Authenticity vs. Trends: How to Show Up With Confidence Online as a Wellness Business Leader

Wellness businesses struggle when it comes to authentically marketing themselves and their businesses. After 5 years of social media managing for small & wellness-focused businesses, I've learned a couple things about what they struggle with most, and I would say this is probably the most common pain point expressed to me.

I've had clients who were into trends, and didn't have any hesitation in engaging with them. But the efforts we took toward engaging with trends I can't say were honestly sustainable for their growth in the long run, as the bouts of motivation to keep in touch only lasted so long.

I've also had clients who were more or less anti-trends, and hated the idea of keeping up with a digital landscape that is ever-changing with community and app-driven relevancy. BUT the downside with this is they were almost too close minded to the point where nothing they were publishing related to a bigger conversation, or at least had their unique take on the bigger conversation.

I can however, confidently say that a 50/50 balance of both "authentically-driven" and "on the pulse" content works for most businesses.

I'm not claiming that this is the case for every body's situation, but for the most part- this works and there are a few reasons why. I'm going to share real live examples of why this works

If you can translate trends into tasteful opportunities to convey your brand mission or message, go for it.

It takes discernment to figure out if a trend is really going to work for your business. I once worked with an herbalist who took advantage of a "small business" trend on Reels, I'm sure you all remember it. The voice that says "Show what your small business does in 5 seconds" and then the music drops and you show a bunch of photos of what your business does. The reason this was perfect for her was because she was a small business, a product-based business, and the music matched her brand voice (serving women and health/wellness enthusiasts aged 20-50), and her goal was to GROW.

Growth is a key point here. If you are looking for strategies to grow, you may want to consider hopping on a couple trends if it works and if it feels authentic to you. Here's the secret sauce: if a trend feels authentic to what you do (you immediately see a vision for it for how it could work for you), than it may be a beneficial thing to do, even if it makes you feel uncomfortable.

If you're somebody who overthinks about posting and gets REALLY uncomfortable when it comes to creating content, here's my best advice: People are only going to see this post for 24 hours, after that it's no longer relevant. How insane is that? I see this as both a good thing and bad thing, but that's besides the point. After a day or so, unless it goes viral, your post was most likely seen by your audience for an instant, hopefully they interacted and engaged with it, and then they moved on. We tend to believe that everybody has the same thoughts as us when it comes to our own work, and that is just simply not true.

To always be in touch with trends shouldn't be seen as a negative thing. It should be seen as: this is the bigger conversation in your industry, and you decide if you have something to say about it.

Now, if we're talking general trends like the latest popular meme from the latest Hollywood movie, yes, cringe. We're not talking about that. We're talking about whats trending in your specific niche. Is it the format of video people are doing? Is there a trending topic people are touching on a lot that is a response to an event? Having a pulse on what is going on in your industry, and having discernment on whether you want to comment on something, or not, is the challenge.

One way to figure out if you should comment on a subject can be as simple as asking yourself this: Does my experience add value to the context of this subject? If you're unsure, think about an experience that you've gone through that directly correlates with the subject matter. If you have a couple of experiences that relate, then you absolutely could and should share your insight and perspective.

Another real-life experience I have on this example is when I was doing social media management for the herbalist that I mentioned in the previous point. It was 2020, and everything was happening fast in the wellness industry. Companies, businesses, and thought-leaders were taking it upon themselves to give advice and use their voice (which I am all for), until there was some pretty heavy monitoring implemented by the app. There came a point where you didn't even want to type out the word in full because accounts were getting shut down left and right. The owner of the herbal business came to my team with a protocol she had specifically developed for covid. She came to us because she was unsure of how to go about publishing this to her audience, but she believed so deeply in the knowledge she had and the benefit it could provide, so we came to a resolution. We decided to use this protocol as an email campaign, and promote the campaign on social to not only drive email subscribers, but to help more folks through more valuable, exclusive content.

Amongst all of the chaos online at the time, advice given from a certified herbalist who was holistically-minded was highly valuable for most of her followers. This campaign ended up being a success, and I believe it was because she called her people into her corner to hear about something that could actually help them during a time that was full of mis-information.

When in doubt, choose to speak from your authenticity.

Being genuine and transparent with your audience is actually a trend in and of itself in 2024, but I won't confuse things. The reason to always take a step back if you're unsure is because unless it's a HELL YES to jump on a trend, you're more than likely going to show up unaligned, and weighted with a forced effort, and people can't necessarily see that evidently, but they absolutely can feel it. Flow is a superpower on social media and on your community platforms, and showing up in the most "flow" as possible is the goal, because we want people to know who you are and what makes you unique. Why? Because your personality and individuality is a whole other superpower when it comes to being a business owner.

What do I mean by this? If you have a product based business, this a perfect example. Your product has it's own "brand" and "personality" in itself. It's a stand alone thing that cane be defined without the context of you. Right? So if this is all true, then that means that YOU, yourself, can also be seen as a stand alone entity, personality and brand. When you mix the two together, you are now creating context for your brand. This is added value. It's not everyday that we come by a business owner who is also willing to be a part of their brand. This brings in a whole new world of opportunity for getting creative through your content, showcasing the story of your brand from your perspective, and ultimately relating to your audience on a personal level.

I hope this blog helped you on your entrepreneur journey. If it did, please give it a like and subscribe to The Latest Newsletter to get a round up of the blogs, exclusive content marketing resources, photography/videography offers, and updates on what we've been up to at Essence. Delivered to your inbox every 30th of the month!

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