Episode 236: Social media marketing for LGBTQ+ business owners – with Rylan Hoffman

The episode transcript is below.

Carolyn Kiel: Welcome to Beyond 6 Seconds, the podcast that goes beyond the six second first impression to share the extraordinary stories of neurodivergent people. I’m your host, Carolyn Kiel.

Carolyn Kiel: On today’s episode, I’m speaking with Rylan Hoffman, the heart behind Hoff Social. A transmasculine marketing strategist and content creator, Rylan has spent more than 14 years building online communities. With over a hundred million organic views, they know the power of visibility, but also its risks. After facing doxxing, harassment and even extremist threats, Rylan made it their mission to help queer business owners navigate the internet safely while getting the right eyes on their content. Rylan, welcome to the podcast.

Rylan Hoffman: Thank you. It’s wonderful to be here.

Carolyn Kiel: I’m really excited to talk with you about, you know, your own experience because along with the theme of this show, you are also neurodivergent. So we’re gonna get a little bit more into the story of your life experiences. And also I would love to learn more about what you do in your business and how you help queer businesses with their online content and their social media presence.

So how did you first realize that you’re neurodivergent?

Rylan Hoffman: So I think my relationship with neurodivergency has kind of evolved throughout my life. I was never really, you know, what would be considered a normal kid, right? I was always, you know. talking a lot more than the other kids, had my niche interests and you know, my sensory issues. And so from a very young age, my parents kind of knew I was different.

My mom was buying all of the “how to help your overly sensitive kid” books. And you know, I think that, you know, back then in 1999, 2000, there wasn’t a ton of conversation around neurodivergency, especially in, you know, children that were assigned female at birth.

But when I got to middle school, it was so hard to focus and stay on track. I was such a passionate kid, but I can never quite sit down and just do my work. And so that led to some evaluations and they ended up diagnosing me with ADHD. Now, of course, the autism question was completely unanswered at that point. Still, it didn’t really come up for me as a possibility, but I knew that ADHD couldn’t possibly be all that was going on. I had friends with ADHD and we shared some struggles, but there were a lot of struggles we didn’t share.

So when I got to college and I started recognizing, you know, you know, once you’re an adult, I think neurodivergence becomes even more obvious because you feel like you’re even more different than now than the adults. I think all kids kind of have tendencies towards different things, but when you’re a grownup, you’re supposed to act a certain way and be productive in a certain way and feel your emotions a certain way. And that just wasn’t happening for me. So that really led me down a path of understanding that not only do I have ADHD, but I’m also autistic.

And I think that was definitely a breakthrough for me because, you know, I finally felt like there was something that, that, that made sense about, okay, this is why I am the way I am. And then queerness is kind of that whole other discovery path on top of that. So those do have quite a bit of, you know, a relationship for me as well.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Yeah. And I’d love to learn more about that relationship between sort of what was it like growing up neurodivergent and trans as well. Because kinda as you said, a lot of times when we have really any kind of life transition, whether it’s from school, going to college or college into adulthood, our environments change and expectations change. So with you having an additional transition as a trans person, how did that all interplay with your neurodivergence?

Rylan Hoffman: I think, you know, again, from a young age, things like gender roles never really made a lot of sense to me. And I know this is common among even cisgender autistic people where, you know, there’s a lot of roles in society that are kind of cast onto you and you can’t quite fulfill them either in the same way as others or, or not at all.

And so, you know, I think that there was always like that sense that I was different. But even, even on top of, you know, the neurodivergency, it never felt like I truly belonged with, you know, the girls or the boys. And it was really easy for me to brush that off for a long time as well, I just have a different neurotype. My, my brain just works different. It’s not, you know, a gender thing. It’s, it’s a, it’s a neurodiversity thing.

But you know, going into, it’s kind of interesting because I think the transition between like, like, like being a girl as a young kid, you know, you’re still allowed to be kind of messy and loud ’cause you’re a kid, right? But that transition into womanhood is I think what really shook me awake of like, you know, 15, 16 years old, I was like, okay, you know, it’s one thing to be a girl and be like a little tomboy, but like now I’m supposed to be a woman. And that was even more complicated for me to really wrap my head around.

