Nowadays it's really easy to post your work online as there are many different ways and platforms to help us with it. Developers can show people their work and compare it to competition, while employers can easily find and hire new employees if they like what they see.
But if it is so easy why there are still so many developers and designers without a job? Why is it so hard to start proper work as a web designer or developer? 😯 
In this post we will answer those questions, provide solutions and advice on how to create a successful online presence of your work. 🏆
What is an online presence and why is it so important?
Online (web) Presence is the location on the World Wide Web (WWW) where a person or business is represented. There can be (and often are) multiple online venues in which a person or business can be found, as it's increasing their web presence. 💻
Web Presence is very important as nowadays people use internet to search for and purchase any products or services. They can also easily check reviews, portfolios, prices and offers on business's official websites or social media. People slowly stop watching tv, listening to the radio and reading newspapers, so in few years the internet will be the best place to advertise your work and provide information about it to interested viewers. It's better to start creating it as soon as possible because the competition is getting bigger and bigger with each year. People are realizing, that online presence is the most important element in development of each business, no matter if it takes care of any online matter (web or mobile development, networking, digital design, etc.) or not (for example: gardening services, clothes shop, building industry, printing company). 📈
- Website
- Blog
- Social Media
- Mobile Apps
- Video Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Online Directory Listings
If you still don't understand what online presence is all about then watch this playlist of videos from Digital Garage. It helps you visualize the concept of web presence and explains all elements of it:
ProTip Time!
How to create my online presence?
There are many ways of creating an online presence. You can choose to increase your web presence as much as possible by creating social media accounts on many platforms, running a blog and/or your own website or even giving YouTube videos a try. You can also focus on just one thing for example on creating your own website and making the best out of it. However if you choose the second option you will need to focus on updating the content and enhancing the presence of your website a lot for it to get expected viewing results. 📊
Assuming that you are here to know how to maximize your online presence I prepared few steps for you to follow when you will start creating one. If you already have an online presence and you want to know how to enhance it then scroll to next section. 👇
Basic steps in creating your web presence:
1. Set up your goals
Remember that every action should have a cause, same is with online presence. If you know the answers for below questions then you are ready to create it, if not then figuring out the answers is a huge step of setting up the goals.
- What is your objective for building your online presence?
- Who are the people you want to attract (your target group)?
- What platforms or channels are they using?
- What do you want them to do once they find you online?
Figuring out the overall goal of your web presence isn't that hard because you already have some idea of why you want to create it. However setting up small goals is the thing which will help you develop this idea. Small goals should always lead to accomplishing the main goals. 🎯
For example, if one of your overall website goals is to get minimum 500 visits on your website every month then smaller goals should help you reach this goal. In this scenerio smaller goals could be things like: optimising the SEO of your website, posting something new every week or developing relationships with others so you can advertise yourself on their platforms. 💡
2. Be active on chosen Social Media
Almost everyone have (at least) one account on some social media platform nowadays. People visit social media platforms on daily basis, especially now when using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to promote your business or show your own work is getting very popular. Social media are also a very useful tool in creating relationships with potential customers and employers. The best thing about them is that they can be free and very powerful advertisement tool for your work so don't try to avoid them while creating your web presence! 💪
Choosing relevant social media for my online presence:
- Take a look at your web presence goals and think what social media platform would be the best for reaching them
- Don't limit youreslf and try to choose more than one platform
- Don't choose too many platforms as irrelevant ones won't help you in reaching your goal and will just waste your time
- Make a research on what social media does your target group use, it will help you in finding the most revelant platforms
- Think about what is a main purpose of each social media platform and choose only those which match your goals
- Check what kind of social media platforms does your competition use because those, on which they are the most successful will be the best options for you as well
ProTip Time!
LinkedIn was strictly developed to help people finding jobs and commissions, show their work, share their portfolios, and easily communicate with potential employers. Both of them are perfect for creating strong and good online presence!
Your website should be your main online presence element as it's a reflection of your work, goals and ambitions. More and more businesses and people (especially developers and designers) have their own websites to show people their work and to encourage potential clients/employers to hire them. While building your website there are few rules which you should stick to as it will make your website successful, as well as working better. 🔨
Tips for building successful website for my online presence:
- Make sure that your website is fulfills its purpose and that you clearly show people what you want them to see
- Try to make your website design interesting as it will encourage people to stay on it and properly view the content
- Your website can't be messy, the content should be cleaned up for example: divided for sections
- Make sure that navigation of your website is easy and straight forward
- Emphasize your contact details so potential customers/employers will be able to easily find your email or phone number
- Don't use too much of professional jargon, target group would probably appriciate it but other viewers (who might end up as being your potential clients) might not understand it
- Always check spelling and grammar while creating your content, remember that precision which you put in creating the website is a reflection of your actual work for the viewers
- Be active and update the content so potential customers won't end up with invalid information
- Don't overcomplicate things, the website can't be too basic as it would end up being boring but adding too much animations, decorative elements and etc will distract users from the main content
- Choose your host carefully and from trusted source, as your choice can later affect the user experience, SEO or even security of your website
How to enhance my online presence?
