Five Keys to Self Promotion Without Being a Spambot
Few people enjoy promoting themselves or their work. It feels gross and shameful. Regardless of your line of work, chances are you need to promote yourself to get ahead or just to get a raise or a new job.
We’re here to say that this is ok and you can get more comfortable with self promotion, for at least a couple of reasons.
1. It’s no big deal
You probably hate promoting your own stuff, but at the same time, you don’t blink when others promote theirs.
Self promotion isn’t just accepted on social media and in networking situations, it’s expected. Not only is it part for the course, some people even unfollow inactive accounts that never get status updates (they’re following you for a reason, after all).
2. Promote your stuff but also be yourself
Social media and branding experts say that it’s all about authenticity and engagement. Connecting with your audience rather than just talking at them. But let’s face it! It’s pretty hard to mask a “I just wrote this, here’s my link” social post, as just natural conversation. It’s obviously self promotion. But that’s ok.
The key is to not bombard people with so much sharing of your work. It doesn’t matter if you post once every six months or once every six hours. You just have to talk about it as if you aren’t a spambot and balance your self promotion with things that are interesting to you and the people you’re talking to.
A 10-25 per cent ratio between self promotion and other regular posts is recommended. For every “look at my work” effort, have three to nine other communications with your audience. In other words, don’t be noisy with too many self promos.
3. Overcome your self criticism
We all have Imposter Syndrome. Although that can be a good thing, self promotion requires us to overcome those feelings of being a fraud and share your work as if you think others will see value in it.
It’s easier to promote your work when you believe in it and think others would too, so you have to learn to silence your inner critic.
4. Self promotion can force you to step up your game
Many think of self promotion as a necessary evil, but it can be a great motivating force as well. As much as the term “personal brand” also feels gross, the truth is, you care about your reputation and integrity and that forces you to try to always improve your work so that it is share worthy. You don’t want to share crap.
Similarly, when going to networking events or meeting new people, you want to be proud to share, if asked, examples of what you do — otherwise, you’d be in the wrong profession.
Others’ feedback and responses to the things you share will also keep you moving and improving and engaging with others, which is really the biggest benefit to self promotion.
5. It’s an ongoing process
No one wakes up one morning and is suddenly a self promotion genius or social media expert. Some of the people who do it best have been doing this for a while. And by “doing”, that means experimenting with what works best.
SOURCE: Lifehacker Australia
