Shameless self promotion
How I learned to stop worrying and love... myself
A lot of people hate writing bios. And they hate job interviews and cover letters and resumes.
For many of us, it is no fun to brag about yourself. It feels oogy and gross and just generally unpleasant. Most of us don’t love tooting our own metaphorical horns.
But praising your friends? Telling one friend about another friend’s incredible accomplishments? That’s easy. “Have I told you about my pal Jane? She’s incredibly talented, so funny, and makes the perfect martini.”
The truth is, sometimes you have to see yourself — your business, or whatever you’re pitching — as your friend Jane. You’re Jane-ish, too.
Like many folks, I feel that oogy feeling when I post a self-promotional tweet — or now, more realistically, toot. And these days, I’ll typically share that same promotional messaging on LinkedIn and Facebook. Gross, right?
The truth is, though, your audience only knows what you’re offering if you tell them. If you launch a podcast and tell no one, you’ll get no listeners. If you launch a product or service and don’t spread the word, quite frankly, you wasted your time.
The question becomes whether people are interested in what you have to say, and that can involve where you’re saying it. Put simply: If no one’s interacting with or responding to your self-promotion, it’s misfiring. But if you’re getting Likes and clicks and replies, you’re doing something right.
Know your audience, though. On LinkedIn, it’s probably okay if everything you share is a bit self-promotional. On Facebook, it’s probably not — unless that’s why your friends are friends with you there.
Remember, though: That ooginess is a feeling you feel. If your network is responding positively to the message and glad to learn about what you're doing, they’re not feeling the oogies at all.
I post on multiple platforms about every new article here. I get new followers every time I do so. (By the way, you can subscribe via email, or if you skew nerdier, you can subscribe via RSS with this link.) That means each post is driving new people this way. I have to go out there and shamelessly self-promote, because if I don’t — who will?
So remember my advice on confidence, which is in short, fake it. When you do need to shamelessly self-promote, do it proudly, do it with confidence, and don’t spread the word about the oogy feelings — just share your greatness with a smile.