It wasn’t so much a physical dysphoria as it was a social one. And then once I came to terms with the social dysphoria, I was feeling all of that physical dysphoria that I’d just been totally numb to came to the surface as well. And so yeah, in college it was really around the same time I was realizing I was transmasculine and autistic. And the biggest differentiator for me for that was, you know, with being trans, I really wanted to feel more comfortable in my body. And then with accepting my autism, it was more about feeling more comfortable in my mind.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh. That’s really interesting. Yeah. So I guess as, as an adult, did you make any adjustments, say for, you know, your autism in terms of, I don’t know, the way you interacted with people or the way you changed your environment to make it more sort of comfortable or just work better for you as an adult?

Rylan Hoffman: I mean, I, I think every adult who realizes they’re autistic has that moment where they order the bulk stim toys online.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, true.

Rylan Hoffman: Things like that, you know, allowing myself to have, you know, more breaks during the day. Getting accommodations through my university was definitely a struggle. I deal with, you know, physical, chronic illnesses on top of all of this, and so I initially had those accommodations for that. But once I realized, you know, being autistic really makes it difficult to go into a classroom and sit for an hour and just, you know, the fluorescence coming down and everyone talking, like it just becomes a lot. And so feeling like empowered to ask for those accommodations, it almost felt similar to like going to the professor and asking for them to use my preferred name, you know? ’cause you’re really putting yourself out there and you’re like, I’m different and something different has to happen because of that. But you know, it was definitely a journey in both aspects of like, allowing the environment to accommodate me without feeling like a burden.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Wow. Yeah, so, and that also speaks to, you know, self-advocacy and advocating for your needs and, and you know, as you said, putting yourself out there. ’cause there’s always, you know, you never know how people are gonna react. So that’s, yeah, that’s a big step.

Rylan Hoffman: Yeah. And especially, you know, online, putting yourself out there online is, is an even bigger thing. ’cause when you’re in person, you can really curate for the most part as an adult who you share spaces with, right? If a job is toxic, you can hopefully leave it. If family members are being unfair, you can stop talking to them. There’s all these ways you can kind of curate your social environment in adulthood, but when it comes to the internet, it’s such a free for all in who you end up in front of.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, that’s really true. So what inspired you to start your business, Hoff Social?

Rylan Hoffman: Well, I mean really what I just mentioned. So I, I’ve always been on the internet. I was a little internet, I was a Tumblr kid. If it’s not obvious about everything about me. You know, I was, I, I really never approached social media like a social thing. I always approached it as kind of a tool for connection in terms of like how to get in front of the right people. I remember being like 12 years old, spending five, six hours a day doing like outbound engagement strategies for my photography business. And that account ended up with like 10,000 followers, which Instagram in 2012 was very, very different than it is today. But you know, it gave me a really good foundation for understanding how the kind of inner mechanisms of the algorithm can work. Kind of replicating that same success for myself later on Tumblr and on Twitter, and kind of getting a lot of practice building those big online communities. And so I had that skillset really under my belt.

But then when I became kind of the face of it, as a creator in the queer space in college, I ran into a lot of harassment, a lot of, you know, being shadow banned for talking about certain topics, being misunderstood. There was a lot of barriers between kind of, me being online and then having those like genuine connections on the other end just because of all of the bigotry and like lack of protections that are online for people like me.

And I think, you know, the intersection of being autistic and trans as well as, you know, being fat, really put me, like put a target on my back, right? You know, you hear a lot about like lol cows and people that are singled out to be like mass harassed. And there were people talking about turning me into that, you know, on hate forums. People became really, really obsessed with me as like this object of, like the butt of the joke really.

And it reminded me so much of, you know, being on the schoolyard as a kid, being the fat neurodivergent queer person, and it just felt like bullies everywhere, right? No matter what age you are, whatever space you’re in. And I just thought to myself, you know, it’s one thing for me to say, okay, I’m gonna delete all these accounts, but like, what if my whole business relies on the platform, right? What if your whole business relies on being able to exist safely?

