What is Visiobibliophobia? Are you worried about creating content on social media and LinkedIn?
What is Visiobibliophobia?
What is Visiobibliophobia?
It is the fear of missing out or being too visible on social media. Who knew that it was an actual phobia eh?
Do you get nervous about posting on social media? Don't worry. It's one of those things that we all have to overcome at one point or another. I haven’t always been confident on LinkedIn
So what do we do with posting on LinkedIn?
It's a recognized phobia and it's these things that make people worry about what we need to do and how important it is that we get out there and talk to people.
And because we've got this real phobia, we're not gonna do anything because we're absolutely petrified, we're worried. So what do we need to do to get over this phobia?
I understand that you have a fear of missing out, okay?
By being on social media, you are gonna be seen and you, quite rightly, worry about that and what people are going to think.
You’ll also worry about what people may say in the comments. PLUS, and more importantly there is pressure for you to actually do something on social media.
Maybe this thought appears in your head.
Now everybody else is doing it. So why aren't I?
I am going to expose some truths here because it all changes once we understand what our minds are doing.
What are you actually scared about? Do we know? Do we understand what it is we're scared about? Or is it just a fear?
As humans we are scared of many things. Including…
💚 Snakes
💛 Dogs
💚 Spiders
💛 Heights
💚 Flying
💛 Death
💚 Public speaking
These are all real fears that our brain has put into ourselves to protect us.
This was all done when we were first invented and when we lived on the planet with Sabertooth Tigers. But today we do not have these predators on the planet so we've replaced those sabertooth tigers with other fears.
Some of these fears can seem irrational, but to others who are struggling with it, it's a real thing.
If you think of LinkedIn, it's a professional network, a place where professional people all hang out andthis can be intimidating to a novice user.
You’ll probably have feelings of “am I worth it”. Or “Should I actually be posting anything on LinkedIn?” “What am I to do?“ or maybe, “Who do people think I am?“
You just need to get over inner demons and get this content out on this professional network.
One thought that may help is if you ask yourself what will happen if you do create the content?
Someone else will and then you’ve missed out.
If you don't put this stuff out, how are people going to know about you and what you know, you are a real expert in the thing that you do.
I agree that there may be other people that do exactly the same as you, but they don't do it the same way as you.
There are 900 million users on LinkedIn. That's an awful lot of eyes. Looking at your profile, your content, your work and everything that you do. People are looking at it all the time. So that's 900 million people potentially can see your content.
Well, we know that that's not true, don't we?
We know that when we post something, we might get a few hundred impressions or a thousand impressions or if we're lucky 10,000 or 20,000 impressions. But that's not the norm. The norm is a few hundred maybe a thousand depending on the number of followers that you have.
So not everybody's seeing it. The algorithm only dishes out a little bit of your content unless it starts going crazy. So not everybody's gonna see it.
Do you know how many creators are actually out there? How many creators of the 900 million people? How many are actually creating content? You'd be surprised.
It's not actually that many, it's 1%. Only 1% of people are actually creating content at any time on LinkedIn. That's a tiny, tiny little number. And when you put that into perspective, it means that not many people are gonna see what you do.
That actually means that for every 100 people who see your content, only one of those is a creator. So only one of those people actually knows what they should be doing.
The rest of the people, they're impressed because they don't create, they're looking at your content and they're saying, oh my goodness, I wish I could create content.
The non creators are thinking the same as you. “I'm too scared. This person is amazing.”
In my spare time, for fun, I'm a performer. I used to worry about what people would think, but now I just do what I love.
I stand up on stage playing my guitar. And I am not the best guitarist. I am not the best singer. I am not the best performer. But when I'm performing in a hall or room or a pub, I'm probably one of the best people there because most people coming to watch music don't actually do it themselves.
This is exactly the same as creating content online. So please remember that out of every 100 people, 99 of them are impressed because they don't create themselves. Just like my musical audience!
But before you come up with another excuse here are some reasons why we need to create content because that's the main reason for being on social media is to create content.
The very first one is Your Content puts you Front of Mind.
Think about the things that you read. When you read things you assume that they are a specialist in specific field. When you see more of their content it reaffirms the point that they are a specialist in that area.
Here’s the thing, the more you create, the more people see you as that expert. So reason number one, your content puts you front of mind.
Number two, your activity will drive profile views. And this is what we want. We want people to come and look at our profile because on our profile we're actually telling people what we do and how we can help them and the benefits of working with us.
With great content people will come to your profile, they'll contact you, they'll follow you, they'll sign up for your offers, your services. They're never gonna come to your profile if you don't create any content.
Reason number three is that creating content gives more value to people who view your profile. When people come to your profile, they'll be able to see other things that you do and gain more value from you. If you stop they’ll soon forget you.
So keep posting. And the thing is, we don't have the post every single day. Once a week is more than 99 people out of a hundred on LinkedIn don’t you think?
Here’s a fantastic reason to creat content. Your posts can be shared by your connections. What happens is, is you write a nice post, someone who's not as good as writing content as you will see that and just hit the repost button because LinkedIn will encourage them to do so.
With someone doing this your content gets in front of a totally different audience.That's even more reach for you. So when you're constructing your posts, if you make them shareworthy, then you are gonna get more reach.
And the final reason is that posting valuable content positions you as an authority in your area.
So many people I work with come to me because they see me as an expert in LinkedIn. They see me as an authority. For example, I've got four speaking gigs in 2023 already booked and it's only February. This is because people see my content and it resonates with them and they see me as an authority.
All you need to do is just show up and put out content that is consistent and showing off what you know. Do you agree with these ideas and reasons for posting.
So the next time that you are putting off creating content, think of the benefits and sotp worry about what people will think.
Ashley Leeds is a LinkedIn trainer and coach and has developed a program to help people get more from LinkedIn in just 15 minutes a day.
Find out more about the 15 minutes