I Stopped Telling My Clients to “Show-Up” on Social

I used to be borderline militant about how I coached my clients on their social strategy. Almost all of the women I coach fear getting vulnerable and filming themselves. In fact, it’s probably the number one objection I hear right away. “I could never do what you do.” ‘I hate video-it’s never going to happen.”

I understand not wanting to show up on video. We all have insecurities and putting them on display for the world to judge is on no one’s top 10 list. 

But the conventional wisdom is, you have to “show up” on social in order to be successful. I have to admit, I perpetuated this myth as much as any other social media coach. Showing up on social is the only way to grow, right?

Wrong.

Here’s the problem with telling everyone to do the same thing, regardless of background, work style, or mental health factors. It assumes every client enjoys the same privileges.  

Once I started looking at appearing on video through the lens of privilege, my outlook and advice to clients changed. The truth is, I have no idea how appearing on video affects someone’s mental health. Appearing on video can feel not just uncomfortable, but unsafe for many people.

There are factors I wasn’t considering because I myself wasn’t experiencing them.

Perhaps a client is a victim of domestic violence and doesn’t want their former partner to see them. Maybe a client suffers from past trauma and appearing on video triggers it. Maybe they are in the midst of dealing with their sexual identity and aren’t ready to share it with the world. Maybe they aren’t comfortable with their weight, are dealing with a life change, are neurodivergent, etc. etc. etc. 

Now that I see things differently, I’ve had to get creative with ideas on how to grow on social for clients who prefer not to appear on video. 

So what do you do when you still want to reap the benefits of posting videos and increase your know-like-trust factor, but you don’t want to show your face?

Here are a few ideas with some examples:

• Explain a process in your business and record the screen of your phone or computer, walking your customer through the steps. Check this example out!
• Answer a FAQ and use a voiceover or the text-to-speech feature on Reels.
• Create a montage of a day in your life, set to music,  that doesn’t include photos of your face. Here’s an example!
• Record your product from your POV – like this!
• Record a photo or video of what you’re eating that day. Take a look at this example!
• I’ve completely changed my messaging surrounding the topic of “showing up” on video, and I’m urging my fellow social media managers to do the same.

For more helpful advice on how to market your business with Instagram, follow me!