And so as I transitioned out of doing, you know, stuff for myself and being kind of like the micro creator in the, in the trans disabled space online, I started working in social media marketing behind the scenes for other businesses. And I noticed not only is the skillset transferrable, but I had a unique perspective on, you know, the safety aspect of it. And I really wanted to kind of go out on my own then and really bring that straight to queer owned businesses because I think that everyone is scared of the same thing and no one’s talking about it.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Yeah, that seems like a really fine line to walk and, and you know, especially you wanna be out there, but at the same time, if you’re someone who’s queer or neurodivergent or disabled, like, we see a lot of those influencers get a lot of hate and harassment and, and worse. So yeah, that’s a really powerful service to offer.

So, yeah. Tell me more about how you help queer business owners with their, their online visibility and, and social media marketing while kind of you know, helping to protect or at least advise on any of the negative stuff that comes along with that.

Rylan Hoffman: Yeah, and so a really big part of kind of why I am centering safety and not just like social media strategy. There’s a lot of people in the online space right now teaching people and helping people grow on social media for their businesses. I’m not trying to, you know, come in and be like, I’m the end all be all resource for all of that, because there’s so many brilliant people in this space talking about it in their own unique ways.

And so I think that, I’m not here to be any sort of like coach or expert. What I’m more I’m trying to do is tie the safety and strategy together. Because you know, let’s say a queer business owner works with a strategist who gets them, you know, a hundred million views. Without that backend safety protection, that’s just going to open them up to more risk. Like, success and vulnerability have such a tight relationship on the internet, right?

So what I do for queer owned businesses is I actually construct the initial marketing strategy for them. If they want me on full service, I execute that strategy for them as well. But I also create a kind of roadmap for them to understand how to actually stay safe. It’s, it’s two parts. So there’s the upfront initial protection, and then there’s the backend of the crisis plan, is what I like to call it. Something that I did not have when I was doxxed that would’ve changed everything.

When I was doxxed, I deleted all of my platforms. I was getting 30 million views a month across platforms, and I deleted all of it. It was heartbreaking. I had built up such a community of people that genuinely cared for me, I believe, and, and, and I felt a connection with. But the, the people that were out to get me were so loud and so violent that it just wasn’t worth it.

And, you know, my, my ultimate goal is to help people get to a place where they don’t have to erase themselves or erase their businesses from the internet, if something like this were to happen. And I can certainly go into detail about some of the things I do recommend people, but it’s really just to give someone a safety net. If they’re gonna go up, if they’re gonna get up to the highest level possible, right? All the views, all the engagement, all the conversion, all that beautiful stuff they want. What happens if, you know, there’s some sort of situation where there’s that fall from that kind of height. You need a strong safety net. So I want people to have both.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Wow. That’s really powerful to think of proactively when you’re building the plan, how do you stay safe upfront, and then what are your crisis plans if something, you know, if, if something very negative should happen. Kind of two different, two different things to think about, I guess.

Wow. Yeah, I’d love to learn more about either advice you have or, or some of the things that you recommend for queer or even disabled neurodivergent people who, you know, are more likely to experience that kind of negativity and harassment and all bad things. Yeah.

Rylan Hoffman: I mean, ’cause this applies to truly every marginalized person on the internet trying to grow and, and gain visibility. I think that, you know, the specific flavor of harassment I got was a product of my intersectional identities, but it can look different for other people. It can even be worse for others.

So some things that I really recommend is having a dedicated business email. Multifactor authentication on all your business accounts. You can use separate phone numbers through Google Voice for business communication. And then a really big thing is kind of a proactive kind of preventative engagement strategy I like to call it. So, you know, a lot of people are very empowered by doing this, and I’m not here to knock it necessarily, but when people get a hate comment, they’ll usually use that to then create a new piece of content. And it, it. I think it’s one thing if you’re screenshotting something and using something as an example. So sometimes on my account, if I see something specific, I’ll screenshot it. ’cause a huge aspect of my online presence is talking about these things. Right? But if that’s not something that you wanna center on your page, I think that deleting and blocking bigoted comments instantly is the safest way to navigate. I think it’s so tempting to, to get in there and start arguing back and forth. There’s no amount of facts or logic you can use to get a bigot to leave you alone, right? The only thing that you can do is just put up a wall. And so, you know, it’s, it’s not so much setting boundaries. It’s like setting barriers. Like, you cannot come into my online space.

