“PB121: 7 Strategies for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome” plus 1 more

PB121: 7 Strategies for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Posted: 06 Jun 2016 02:00 AM PDT

Note: this episode can be listened to in the player above or on iTunes or Stitcher

Strategies for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Today I'm going to talk about an issue I see a lot of bloggers struggling with. In fact, I see a lot of blogger's really crippled by this. I am talking about imposter syndrome.

This is something I have suffered with quite a bit over the years. I'm going to get a little personal today and tell you about those times when I was pretty much paralyzed by it.

I'm going to get a bit honest today, and tell you that these weren't the best times of my life. If you want to hear about it, then listen on.

I think if you've suffered with this imposter syndrome. Hopefully, you'll get something out of my story that will help you get through it yourself.

Today I am going to present to you 7 different strategies to overcome imposter syndrome. We are going to touch on fear, self-doubt and feeling like others think you are a fraud. We are going to get really raw today.

Do you ever fear that you're about to be found out and that everyone is about to discover you're not as smart as they think you are or that you don't really know what you're doing in some area of your life?

Do you feel this way about your blogging?

If so – you're not alone at all, but you may be suffering from Imposter Syndrome.

In Today's Episode 7 Different Strategies for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Understand that you're actually suffering from this because you're a high achiever
- At least be comforted out of the fact that you are not willing to settle for poor performance
- This may not fix it, but it's good to know
You need to work on self acceptance and realistic expectations
- There have been a number of times that I have been paralysed by imposter syndrome (World Domination Summit)
- I wrestled with it and became stuck
- I had unrealistic expectations about the results of this talk
- Perfectionism taken to the extreme can paralyse you
- Perfectionism also starts to creep into other extreme realities like being booed on stage or destroying my business
- I talked myself down to a more realistic reality and realized I didn't need to be perfect
- I needed to be honest and true to myself
- Don't be too hard on yourself, treat yourself kind

Focus on your audience – I realized worrying was incredibly selfish, it was all about me and not my audience

I decided that every time I was worried about how I would be perceived, I had to stop thinking about myself and focus on my audience
This is great advice for anyone creating something for an audience
This is also why I'm trying to interact with my readers as much as possible
One of the best things you can do to show that you are not a fake or fraud is to deliver value

Be Transparent – The most powerful thing you can do to smash through imposter syndrome is to blog with transparency

People can only call you a fraud or fake if you are trying to be something that you are not
Show people who you really are
I was at SMMW a couple of months ago, and Cliff Ravenscraft talked about imposter syndrome. You are only an imposter if you are lying about who you are or what you have achieved. His suggestion was to always be honest when writing content by revealing:
- This is who I am
- This is what I have experienced to this point and what I'm learning
- These are my hopes, dreams and goals for the future
This particularly relates to bloggers who are blogging about topics that they are not qualified to formally write about yet. I get asked about this a fair bit by readers who ask '"should I start a blog on a topic that I'm still a beginner in?”
- My answer is to always tell the story of when I started ProBlogger back in 2004
- I struggled with imposter syndrome at the beginning of ProBlogger. Even though, I was on my way to being a full time blogger.
- I worried that people would spot my weaknesses and gaps in knowledge
- I decided to be completely transparent and share what I was trying and what I was learning
- When you blog in this way, it is pretty hard for someone to call you a fake or fraud

Own Your Successes – When suffering from imposter syndrome it is hard to own your successes. They write them off to be the product of luck, timing or some other factor. This is hard to combat, but for me it's about becoming aware of the internal and external dialogue.

We fall into patterns of thinking (and speaking) that we need to break, so try to identify the automatic thoughts that come and use them as triggers for more positive thinking.
Next time you find yourself saying or thinking "I was lucky" replace that with "I work hard to take the opportunities that came".
Accept positive feedback, don't try to deny or explain it away
Record the positive feedback and testimonials of others – not to show off – but for you to help you internalise your success.
Give those around you permission to help with this
While we're talking about success… on the flip side there are times when we fail too. Don't see these – the key here is to not get bogged down in them but to reframe them as learning opportunities!

Say Yes to Opportunities – That stretch you. I'm a big believer in saying yes to things that you are not sure you can do as long as you are transparent about it.

