How to Build an Online Presence Using Old Social Media Accounts

Have your old social media accounts been dormant for years? It’s time you rescued them from the abyss of the online grave and started building your online presence. In today’s working environment, an online presence is essential. It’s actually more of a survival strategy if you hope to remain relevant in your field.

Having an online presence helps recruiters find you… or in the case that you are an entrepreneur or consultant, clients get to know about your products. Take a minute and think of the last consultancy services you used. Chances are, you found the consultant online, either through a LinkedIn Post, a Facebook sponsored post or on the top page of Google.

The good thing about social media is that it takes only a few calculated steps to become active again. It doesn’t matter why you quit. You can always pick up where you left off in no time.

You will do it even faster with the tips and strategies we are about to share. Let’s get into it.

1. Update Your Existing Inactive Social Profiles

Depending on your goals right now, LinkedIn will most likely be the first profile to update. By updating, we mean checking that your name is still correct, as well as the current role, field, and company.

Make sure to add new experiences you have accumulated in your time away. Also, update your about pages to reflect the new you, and fill out any sections you may have left out before.

What if you have multiple inactive or old social media accounts? Right now, there are tons of social media platforms to choose from, and you cannot realistically be on all of them. It’s better if you focus on the platforms:

• Where your audience hangs out
• That support the type of content you want to use
• That are easy and fun to use for you

Ideally, you want to focus on two to three social media platforms first, and once you have built an authority and presence on those, diversify to other platforms.

2. Connect With New People

Each day, new professionals start a profile on social media. That’s a pool of new talent, potential partnerships, and networks you are yet to connect with. So, once you have updated your old social media accounts, follow, connect and start engaging with new people. Your connections should be people in your field, those you look up to, and of course, anyone else that shares your hobbies and interests.

Why are new connections so important once you decide to start building an online presence again? Well, these new networks will come in handy once you start posting content. They are more likely to engage, like, or share your content, giving you a boost when building a solid social media presence.

3. Create a Social Media Strategy

The biggest mistake professionals make after being inactive for long is rushing to post content. However, it’s better to first plan how and what you want to achieve with the content you post. To start, you need to create a content calendar. A social media content calendar is a digital calendar that helps you plan out what to post and when to publish the content.

A content calendar may feel rigid and limiting, but in essence, it helps you stay on your brand and post consistently. Plus, you can always spice things up with the occasional post that falls outside the realm of your content calendar.

Ensure you sync notification reminders on your phone with the calendar so you can remember when it’s time to publish or schedule a post.

4. Start Publishing Relevant Content

Now that you’ve got a calendar in place, it’s time to start publishing content on your old social media accounts. Remember, our goal is to concentrate on two to three platforms and master those before moving on to the next.

With a content calendar in place, it will be so much easier as you’ll know what to post, on which platform, and when to post it. For the content, make sure to use copy that is related to your audience.

Images also play a crucial role in boosting engagement. For instance, adding an image to your Facebook posts gives you 2.3x more engagement than posts without photos. On the other hand, adding an image to your Twitter posts increases retweets by 150%. Videos take engagement through the roof and reinforce your brand. For example, Twitter posts with videos see 10x more engagement than those without.

In relation to publishing content, here are a few more tips for creating better content.

• Develop your voice — Are you witty, funny, or professional with a hint of sarcasm?
• Adjust your posts to current events — Is there a big upcoming event that you can infuse into your posts?
• Leverage relevant trends — What’s buzzing in your industry, and how do these trends tie back your content?
• Don’t forget humor — Despite your brand voice, injecting humor into your content makes it easy to build connections and relationships.
• Consistency will help you win over old followers and attract a new audience.

5. Use Automation to Speed Things Up

Content creation is the most important part of building an online presence after being inactive for so long. But it also takes the most time. This is time you may not have as a professional with work to do, and probably a family to take care of. And here is where automation comes in.

With Facebook and Instagram, you can use the Create Studio to schedule posts and even crosspost between the two platforms. If the platform of choice doesn’t allow scheduling, investing in a third-party app will make things so much simpler.

6. Analyze, Rinse, Repeat

Whether you want to stay on the recruiters’ radar or gain new clients, you need to understand if your efforts have a positive ROI. You can only get insight into the ROI earned by analyzing the engagement data on your social platforms. The three most important things to look at are:

• Your highest performing posts.
• The most common type of engagement. Is it likes, shares, comments, mentions, or direct messages?
• How your online presence efforts contribute to your business or professional bottom line. For instance, if you are a professional, have you managed to network with more people or build better relationships with people in your industry? If you’re a consultant, have you gained leads and clients through social media?

Once you have this data at hand, it’s time to rinse and repeat: Where you cut off or improve what’s not working, and make better what’s already working. For example, you could decide to reply more to the comments on your posts. Maybe you could also collaborate with other professionals to create content and leverage each others’ audiences. There’s no one way to optimize your old social media accounts — the important thing is to keep testing and implementing improvements.

A consultant using his phone and laptop to check his profiles

7. Diversify Your Social Platforms

By this time, if you are using the mentioned strategies, you should have quite a steady online presence. At this point, you can choose to diversify and reach a wider audience through other channels.

For instance, if LinkedIn and Facebook were your standard channels, how about trying Quora, Reddit, or Substack groups? A quick look through Quora and Reddit will reveal top consultants across various fields and industries using the platform to engage with their audience. You can also join social media groups that your audience is more likely to spend time in.

8. Value Over Promotion

It’s so easy to get carried away by promoting yourself and forget to add value in an attempt to make up for time lost. Don’t. First, your audience won’t like it, and second, it will only harm your brand in the long term.

Instead, ask yourself how you can add value to those who engage with your posts.  For example, Sallie Krawcheck, the co-founder and CEO of Ellevest, regularly shares valuable investment and financial management tips on her LinkedIn page. While she puts her brand front and center, her audience still gains more value through the tips and stories she shares.

9. Get a Website to Have It All in Place

We saved the best for last. The easiest way to build an online presence for your professional brand is to have a website. A professional website sets you apart and helps you showcase your brand, expertise, and beliefs.

With a website, you can build your brand voice, share career progression, and let your audience know about the products or services you offer. The good thing about having your website is that it’s yours to use as you please. You are not limited to a few characters or certain types of content.

We shared nine strategies to help you build an online presence from old social media accounts. You can take two and start implementing them right away, and you’ll start seeing the difference.

Start Building Your Personal Brand With a Professional Website

While all this is great and nice, you might not have the time to do it all on your own. There is your career commitment, family, and so many other things to think about and do. That’s where Ventin comes in. We help you create a professional website and breathe life into your old social media accounts so you can get found online.

It’s a hands-free process that enables you to build a solid foundation and showcase your expertise the right way in no time. Contact us to find out how we can help you scale your brand.