And so, blocking, reporting and deleting is, is like the holy trinity, right? Like, I was getting comments just swarming one of my videos a couple months ago, and I was truly blocking and deleting everything and it slowed down within a couple days. Which is such a stark difference between what I used to do is I used to argue back with people, right? You just don’t know better. You wanna stand up for yourself, you wanna prove a point, you wanna look strong for your community. But at the end of the day, you’re just putting yourself at more risks. That’s something else I really, I do talk about is like, there’s nothing they could say that makes it worth it to respond to them, you know?

And then on kind of the same note as building that strong community, most of the time I was like reposted somewhere, or even when I was doxed, I had people in my online community actually come to me about it and tell me. You know, I wasn’t scouring the internet all the time looking for stuff about me. So having that strong community to like stand up for you and support you during those times is so key, which is part of the marketing strategy, right? Is, is like, especially from a business perspective, like having people who care about your mission and understand why you’re even showing up to then kind of give you that, that love and support if you do have to go private for a couple weeks for safety, right? You know, you still have your, your people that, that want to hear from you and care what you have to say.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That’s that’s great advice. Yeah. It is really tempting to argue back or just try to prove a point. But as you said, it, it just, you know, you’re never gonna win the argument with, with a troll or a bigot. And it, it just fuels more hate. So, yeah.

Rylan Hoffman: Even if you do win, what you’ve just told the algorithm is that when people who have the similar online behavior as those pages, that when they are shown your content and they interact with you, you interact back. And so you’re actually telling the algorithm to send you more.

You’re like, this is what’s keeping me on the app. And at the end of the day, that’s the ultimate goal of the algorithms is to keep you on the app.

So, next time you’re spending 30, 40 minutes arguing with a person online, just know that every minute of that, the app is paying attention and sees that that’s why you’re engaging and it just creates a, a vicious cycle.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that is a really good point that, yeah, the app doesn’t care. The app doesn’t really care about right or wrong. It cares about engagement and what, yeah, what drives engagement.

Rylan Hoffman: This is, I, this is what I always say. I say the algorithm doesn’t know the difference, but your nervous system does.

Carolyn Kiel: I. Yeah, absolutely. No, that’s really great advice. And I guess for businesses say that have like a physical location, have you ever had to deal with that in terms of safety? Because, you know, we’ve, we’ve heard of, of really bad things happening or getting threatened even, even like schools and libraries, and I’m sure businesses face that too. Do you have advice for sort of protecting against that? Or.

Rylan Hoffman: So what I will say is a, a, a major aspect of like what I specialize in is that online safety piece. I think that, you know, if, if a business is getting to the point where they’re getting physical threats online, right? Because usually it starts online. There are a couple things that you can do. I think that there’s different levels of, of extreme in every case, but things like, you know, removing like specific, like you can go through like data broker sites and get information removed online. So like if you’re having a certain event and people are trying to spread around when the event’s happening so that they can come, you know, cause a problem at your event, going through those data broker sites and seeing, okay, can I get any of this information actually taken down? I would say that like if you’re having a specific event, like a drag brunch, creating something like a private Facebook group to advertise that and invite your followers into it. Or like on your, create a close friend story so only certain people have access.

So I would say that, you know, if you’re a physical location, there is a certain level of risk, of course, if you have to have your address for your business in your bio. But like let’s say you’re the owner of a business, right? And they’re coming to attack you as well. You can get your address hidden in some states so that yeah, maybe they know where your business is, but they don’t know where you and your family live, right?

So there’s different levels kind of where you can come in and say, okay, I’m gonna secure all my email addresses with private registration. I’m gonna set up Google alerts to see if, if things are being posted. I can take my accounts private, documenting any threats and reporting them, alerting staff, family members, friends of any unusual activity. There’s things you can do along the way. I would call them really harm reduction. Because the way I see it is if someone is dead set on causing a major problem for you, there’s very little you can do to stop that specific individual or that specific group of people. But what you can do is mess with their access kind of throughout the stages of your growth.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Yeah. You can, you can make it difficult for them.