Once you set up your social media accounts and create your website you can think about how to enhance your created web presence. The more tips from below you will apply to your current online presence, the more successful it becomes! 🌐
Enhancing my online presence
There are many ways to make your online presence better and more successfull. However make sure you are ready, because some of them aren't free, might take some time, require some higher web development skills or help of others! 😱
1. Use SEO
It doesn't matter how beautiful and well written is you website, without Search Engine Optimisation probably no one will see it! SEO helps making your website more visible during online searching on Google or Bing. That makes it one of the most important enhancements for your web presence. 🚀
Two SEO types:
- On-page SEO - helps search engines understand your content and how relevant it is to searchers’ queries
- Off-page SEO - gives search engines a better idea of how other websites and users perceive your site, enabling it to rank more or less authoritative
ProTip Time!
2. Create an Email Marketing List
Creating an email list gives you the chance to let your audience know
first-hand of news, new products, services, offerings or content you’ve
created, and directs them to those landing pages, in turn boosting your
online presence.
(This option is good for keeping current viewers/customers updated and maintaining the relationship.)
Ways to collect user's email addresses:
- Add a call-to-action (CTA) button on your website and all your social media profiles to promote your email newsletter
- Include an opt-in form on your website, offering free content in exchange for name and email address
- Add a registration link to any online communication with customers
- Add a registration link to your email signature
3. Online Directory Listings
An online directory is a submission-based online service. Search engine pulls information from online
directories to help decide what to show up in search results. So if
you’re able to show up in multiple directories with accurate
information, it gives searching engine a positive signal about you and
is another data point to help it show you in the search results. Explaining as simply as I can, online directories help give search engines another online signal that you exist. Online directories can be most advantageous for local, business and particular service search. 🌁
(This option is good for people with small, local businesses.)
Online directory listing typically include:
- company’s name
- address
- phone number
- hours of operation
- website link
- social media accounts
- short description of what you do
- photos
- listing of products and services sold
If you do want to list your site on a directory, be very selective and make sure you check its reputability as search engines may dislike or even discount bad online directories! 💣
4. Google My Business account
GMB account will increase your web presence by giving you visibility on Google Maps. It allows you to showcase your brand with images, videos and both; additional and basic information. I also let you populate the search results with “owned” properties. (This option is good for people with businesses owning physical office.)
4. Paid Search Advertising
It's obviously not free but on the other hand one of the fastest ways to make your website listed on the top of search results. It's not the easiest one tho, as you will need someone well trained to take care of paid advertising platform. It will prevent you from losing time and money on it.
Owning a working, live website isn't everything. You always have to make sure that the user experience of your website is the best as it's the most important thing for getting more viewers.📺
- Make sure that your website is responsive, easy to use and good looking on different devices (Tablets, laptops, mobie phones etc.)
- Put your main contact details in a visible place on main page, also don't forget about the contact page which every successful website should have
- Emphasize the most relevant information, those which you want users to remember and to see first
- Test your website's speed and functionality from time to time just to make sure that everything works as it should
- Create a survey to easily evaluate if users of your website are happy with overall experience of it
- Update all the plug-ins and functions on your website
- Make your website as secured as possible, especially if you gather user's data by it
- Make sure or the content and information on your website are relevant, especially contact details
- Make a research and see what people like in your competiton's websites, it may help you with updating the design, navigation or even functionality of your website
- Make sure that your social media are linked to your website and vice versa.
- Having a blog page is a good idea if you want to keep viewers updated about your work and let them find your posts easily
6. Be active and responsive
Once you will get some viewers and followers don't take them for granted! You have to keep them informed, remind them about yourself and build as best relationships with them as you can. It mostly applies to social media platforms, but also remember to answer your phone and reply to emails or messages. 💬
- Try to post something at least once a week
- Make surveys
- If many people ask you one, same question all over just make the answer public by putting it in your next post or Q&A of your account. It should prevent your accounts from spam.
