You might think this is a weird topic but time and time again, I have come across this with all kinds of people in all types of fields. Imagine this process – we’ve met and discussed what the goals of your business are and you have a clear vision of what you want to do with the company and how it’s unique and different, you have worked hard to make sure new leads and business is being funneled correctly when they hit your site and your online strategy is taking shape.
The All Important Promotion Part
Whether you are already a well-known expert in your industry, want to raise your profile in your market or just help expand it, the next part of the process or what we term as promotion, is vital to the success of most our strategies. I use the term promotion because to me, that is a large part of the function of social media and blogging. I also think there is a huge underpinning of search engine optimization to social media and blogging but that is a post for another day. For us, we use social media and blogging as a good start to an integrated interactive policy and strategy to raise up your company, your profile and your services so that more people find you, your reputation is being raised and frankly we can start pimping out what you do better than anyone else.
Why Would That Be Icky?
It’s not, but it is personal. No one wants to hear a company talk about itself. Everyone has seen those ads, those blog posts, those tweets, that TV ad even where it’s just about the company and has no personality. Those are worse than not having anything out there because they just are white noise. I would rather make an impression even if it’s not a straight-on hit than no impression at all. That’s just wasted money.
But to be personal you have to put yourself out there. You have to put a name, an opinion and a piece of yourself into the open space that others can see. For many people, it can be terrifying. The questions of “what if people hate me?”, “what if people don’t like what I say?”, “what if I say something wrong?” – and honestly there is a chance that those things may happen. But there is a great chance that if you stay authentic, you build a rapport with people in your industry, that a great conversation is started in the marketplace and those fears will melt away or when you are confronted with someone who hates what you say or doesn’t agree, you can learn something and have a dialog you would never have had sitting on the sidelines.
3 Real Tactics You Can Use to Get Past the Icky of Self-Promotion
1. Develop a Persona – Sit down and think about what you want and don’t want to put out there. Some people like to let it all hang out there, like Penelope Trunk and it works for them. Others like Heather Armstrong have a policy of only talking about 20% of her life online. What she chooses’ to say and not say is probably not what others would say, but she is a very, very successful blogger and that persona works for her.
Whatever persona you choose, make it authentic even if it’s nuanced.
2. Come to terms with the fact you will not be liked by everyone. In fact, if you are doing your job right, you don’t want to be liked by everyone, you want to establish yourself in your marketplace and let others know why they want to do business with you. You have to get into the guts of your knowledge and that means not everyone will agree with you and via social media and blogging they have the ability to reply. YOU want this. It is a good thing. Just get ok with the fact people with disagree and focus on your response.
3. Be authentic. But try to be the best part of yourself authentically. If you are short tempered and angry in your every day life, that will come across in your online persona. It’s not horrible but if in a hot tempered moment you cut someone off in traffic it means something a bit more if you do that same behavior in front of 100,000 or half a million of your potential clients. Being a jack-ass online to just be a jack-ass is not advised. I have seen plenty of people lose it online and I’ve also seen plenty of people have to eat it when they realize they just stepped into the mire of a public gaffe. For the most part the online community is forgiving but it doesn’t suffer fools and jerks quietly.
And the last piece of advice I have is to just begin. The first step is the hardest, and perhaps after your first comment where people don’t agree, but after that you’ll find your sea legs and you are on your way. Feel free to let me know your thoughts and of course, disagree with me.
T
