Too many businesses and people try to be everywhere when it comes to establishing their online presence. It’s the fear of losing out that takes over. By trying to be everywhere, their initiatives often fail. If you want to have a chance to be successful with your online presence, you need to focus. The following goes whether you want to establish a personal or a corporate presence. 

Focus on one topic. A topic that passionates you. Then, find your angle. Look at how you can bring a fresh perspective, what makes you special, why people would care about what you have to say regarding that topic. Ideally, you are looking for the sweet spot where what you want to be known for and your ideal customer’s aspiration collide.

Focus on sharing one perspective, one worldview. Don’t be afraid to show your personality. People who stand for something are more memorable. Your goal is to reach like-minded people, people who share your worldview. At this stage, it’s not about convincing people to your way of thinking. If there is not enough people that believe what you believe, you are probably better off selecting another angle or another topic to establish your online presence.

Focus on one platform to produce content. Select the medium that you’re the most comfortable with. Look at your skills. Consider how you could communicate your message on that medium. Think about how much time you can put into producing content before you make a choice. Blogging comes naturally to me. Others excel at producing videos — I envy them. While others are in their element when they host a podcast. The key is to produce quality content regularly. Think about how you can achieve that on a consistent basis with fun and ease.

Then, focus on one secondary channel where you participate daily. Use the secondary channel to establish yourself, over time, as someone to follow. You’ll act as a content curator on that channel. You’ll share resources and relevant information for your followers. You’ll listen and gather valuable insights. You’ll start and participate in conversations. You’ll be helpful to your followers. In the process, you’ll share your own content. But let’s be clear on something. You’ll highlight other people’s content more than yours. The reason that you’ll do that is to build your network, to build an audience. You can’t build an audience if you only share your own content.

Later, we’ll discuss how to effectively promote your own content. For now, start to put in practice talking about your main topic on your main platform and your secondary platform. Experiment with it for a while. Analyze what’s working and what’s not. Talk to people. Remember that it takes time and practice to tweak any idea.

By starting small you can perfect how you establish your online presence. Focusing increases your chances of success. This is why Less is More.

Photo credits: Thomas Leth-Olsen on Flickr