Rylan Hoffman: You make it as hard as possible for them.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s, that’s important to think of upfront because when something like this happens, you know, you’re in a panic. So it’s like almost impossible to start thinking, oh no, what do I do? But the fact that you’re having people think about this before anything happens is really powerful. ’cause now you’ve got a plan that you can do.

Rylan Hoffman: Exactly. Exactly. And, and I don’t, you know, you’ll never hear me say like, all of this is 100% preventative. Because I don’t think, I think in the state of this country, saying sure things like that just does not track. It’s, it’s not realistic. And, and this kind of applies to, you know, every way that marginalized people are trying to keep ourselves safe right now. It’s like we have to do our absolute best to set ourselves up for success, to create our safety nets, to create our communities. And that’s really the core of what I help people do. Not necessarily a promise that nothing bad will ever happen to them. I think that there’s a certain level of online visibility that can even leak into in-person recognition where people recognize you on the street. You know, there’s so many levels to this. But I just don’t want people doing what I did, which was posting 10 times a day, blowing up left and right with no wherewithal of the risks or realizing like, you know, of course it was in the back of my head, but you know, when you’re typing through your phone, you kind of think that’s the shield. Like you’re, you’re not in it, right? It’s this world in your phone that you can go to and leave and it doesn’t affect anything around you. But that’s not true.

Carolyn Kiel: Wow. Yeah. And do you also work with queer business owners around like, you know, content suppression and things like that? ’cause I, I’m sure the algorithm, it seems like it’s changing all the time. So yeah, I’m just curious your thoughts about like, how do you find out if your content’s being suppressed and what do you do about it?

Rylan Hoffman: Yeah, so there’s a couple things you can do. I think that the idea of like content suppression is really interesting because on one hand, you know, there’s your actual account status. So a lot of people feel like, oh, that, you know, I’m being shadow banned. But there’s actually a way you can check in, like Instagram for example. You can go into your account status and actually see if your content’s being hidden. So if you have the suspicion that you have been shadow banned, you can actually go and check that. And if it says that your account status is all green, there’s a couple different ways you can approach that. Because on one hand, I think Instagram, there was a flood of people into Instagram after TikTok shut down, for example. So like, I think that there’s never been more people trying to make it big in that space, right? There’s so many people posting every single day, so much content. And so standing out is really, really difficult these days I think. I think you have to really get people’s attention. You have to say something really different. You have to show people something really unique. And so optimizing, you know, your message for a space like that, a world like that, it can be difficult. And that’s something that I help people do. And so if, if I look at someone’s account and their account status is good, my next question is, okay, how can we really make this this pop then?

I think when it comes to like censorship, you know, it’s, it’s really hard because I think every marginalized person knows that if you get on the internet and talk about, you know, your identity, it’s seen as, as political and, and it’s seen as, you know, you’re making some, some grand statement. And either people don’t like it and they get upset or the app itself will say, oh, this is, you know, not something that people wanna hear about. Right? And so I think it is hard to find that initial community, but once you’re able to break through, you’d be surprised how many people out there are happy to engage with, with what you’re posting, regardless of if, you know, it’s something that the general app would maybe not see as very good.

I, I have an example. Like there was a, a, a something going through the, the local education system where they were trying to make it mandatory that trans kids were basically outed by their teachers to their parents. And I did a video on it and it got like hundreds of thousands of views within a few hours because people were like, oh my God, this is a horrible bill, like we need to spread the word. And then TikTok decided that it was inappropriate and took it down. So I posted it again. That video got even more views than the last time, and then TikTok took it down again. So I posted it again. I was so close to getting flagged by this app, but I did not care. The petition ended up with 10,000 signatures despite the censorship that was happening.

So it’s a, it’s a, it’s a, you know, a relentlessness is kind of required sometimes, but you know, it’s worth it.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. And I guess, oh, of course, walking that line between like that relentlessness without getting like totally restricted on an app, I guess.

Rylan Hoffman: And yeah. So I was approaching that from a very strategic standpoint as someone who’s, you know, been navigating this stuff for a long time is like, I knew, okay, if I do it this many times and then I stop, I’ll be fine. But every time I posted it, it was reaching hundreds of thousands of completely new people.

