- Who am I as a person?
- Who am I as a professional?
- Who am I as a personal brand?
- What do I want to ultimately achieve in life?
No two people will answer the above questions in the same way. You should then probe even further in knowing who you are as an online business tutor. These questions will also shape your personal brand, including:
- Why do I have an online tutoring business?
- What do I want out of my business?
- What makes me unique and stand out from my competition?
- What is it that I actually offer?
A Clear & Appealing Call To Action (CTA)
Once you’ve answered the tough questions needed to build your online presence, you then need to consider the practical tools to gain students. Besides advertising your courses as a tutor on Yip, you will need to develop calls-to-action, or CTAs. A CTA is any way in which you encourage your target audience to take action regarding something you offer, such as one of your training courses.
The most typical type of CTA is one of those ‘Join Now’ or ‘Don’t Miss This Golden Opportunity!’-type buttons that one frequently sees on professional websites. They can also come in the form of alerts via email shots, sign-up newsletters or any other form of content or media. It’s all about using bold action verbs and making prospective students feel like they simply must join your class!
However, good CTAs should go beyond creating excitement and pressure in order to increase conversions. It is important to be specific and confident about what you’re offering. A short, very vivid class description will work great. So too will great quality images, if possible. It’s equally important to know who your target audience is, i.e. the types of people most likely to want to attend your courses.
Get (A Little) Technical
Let’s face it, many of us are not that great at being technical. Not to worry! Although it’s important to harness technology for your online business, it need not be complicated. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an excellent, not-too-technical way of boosting your online presence. SEO drives organic traffic via online searches to your website, blog or social media profile.
Another good way to boost your online presence is to claim your Google My Business listing. It’s a a free listing that allows you to control how your business appears in both Google Search and Google Maps. You can add a description of the online courses you offer, as well as photos and other eye-catching info on your listing. You can also respond to customer reviews, which is great way of building your online reputation too.
Also hugely helpful in building your social presence is being on one or more social media platforms. As Forbes puts it: “social media platforms provide an opportunity for small brands to grow and engage with a close-knit community of both present and future customers.”
Ultimately, you build your online presence by believing in yourself. Yes, it may sound sappy, but it’s true! Having belief in the courses you have to offer is the foundation upon which you can build your reputation. A great online presence should develop where there is passion and self-belief. The rest will follow.
