An Introvert's Guide to Posting Online
17 Dec 2023Only about 1% of LinkedIn’s 260 million monthly users share posts, and those 3 million or so users net the 9 billion impressions. 🤯
Introduction:
This post is for those of us who cringe at the very thought of self-promotion and sharing ideas online. If, by the end of this read, you find yourself more at ease with the idea of posting and sharing online, then I consider this blog post a success—even if it changes just one person’s perspective.
Much of the content in this post draws inspiration from Austin Kleon’s insightful book, “Show Your Work.” I highly recommend giving it a read; it’s a brief yet impactful book that you can easily finish in a day.
Pondering Before Posting:
The mental chatter before taking the plunge into sharing can be overwhelming. Questions like, “Have I ever written anything worthwhile?” or “Can I articulate my thoughts clearly as a non-native English speaker?” might echo in your mind. Concerns about whether anyone will read your post, the judgments of co-workers, and the opinions of more knowledgeable friends may also loom large.
What if people perceive you as less intelligent? Or worse, what if your future boss looks at your posts?
Reality Check:
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind. —Dr. Suess
The truth is, nobody cares. Those who read your content are the ones genuinely interested in the topics you hold dear. The preoccupations about what others might think gradually fade away when you realize that the audience you attract is precisely the audience that resonates with your passions.
With that said here are five tips to get you started.
1. Be Positive
Imagine if your next boss didn’t have to read your résumé because they already read your blog. Picture being a student and landing your first gig based on a school project you posted online. Envision losing your job but having a social network of people familiar with your work and ready to help you find a new one. Think about turning a side project or a hobby into your profession because you had a following that could support you.
Or imagine something simpler and just as satisfying: spending the majority of your time, energy, and attention practicing a craft, learning a trade, or running a business, while also allowing for the possibility that your work might attract a group of people who share your interests.
All you have to do is share!
2. You Don’t Have to Be an “Expert”
We’re all terrified of being revealed as amateurs, but in fact, today it is the amateur—the enthusiast who pursues her work in the spirit of love (in French, the word means “lover”), regardless of the potential for fame, money, or career—who often has the advantage over the professional. Because they have little to lose, amateurs are willing to try anything and share the results. They take chances, experiment, and follow their whims. Sometimes, in the process of doing things in an unprofessional way, they make new discoveries.
In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind, there are few. —Shunryu Suzuki
Amateurs are not afraid to make mistakes or look ridiculous in public. They’re in love, so they don’t hesitate to do work that others think of as silly or just plain stupid.
Clay Shirky in his book Cognitive Surplus: “On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and the good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.” Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.
Amateurs might lack formal training, but they’re all lifelong learners, and they make a point of learning in the open, so that others can learn from their failures and successes.
“The fellow-pupil can help more than the master because he knows less. The difficulty we want him to explain is one he has recently met. The expert met it so long ago he has forgotten.” —C.S Lewis
The world is changing at such a rapid rate that it’s turning us all into amateurs. Even for professionals, the best way to flourish is to retain an amateur’s spirit and embrace uncertainty and the unknown.
3. Share What You Know
The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes. —Annie Dillard
Think about what you can share from your process that would inform the people you’re trying to reach. Have you learned a craft? What are your techniques? Are you skilled at using certain tools and materials? What kind of knowledge comes along with your job?
The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to helpful reference materials. Create some tutorials and post them online. Use pictures, words, and video. Take people step-by-step through part of your process.
As blogger Kathy Sierra says, “Make people better at something they want to be better at.” Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do; it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work. People feel closer to your work because you’re letting them in on what you know.
Best of all, when you share your knowledge and your work with others, you receive an education in return. Author Christopher Hitchens said that the great thing about putting out a book is that “it brings you into contact with people whose opinions you should have canvassed before you ever pressed pen to paper. They write to you. They telephone you. They come to your bookstore events and give you things to read that you should have read already.” He said that having his work out in the world was “a free education that goes on for a lifetime.”
4. Don’t Turn Into a Human Spammer
You want hearts, not eyeballs. —Austin Kleon
“The writing community is full of lame-o people who want to be published in journals even though they don’t read the magazines that they want to be published in,” says writer Dan Chaon. “These people deserve the rejections that they will undoubtedly receive, and no one should feel sorry for them when they cry about how they can’t get anyone to accept their stories.”
I call these people human spam. They’re everywhere, and they exist in every profession. They don’t want to pay their dues, they want their piece right here, right now. They don’t want to listen to your ideas; they want to tell you theirs. They don’t want to go to shows, but they thrust flyers at you on the sidewalk and scream at you to come to theirs. You should feel pity for these people and their delusions. At some point, they didn’t get the memo that the world owes none of us anything.
Of course, you don’t have to be a nobody to be a human spammer—I’ve watched plenty of interesting, successful people slowly turn into it. The world becomes all about them and their work. They can’t find the time to be interested in anything other than themselves. If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community.
If you’re only pointing to your stuff online, you’re doing it wrong. You have to be a connector. The writer Blake Butler calls this being an open node. If you want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice. Shut up and listen once in a while. Be thoughtful. Be considerate. Don’t turn into a human spammer. Be an open node.
5. Stick Around, Don’t Quit
The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough. It’s very important not to quit prematurely. —Austin Kleon
Every career is full of ups and downs, and just like with stories, when you’re in the middle of living out your life and career, you don’t know whether you’re up or down or what’s about to happen next. “If you want a happy ending,” actor Orson Welles wrote, “that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” Author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “There are no second acts in American life,” but if you look around, you’ll notice that not only are there second acts, but there are third, fourth, and even fifth ones.
You can’t plan on anything; you can only go about your work, as Isak Dinesen wrote, “every day, without hope or despair.” You can’t count on success; you can only leave open the possibility for it and be ready to jump on and take the ride when it comes for you.
Conclusion:
In the realm of online sharing, the journey is as valuable as the destination. It’s not just about the hearts and eyeballs, but the connections made, the knowledge shared, and the continuous learning that enriches both you and your audience.
So, to the shy souls contemplating the leap into the digital spotlight, remember: be genuine, share generously, and don’t fear the ups and downs. Stick around, share your work, and embrace the infinite possibilities that come with being yourself in the vast online landscape.
Happy sharing!