So it’s kind of a give or take. I mean, it was my TikTok account that I did not necessarily care if it got totally taken down. But you know, I think that reposting and reposting and reposting isn’t always the best strategy. I guess I just use this story to say that the app can try to censor you, but if what you’re saying is is truly, truly important and it’s optimized and you have kind of the community that you’ve built already, it will get out there.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that’s, that’s really valuable advice. And obviously it depends on context and case to case basis, so you can’t generalize it for everything. But, no, that’s really good to kind of know, use your knowledge of how these different apps work and, and you know, having content that people really wanna see. Yeah. That’s important.

Rylan Hoffman: Exactly. Oh, exactly. I think it’s just that balance, right? Of like the authentic authenticity, authenticity, excuse me, versus staying safe versus, you know, pleasing the algorithm. It’s, it’s a, it’s a really tough balance to strike as a marginalized business owner or creator, and it’s something that I just saw no one really stepping up to like, truly help with on like a big scale. And so that’s what I’m trying to kind of build up and do.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. That’s great. And then in terms of, I guess, building community in, in general, while staying safe, are there, sort of general advice that you have for queer business owners in terms of building community? Or, you know, obviously like posting content on topics people are interested in, that people really wanna engage with, but any other sort of special advice for that?

Rylan Hoffman: My best and most special advice for building community online is engage about 10 times more than you post.

Carolyn Kiel: Oh.

Rylan Hoffman: It’s, it, it, it doesn’t matter what platform you’re on. The platform wants engagement. So that gives you a boost, right? But also, you know, not only are you building those relationships and, and getting to know the people in your online spaces, but it kind of creates this ripple effect, right?

So, you know, you comment under one person’s post and then they answer back and you have a nice little interaction. Then someone comes across that interaction, they’re like, “oh, this is such a wholesome interaction. I love this.” They check out your account. They maybe like something, comment on something of yours and you’re interacting with them. And then next thing you know, they’re putting you in a group chat saying, “oh, you two need to know each other.” The more you put in, the more comes out, I think.

I also highly, highly recommend finding virtual online spaces that have some level of privacy, whether that be Discord, whether that be like private Facebook groups, group chats, something where you’re not having to post publicly to interact. I think that’s just as important as that public engagement. You know, I think that especially as neurodivergent adults, it’s really hard to meet people as an adult who have things in common with you. And the internet is a beautiful place where not only are you not alone, but there’s like a hundred thousand people just like you who feel just the way you do about this and that. And so, you know, making sure that you’re not seeing social media as a popularity contest that you’re losing, but like a big party full of all of your next best friends and empowering yourself to really go out and experience those connections.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. No, that’s really great. Yeah, those, those private communities when they’re, they’re highly engaged communities, can be just really great places to meet people and share things kind of in confidence or outside of the complete public eye.

And that’s also another point is, you know, as you were saying, we think of interactions as sort of just with the person who left the comment, but at the same time, as you said, other people are seeing that, and you’re probably not even aware of, you know, ’cause most people don’t leave comments or they probably don’t like posts, but they see it. And so you’re still in their mind and they may come interact later on, or may become a customer at some point.

Rylan Hoffman: Exactly. From a business perspective, I mean there’s, there’s definitely a really good reason to stay engaged with your community. I, it, it’s tough. ’cause on one hand there’s like creators that, that are just trying to build community and that’s their goal. And then on the other hand, there’s businesses who wanna create a community around their mission. Not necessarily to directly, you know, make money from, from what they’re doing, for because of the community, but they want to create a platform for the purpose of why they started their business. Right? And if people want to invest in that as well, that’s definitely their prerogative.

But I really approach, you know, engagement and community building from a sense of like, you know, if social media is a stage and you’re talking to the audience, you want that audience filled with people who are just locked in. Super passionate, they decided to be there, right? That’s why I don’t agree with buying followers or it’s also why I don’t do paid ads, though I think that paid ads have absolutely a place in marketing as well. Just not something that I necessarily do in my specialty.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. And do you also recommend like commenting on other people’s posts that have like similar missions? Does that help with your own content boosting or anything like that?

