Imogen Pickton on Strategies for Online Visibility and Engagement

As industry leaders begin to uncover more and more possibilities for their businesses, it's never been more important to have a strategy in place for online visibility. Today, Imogen Pickton, Freelance Social Media Manager shares her knowledge to help other business leaders get noticed.

Can you share a bit about your business and how it has embraced the digital landscape for growth and visibility?

I am a freelance social media manager and an Account Manager at Veritas Digital Marketing.  I started freelancing when I was quite young so social media has always been a key part of my career. At the start the style of my content didn’t really feel like me and I was scared to put myself out there but the key to boosting visibility and really growing online was being myself and building authority. The platform I focus on is LinkedIn, it’s such a place of opportunity if you use it well and I do think building a personal brand on there has benefits for everyone. Most people are nervous to start and I definitely felt that but there’s so much opportunity online and it’s important to make the most of that. Organic growth is literally free so when you’re just starting out it is so valuable.

What specific strategies have you employed to enhance your online presence and engage with your target audience?

For me social media has been a way for me to connect with others and further my career. My current focus is not only on helping brands to improve their social media but also on helping young marketers. I’m Gen Z myself and to reach that demographic of people I share my story, I share the advice I wish I’d had when I started and I also create memes & relatable posts. It’s been a case of putting myself in their shoes and creating content that my age group want to see. I’ve increased my TikTok engagement as well by being more active and repurposing old content. It’s a case of creating the content your audience needs and communicating in a way that will resonate with them. It takes experimentation and learning what performs best as the social media landscape changes. On platforms such as LinkedIn there can be a misconception that you can’t show personality as yourself or as a brand. This is so far from the truth and I’ve personally found using your personality and being more informal is actually what allows you to develop connections and make the most out of social media. Engagement is also so important, you can’t expect people to engage with your content if you aren’t also taking the time to engage and respond.

Can you provide an example of a digital campaign or initiative that significantly boosted your business’s visibility or customer engagement?

When I started out as a freelancer I didn’t have work experience or client work to show so my social media essentially served as a portfolio. A lot of people think LinkedIn has to be really serious and boring but it’s actually the meme and humour based posts that gain the most visibility and engagement for me. It’s great to have sales focused posts and social proof but your audience also need to feel seen and understood. By adding those quick to create, relatable posts to your strategy you’re building connections and becoming a brand that they can relate to. Using this type of content means that I can get 20k + impressions from just one post which massively increases my reach, getting my name and my content in front of new people. It is also fantastic for engagement, starting conversations and encouraging others to tag friends or colleagues in the comments.

The digital world is constantly evolving. What challenges have you faced in maintaining an active and effective online presence, and how have you overcome them?

I think that as someone building their personal brand when you’re constantly creating and consuming content it can be quite draining. If you’re trying to post 4 or 5 times a week, across multiple platforms it can start to feel quite overwhelming. Personally, I batch create and schedule my content so that there isn’t a daily pressure to think of something and write a post. When I do create content it’s on my terms and I’m not rushed to create something just so I don’t miss a posting slot. It can also be tough when new features impact your engagement or reach drops on a platform. I think everyone does get caught up on vanity metrics sometimes but I like to reframe that and think about the impact of my content and the conversations had in the comments instead. At the end of the day it’s how your content makes your audience feel and the conversations sparked that really matter!

What tools or platforms have you found most effective for building your online presence and engaging with your audience?

I say this quite a lot but for me the best platform is LinkedIn. Visibility and engagement tends to be higher on there meaning I can reach more people. It’s also a lot easier to target the right people and build valuable relationships. I like the newsletter feature on LinkedIn as well as it allows you to create longer form content whilst utilising the audience you’ve already built. There are so many in app features that can elevate your brand and help you to become an authority within your niche!

How do you measure the success of your digital strategies, and what key performance indicators do you focus on?

In my content planner I have a section to track the metrics of each content piece so that I can easily see which posts performed best in each metric I track. My main focus is comments and saves because this shows which posts start conversations and allows me to see where I’m providing value that my audience will want to look back on. For relatable posts I look at how many reposts there are to ensure that those content pieces are engaging and that my audience enjoy them. I track weekly follower count so that I can make sure my account is growing however it’s not something I’m too bothered about.

The digital landscape is always changing. How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies, and how do you decide which ones to adopt?

There are always new trends and things to try but it is a case of letting trends that don’t serve you pass. I’m happy to adopt trends that are relevant to myself and the topics I post about but I also know that jumping on trends isn’t always the best thing if ultimately they don’t align. I love to regularly watch webinars and keep up to date with news articles and information from social media platforms. I sign up for newsletters that give me the information I need to decide what is and isn’t right for my personal brand. Experimentation is a key part of social media strategy so I do believe it’s good to give new features a go and see if it aligns with your goals but it’s important to focus on value and make sure you aren’t lowering the quality of your content in the pursuit of going viral.

What advice would you give to businesses that are just starting to establish their online presence and engage with customers digitally?

I would tell them not to rush and take time to think about the intention behind why they want to have an online presence. Knowing why you’re posting and who your content is for is crucial so that your posts are targeted and effective. A great way to start can be by engaging and seeing what’s going on in your industry. There are so many ways to engage whether that’s in your feed, via hashtags, in dms or even in your comment section. Once you’ve got used to the platform you can then start to get an idea of where you fit in. It takes time to see growth so it’s important to be realistic about that and stay consistent, trusting in your ability!