The only way you are going to become an expert is if you know a lot about it. To gain knowledge, you need to learn and let the rubber hit the road.
If someone else thinks you can do something, take that vote of confidence and learn how to do it
Explain that you are going to learn how to do it, or that you might need some support, but take that opportunity to get out of your comfort zone
By taking these opportunities, you are one step closer to being the person you want to be

Live with it – I'm not sure imposter syndrome ever really goes away. We need to learn to live with it. We need to put it in it's place and deal with it. We need to learn how to use it to grow, learn and serve.

Above all – Don't let it paralyse you. If it is – get some help. Talk about it and get some accountability.
Don't let it rob the world of what you do know, your story, and the potential you have to make the world all the better for your contributions!

Here's the video that was recorded of the talk that I eventually did give at World Domination Summit. While it's not on the topic of Imposter Syndrome I hope it shows you what fun you can have by pushing through it!

Darren Rowse from Chris Guillebeau on Vimeo.

Further Resources on Strategies for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

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The post PB121: 7 Strategies for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome appeared first on ProBlogger Podcast.

The 4 Rs That Show a Brand Your Blog is Influential

Posted: 05 Jun 2016 09:01 PM PDT

4Rs of Influence One way to monetise your blog is through working with brand partners.

This could be anything from sponsored content and affiliate promotions through to ongoing ambassadorships or sponsorships. In any case, there are a number of factors I consider when it comes to determining if a blogger is "influential" and can be successful in securing an opportunity with a brand.

As you would expect, metrics tell part of that story, so let's take a look at them using a framework I thought I came up with, but has also been neatly described by Nielsen as the 3 Rs – Reach, Resonance, Reaction. I actually use at least one more R for Relevance which we'll cover later.

1. Reach

How many people in the target audience is the blogger reaching?

Potential Reach and Actual Reach are two types of metrics to consider and not all platforms will provide you with both.

Most traditional marketing channels report potential reach, for example, circulation numbers for a newspaper. Your ad or story could potentially be seen by 300,000 people because that’s the number of copies distributed, and may or may not include a multiplier for 'pass-along readership' ie the number of people who might read the same copy.

Thankfully digital media gives us a more granular view, with not only potential reach, but also the actual reach of our content. Using a few platform examples (not an exhaustive list) below we can see the difference.

Reach Metrics

Google Analytics: Unique Visitors (potential reach), Unique Pageviews (actual reach)
Facebook Insights: Page Likes (potential reach), Lifetime Post Reach (actual reach)
Email analytics: Total Subscribers (potential reach), Total Unique Opens (actual reach)

Above is an overview of Facebook Insights Data. You can get more granular data from the exported insights.

2. Resonance

Does the content and message resonate with the audience so that they engage, remember or, ideally, change their attitudes or behaviour because of it?

Resonance is one of the main reasons brands work with influencers – their connection to their audience, their ability to tell a story that resonates with their audience far more than a branded message could, and the effect of their authority or trusted voice on the beliefs and actions of their readers.

The more your content resonates with your audience the more likely they will be to engage with it, and those metrics are easily tracked as dwell time, likes, comments, shares and click throughs.

Resonance/Engagement Metrics

Google Analytics: Time on Page (dwell time), % of return visitors (the higher the better), comments, social shares (to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc), some blog platforms have 'likes' which you can also include.
Facebook: Likes, Comments, Shares, Link Clicks
Twitter: Likes, Replies (comments), Retweets (shares)
Pinterest: Likes, Comments, Pins/Saves (shares)
Instagram: Likes, Comments, Tag in comments (shares)

A bit about link clicks – if your content has resonated to the extent that your audience follows a link to the brand or branded content, this is a great result. Make sure you capture it either by using a tracking link provided by the brand, or one you can track yourself like Bitly. You can use these links in your blog post and social posts to show click throughs and also to work out the click through rate ie the number of people who clicked the link divided by the number of people who viewed the content.

3. Reaction

Is there a measurable outcome in the change of attitude or behaviour of the audience?

All influencer campaigns are done to achieve some kind of reaction, whether it is awareness, acquisition (ie leads) or sales. It is at this point that you as a blogger/influencer are less able to measure the outcomes. It is here where rubber meets the road and the brand can determine if they got a return on their investment. However, you should still have an understanding of what actions you can drive that they will ultimately measure at their end.

Reaction Metrics

Awareness – obviously the more people who see the message, the more likely they will be aware of it. However, reach or impression numbers alone do not prove this outcome. A brand could look at things like increases in branded search terms, mentions of their brand on social media, unprompted recall, how they heard about the brand.

One way you can help is to survey your own readers and ask if they were aware of the brand before you mentioned it, and or have bought since you mentioned it.

