How to Promote Yourself without being a Jerk

Learning how to promote yourself, without being a jerk, is an important skill for social media marketers. It has been said many times that social media is like a cocktail party. There is great potential to promote your products within social media but it must be done the right way. You wouldn’t enter a room and immediately start talking about yourself and pushing your products. You can’t enter the online world and expect everyone to be immediately fascinated with your message.

I am going to share a few tips and tricks to help you get comfortable with promoting yourself comfortably and successfully.

Be confident — if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will either! It is important to work towards your own strengths, if you are an introvert you will need to work on being very comfortable with your message. If you are an extrovert, you might need to tone it down a bit. Know yourself and your message will show it.

One thing I say frequently is, if I don’t think I am fabulous, why should you?

Be ready to promote yourself! Have a unique and interesting business card with all your contact information.  Be comfortable sharing your information with someone and ready to connect.

I love Moo cards. Be creative and show your personality. If you are starting in social media and going to be attending networking events, these fun cards will help you get noticed and people will keep your card.

Create an elevator pitch — you have a very brief amount of time to make that great first impression. Have a short but interesting mini speech prepared so when someone asks what you do, you can say that I am the world’s foremost expert on chinchillas and I wrote a book about it! Shoot for 25 – 30 words that will draw your listener in and pique their interest. Practice this and finesse it so that you are comfortable sharing this the moment you have the opportunity.

My elevator pitch: I am a writer and passionate about social media. My message is about being positive and creative as well as helping others learn along the way.

Make sure all your social profiles are up-to-date and unique!

After you have pitched your great elevator speech and given out your interesting business cards, the next step is your new friend checking out your social media presence. Have all your profiles eyeball ready. Do not exaggerate or lie in your profiles. But present yourself in a unique and fun way. Not a big author YET, reflect that in your profile. You can balance a “fake it until you make it” presence as long as you are not overselling what you can deliver.

Writing a really good bio is one of the hardest things to accomplish. You need to spend time on this and get opinions from people who you respect. Have a friend help you out if possible. This might need updating from time to time. Keep it fresh, interesting and unique.

No magic formula – create your own mix

1. You need to balance the material that you share in social media. Some people share an 80/20 mix. 80 percent other people’s materials and 20 percent yourself.
2. Don’t be “that guy.” You cannot only promote yourself. You will have no followers at all.

Network and create a receptive community

1. Set up a Facebook page and grow your fan base
2. Website or blog – start collecting email addresses for a newsletter right away
3. Be active on Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Find people who do something similar to you or your target audience for your product

Engage, enjoy and embrace the new friends that you make — then give them your confident, interesting elevator pitch! Give yourself time to grow and flourish. And remember that it isn't wrong to promote yourself, but it needs to be done in a tasteful and appropriate way.

Summary:

1. Be confident in your message
2. Be ready to promote yourself
3. Create an elevator pitch
4. Up-to-date bio and social media profiles
5. Create your own mix
6. Network and create your community
7. Have fun!

Some resources that I found helpful from people much smarter than myself.

How to Promote Your Work by Chris Brogan

10 Ways to Launch and Promote a Product Using Social Media by Jeff Bullas

Darren Rowse — Problogger, video from a post SXSW trip

Featured image courtesy of Jef Aerosol via Creative Commons.