Before heading to our first race of the year in Louisiana next week, I flew to Charlotte for a couple of days to attend this year’s Women in Auto Care leadership event. You may recall my blog from last year, where I visited them in Detroit to learn about what’s new in the automotive industry, and leaved feeling empowered and inspired to make a difference and help pave the way for future females in racing and in automotive.

This year’s conference went a little differently for me, as I was on stage instead of in the crowd. I’m genuinely honored that they’ve asked me to return to the stage to give two presentations to share my story and how social media has shaped my career. Almost 200 women (and some men) from all areas of the automotive industry, including racing, technicians, shop managers and owners, marketing, product development and manufacturing, media, etc. were in attendance in Charlotte this year and like always, we had a great time together during and after the conference, including a fundraiser casino night.

Below I’m giving you my 3 best tips from my presentation on how to grow engagement online without getting overwhelmed:

1. Set a timer each day (15-20 minutes per platform) to respond to comments and messages. Also, send at least 1 message every day to a new follower thanking them for their support and ask them if they would want to see anything specific from you.

2. Contribute to articles, podcasts, and blogs in your industry and in your town to build online authority. Do this by emailing magazine editors and industry podcasters and bloggers and offer your time and insight as a value to provide them with content. Find ways to share your unique perspective and experiences with the audiences you share to extend your business reach. The more people who discover your valuable insight, the easier it’ll be to point them back to your business.

3. Go behind-the-scenes of your race shops, in the pits, and where you work. Can you record videos that are fun, educational, and informative about my shop? Behind-the-scenes videos are very popular on social media, and research shows that people prefer educational content via video than in a caption.

Take a minute to write down a few things that you’ll start doing this week to improve your engagement on social media. Remember, your worth is not wrapped up in the number of followers you have. The quality of your photos and captions are way more powerful than the quantity of followers. I want for you to take this opportunity to show up in other’s lives in a meaningful, and purposeful way.