Acquisition – this could be driving your audience to register their email with the brand, either via a competition, to download a bonus, to sign up for their newsletter. The brand needs to track where these sign ups are coming from to attribute the activity to your campaign and work out the cost per lead.

Sales – did your audience buy something? This can be tracked with a promo code for online purchases, an affiliate link, a printed voucher for in-store purchases, or a simple 'how did you hear about us' at point of purchase.

4. Relevance – the Most Important R

I mentioned earlier that I use more than just the 3Rs above. Before you look at any of those Rs, the first lesson is to understand that the same blogger will not be influential in all situations. So your first job is always to show a brand how relevant you are to the opportunity on the table.

Relevance will depend on the opportunity itself. Two main indicators of relevance will be:

1. Audience Demographics, Psychographics and Sociographics

Who is the brand targeting? The more specific you can get the more chance you can show how relevant you are over the next blogger. We're not just talking about women aged 24-45 – that's pretty much most blog readers! What kind of women, what life stage are they at specifically, what problems is the brand trying to solve for them? Then look at your own data for your audience and see how many similarities you can draw between the target audience and your audience. Some places you can look without getting too technical are:

Google Analytics Country and or even City data: Google Analytics City Data

Facebook Insights "People" will give you a demographic overview for gender, age and location:

Facebook People Engaged

So, if the brief is to attract women in Melbourne to a local event, you can give them specific data on your blog and Facebook reach specifically for Melbourne.
Another way to get a more specific profile of your most loyal readers is to survey them annually. This is a great way to get basic demographic data (like education, income and family size/makeup) as well as the psychographic and specific sociographic profiles of your blog readers (their attitudes, interests and lifestyle choices). For example, your survey may tell you your typical blog reader is 25, single, cashed up and loves coming to you for fashion advice because she's too busy to try and figure out what to buy herself (Ka-ching! by the way!).

You can then use a combination of the above data to show how relevant your audience is to the brand's target audience.

2. What Outcome is the Brand Trying to Achieve?

The second factor that determines how relevant you are is the overall objective for the brand. What kind of position are you in to drive the specific outcome they're after? As mentioned earlier, brands work with influencers, bloggers and media sites for awareness, acquisition, sales. Some more specific examples are as follows.

a) Awareness Objective:
The brand is running a general awareness campaign and want major reach for an emotive piece written from your perspective. They need blog post views.

What bloggers usually rely on:
Monthly Unique Visitors

What you need to show:
How many Unique Visitors (relevant to the audience profile) you can deliver to a single blog post – not just your blog. Work out your average unique views per post based on a range of other sponsored posts, and show them some examples and results of similar posts you've written.

They need you to know you can drive a direct response to the blog post, perhaps in conjunction with a social network like Facebook or your email list. Show them where your traffic is coming from and that your 'big numbers' are not just search traffic to one well ranking post.

For extra brownie points:
Show how engaged they are with your posts using your averages for the Resonance metrics such time spent on page, comments, shares.

b) Acquisition Objective:
The brand is trying to establish itself on Instagram and an increase in the brand’s followers will be a key performance indicator of the campaign.

What bloggers usually rely on:
Media kit vanity metrics ie number of Instagram followers

What you need to show:
Anyone can buy or 'game' Instagram followers. Your first task is to differentiate yourself from these types of accounts. Whilst the number of followers you have on Instagram will be important, the outcome here isn't how many people might see your post – it's how many people will click over to the brand's account and follow them. Show the brand how engaged your audience is with your content with average likes and comments for your posts. Even better, show them the metrics for other sponsored posts you've done.

For extra brownie points:
Show them examples of when you've done shout outs for other accounts/brands on Instagram. Use screenshots and ask for testimonials. We're straying outside of just quantitative metrics here and into qualitative data to support how relevant you are to their campaign.

Your Most Important Objective

All of the above should give you a solid basis to create a pitch to a brand that goes way beyond what a standard media kit can do. In fact I'm not actually much of an advocate for media kits for influencers. Remember, when you're pitching for an opportunity for a brand, your biggest challenge is to differentiate yourself from other bloggers and all a standard media kit does is show one blogger's audience is bigger or smaller than another's.

Get smarter and use the metrics and evidence you have at hand to show how you are more relevant than all the others. At the very least, by giving them access to a deeper level of data, you may educate them to start asking the same of other bloggers and that could very well be in your favour!

The post The 4 Rs That Show a Brand Your Blog is Influential appeared first on ProBlogger.

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