Promoting yourself as a teacher
How can a teacher gain recognisability? Expert opinion - Polina Venglovskaya
We live in the age of social media and influencers of all kinds - coaches, mentors, models, lifestyle bloggers. These people gain fame, monetise their blogs and become celebrities. And now we see that almost every field or industry is represented by this or that blogger or social media account. Teachers are not an exception. We are sure that all of our readers follow at least one teacher on social media! But could you become one yourself? And perhaps an even more important question - why should you?
Steady stream of clients
If you fully depend on somebody else to provide you with students and groups, the control of your income is out of your hands. You can never know how many lessons you will teach next month and if you even will be able to earn as much as you expect. Teachers who work with kids and teens often dread the beginning of summer holidays, for this is when the students take a break from their studies, forcing the teacher to have a holiday of their own. And you have to plan for those times yourself throughout the year, saving up enough to last you the three summer months. For some it may be an ideal situation, but for others it is a real pain in the neck every time.
If you have a platform, which steadily supplies students to you, you will never have a shortage of clients and teaching hours to teach.
Opportunities
Having a great social media presence will also make you recognisable among your peers, which can lead to interesting collaborations, sharing experiences and getting new opportunities. You may be invited to speak at conferences, host live sessions and many more things. Even exciting job offers may come your way.
Being able to keep up
The world is relentlessly moving forward throwing new challenges at us every day, forcing us to adapt to the ever-changing terrain. If you stick to the same old ways, one day you may discover that you have completely lost touch with your audience, do not understand or recognise the needs of your students or can’t find a means to an end. On the other hand, if you do keep up, you will always learn about the latest trends in education, find out about the newest tools and will be able to offer relevant and up-to-date services.
Growth
Speaking of job opportunities, being a professional recognised in your field will also bring you professional growth. Many people are content with their current position and would not like to change a thing, which is absolutely fine, however, if you feel like you are getting stagnant, you do need some space for growth.
How to promote yourself as a teacher?
There are many ways you can increase your recognisability and get acknowledgement from your peers. Here are some:
Join Teaching Communities
The internet is brimming with all different kinds of social groups, forums, chats and communities for every topic and area imaginable. Teachers congregate in such places as well, sharing lesson materials and ideas, exchanging students, increasing their knowledge and improving skills. Some communities you can join today:
In these communities you can ask and answer questions, sell or share your teaching materials, and generally build your social media presence and professional recognisability by doing something you love with like-minded people!
Create a website
Having your own website will make you look even more professional! You can place your CV, rates and information about how you work, student reviews and other stuff. Your will not have to copy-paste the same information to every new student you get, simply direct them to your landing page and let them read everything themselves. This will definitely increase your credibility in their eyes! Potential employers will also take note of your website and will offer you higher positions, salary and more interesting projects to work on.
It may seem a daunting task, especially if you have no experience in web-design or programming, but in reality, there are so many website constructors you can use for free, that will allow you to assemble your website like a puzzle all under 30 minutes. You will need to spend more time if you want everything to look perfect, but don’t fall into a perfectionist’s stupor and start with something.
Readymag - a very fast way to create your own web-page that can be published in one click.
Tilda - a very popular tool which has a great number of templates you can fill with your own content
GoDaddy - Create a mobile-friendly, free website for your business, then watch it take off with built-in marketing.
Build your image
Everything stems from the way you present yourself to others. Add a professional looking profile picture to your accounts, a brief description of who you are and what experience you have and if possible, add links to your blog or website. People who you encounter online may open your profile to find out more about you, and if there is a picture of your cat and nothing else, they will close it and pay you no further mind.
How are you promoting yourself online as a teacher?
EXPERT OPINION
Hi, everyone! This is Polina speaking, Amazy content creator, Teacher Trainer and English teacher all in one. I have recently been working on my online presence and professional image, and although the path has not been easy, I will happily shares what troubles befell me on that treacherous (I am being overly dramatic) path.
To begin with, I have been holding training sessions, supervising and mentoring colleagues and sharing my vast experience with everyone willing for the past 5 or 6 years. I have a personal blog on Instagram, but have been struggling with maintaining a professional one for the same reasons I don’t have many followers - I post irregularly, I hate sharing personal stuff and I don’t like to force myself to do something I am not in the mood for.
But I am starting to realise, you don’t have to approach your professional blog the same way you would a personal one - you don’t have to overshare, be a talking head or post 15 stories every day. The only thing you need to do is post regularly and occasionally - maybe once in a few days. The second revelation was that nobody really digs “expert content” anymore. People come to social media to have fun and be entertained, not to study! So, share work-related things that you are passionate about, something that makes you excited and animated, and it will work wonders.
As for the website, I started making one a month ago, but gave up after a few days. I am now building up some courage to resume, and there is one thing I learned from the first failed attempt - do not try to make everything perfect at your first try. Just fill the webpage with information, add your photograph and publish. You can perfect it later and when you get inspired - step by step!
Finally, you may think, why am I doing it all? I want to approach a bigger audience! Share the joy of using Amazy to teach lessons, create wonderful interactive lessons and sell them! I want to give back to the community by telling them what I know and helping people reach the same results with fewer bruises and headaches. But how will I do that if people don’t know who I am, what I represent and if they can even trust me? Thus all the trouble!
My final advice to you - do not be afraid to show yourself to the world and let it see and hear you. We all have unique experiences, knowledge, things to share, and only together we can achieve impossible results!
Would you like to become a contributor and be featured in our newsletter as an expert? Let us know!
That’s all for now!
Stay amazing❤️