- Make sure the content of your posts is interesting, don't post something "just to post something", it will make your accounts boring and forgetable
- Make sure to post the same/ very similar content at the same time on all your social media accounts so viewers from all different platforms will be informed at once about the same thing
- Answer for comments and tags from time to time, it really helps building the relationship with your followers
- Try to make partnerships and collaborations with some well known brands, people or accounts on social media, it will boost your popularity for sure
- Don't argue with people or post inappropriate content, try to make it nice, interesting and entertaining for viewers
- Just be active! Commenting, sharing or even reacting on others posts make a mark of your presence on social media platforms, more active you are the more people will see you
6. Track and measure your results
How am I supposed to know if I'm making any improvements in enhancing my web presence? To answer yourself that question you have to constantly measure your results against your objectives. Try to compare those two at least once a month to see if you actually making some progress towards reaching your goals. Keeping track of these results will help you decide on whether or not you need to change your strategy and how to do so. 👍
Developers and Designers
While above advises applied for all working individuals and businesses wanting to create an amazing web presence this section is created for young computer science enthusiasts just like me. I want to provide you with some more tips and ideas to help you with your online presences. 👾
By creating and sharing your portfolio with the world you're not only showing your work and improvement over the years but also describing your story. Portfolio shows people who you are, what you can do and how big are your ambitions. The sooner you start creating your portfolio the better. Your story will be more developed and the improvement more visible. 🌟
What is so special about showcase portfolios? Why are they getting more and more popular especially for designers and developers? 💁
- Having an electronic showcase portfolio means that you can keep adding to your work
- Showcasing and presenting work allows you to reflect and speak about your work in a way you choose
- Your personality is highlighted based on your chosen design, layout and things on display
- You are making the best impressions of yourself for others by choosing your best work
- It's considered to be one of the most professional ways of showcasing your best work, whether it is for a teacher, school, clients or employer
- It's a creative way to highlight and show your work and skills
- Showcase portfolios show only one’s best works so the reflection process requires greater depth and perception than with other types of portfolios
- It's more interesting and personal than other types of portfolios
- It is important to consider the audience when creating showcase portfolios
2. What to avoid while showing people my work?
It's essencial for us designers and developers to show people our work so we can prove them our skills and experience. However we have to be careful as there are some details which can have major impact on our overall presence. 🚨
- Showing too much or too little work. You have to find the golden mean where you show enough work to make an impression and show most of your skills, but at the same time not too much so the showcase won't get boring.
- People want to get to know you and your personality so avoid dry and corporate feel. Try to make it fun, unique and interesting while still keeping some professionalism.
- Don't overcomplicate your showcase's layout and design. Obviously it can't be basic and boring but it also shouldn't look messy and distract from your work.
- Don't replace your older work in the portfolio with new, polished ones. Your portfolio should tell a story of your self development and your improvement over the time. No one will believe that you were creating perfect, polished work from the beginning so don't be ashame of your first best work pieces from past.
- Rember to avoid lack of context. A paragraph or two will be enough (don't write too much!) to describe your work so viewers can truly understand and appriciate it. The description should include
- Client, school or company name
- Goal
- How it was created
- Who else was involved
- Your specific role and responsibilities
Nowadays you have to be open and ready for many random opportunities. Remember that many developers are also designers and vice versa. Don't limit yourself to just one proffession or career option. In computer science your possibilities are limitless! 🌈
Here are some suggestions and ideas for both enhancing your web presence and increasing your chances for a job or commission:
- Start a blog or social media group when you give advices, share your knowledge or help people with development/design issues. It won't only help you with enhancing your online presence and practicing your current skills but will also open you a path to establish some relationships with other people from your professional field.
- Start online tutor classes, it's a good way to let people know you, prove your skills and get some extra money. Who knows maybe you will decide to become a lecturer after all?
- You can start with small easy things for which there is huge demand, for example: content writing commisions, social media management part-time jobs or asking local businesses if they don't need any help with website management, development or design.
- Start you own, independent project like: writing an app, creating a game or a comic book. There are many websites when you can share your progress, get supporters, followers and populrity.
- Make some tutorials YouTube videos, maybe you will get lucky and go viral!
- If you are a developer learn how to design too, if you're a designer learn some development. The more versatile your mind gets and more expanded your skills set get the bigger chance for an employer to view and hire you.
- Don't give up and remember that even a small commission is still a small step till a stable career.
- Don't be scared of trying new things or doing something a little bit out of your skills comfort zone. You have to take risks and challenges to learn, grow and get ready for what future brings.
Thank you for reading and see you next week! 😎
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