Rylan Hoffman: For sure. I think that, you know, there’s so much overlap across niches for things that you know you have in common. Like I, as you know, I would say my niche is like queer marketing and online safety. And so I might engage with content about queerness, content about general queer safety content, about marketing content, about, you know, actual content creation and all that it entails. But I also might comment on, you know, a funny video and be like, this is why social media exists, right? I still want, you still wanna be a person kind of engaging like a human being online, not only because the algorithm recognizes you as a real user who is active and has things to say, but because you never know where you can make that next connection, you never know where the overlaps are.

I think that having kind of a strict, okay, I have to engage under these hashtags for this amount of minute, it’s gonna restrict you. And I think there’s a lot of creativity that comes with engagement where, where you could really share your ideas. Something that I really recommend people do is when they’re commenting, share some of their own perspective in the comment, right? Don’t just comment down like a bunch of emojis. But like, let’s say that someone made a post on like internet safety for content creators, and it’s not a queer user who made the post. I might go under there and talk about how, you know, this advice is especially important for, for queer people because this or that and this, and you’re kind of sharing some of, of, of your why, some of your mission very casually in a comment section. People that resonate with that are gonna check out your page.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah, and, and it’s different from just going and like promoting yourself on someone else’s post, which is something you don’t wanna do, but you’re adding value.

Rylan Hoffman: Yeah. You’re continuing the conversations that you’re already trying to start.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah.

Rylan Hoffman: Yeah. I, I definitely think that like, there’s so much to be said about just showing up and existing and talking about your mission that does a lot of the, like selling for you. Because if people resonate and they need that, they’re going to identify you as, as someone that is a good resource as, you know, a product or a service that could really help them get to where they’re trying to go or help solve their problem. You don’t necessarily have to spell it out for most people.

I think there’s a lot of pressure in the online marketing community to do things a certain way, and I’ve noticed that like, especially like marginalized people can, can tell when something’s ingenuine from a mile away, right? And so, like things being really down to earth and organic is, is key I think, especially with my clients.

Carolyn Kiel: Yeah. No, that’s, that’s great to keep in mind. Absolutely.

The advice you’ve shared here is, has been like really amazing and is gonna help so many, so many of my listeners. So I, I’m really grateful that you came on and shared it. How can people get in touch with you if they wanna work with you or just learn more about what you do?

Rylan Hoffman: So my website, HoffSocial.com, has more about what I do, more of my story, some of the things I’ve been through when it comes to the internet and how I can help support businesses. It also has ways to get in touch with me and a breakdown of everything that I offer. You can also find me on Instagram at hoffsocial. So same name everywhere.

Carolyn Kiel: Perfect. All right. Thank you. And I’ll put a link to your website in the show notes so that people can just go there from, directly from there. Yeah.

And you know, as we close out, is there anything else that you’d like our listeners to know or anything that they can help or support you with?

Rylan Hoffman: Well, what I’d love to do is just drop some free resources for people that are wanting to grow safely online. As you know, a queer person, as neurodivergent person, marginalized in any way, just wants to feel like they have resources in their back pocket. There’s the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Crash Override Network, Right To Be, We Keep Us Safe. Those are just some places to get started. I, I just, I want everyone listening to feel like equipped on some level to show up more confidently on the internet because at the end of the day, your community has your back, and it’s all about finding and building that community upfront.

Carolyn Kiel: Perfect. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing those. People can just go and take a look at those. It’ll help grow your business in, in a safe way and engaging way and find your community and, and all of that good stuff.

Rylan Hoffman: Yeah, absolutely. And if anyone listening has any questions about anything we talked about today, my dms are always open. I love giving just free advice and free support. It’s never an issue. So yeah, you know where to find me.

Carolyn Kiel: Awesome. Thank you, Rylan. Thanks again for being on the show. It was great talking with you today.

Rylan Hoffman: It was wonderful. Thank you.

Carolyn Kiel: Thanks for listening to Beyond 6 Seconds. Please help me spread the word about this podcast. Share it with a friend, give it a shout out on your social media, or write a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast player. You can find all of my episodes and sign up for my free newsletter at Beyond6seconds.net. Until next time.