Practicing Self-Promotion

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Practicing Self-Promotion: Where Do We Start?

PSST...I think I just had my 15 minutes of fame. Don't Tell Anyone. - Overheard

I have joined several discussions both online and offline on the need for BOTH men and women to learn to promote themselves, so it's about time I start to eat my own cooking. One post that drew a lot of attention and placed the ball squarely in each of our courts is Cathy Brooks' guest post on Brian Solis' blog: Gauntlet To ss or Clarion Call. I am going to do my small part now. Don't worry, though, I promise not to let the stardom go to my head.

Please enjoy this great article where my friend, Ken Yeung, said some great things about me. I am truly flattered. http://blog.thelettertwo.com/2009/09/04/followfriday-its-all-about-the-awesomeness/ (Thanks, Ken! I hope you are all following Ken's blog, The Letter Two.)

Big deal, right? Well, I am just getting started. I still think promoting others is a heckuva a lot more fun, so consider this is an experiment. Jokes aside, I am working on more creative tools to promote those who we think are superstars AND ourselves.

I WELCOME your feedback, so please let me know what you think. Tweeting or blogging a link is NOT the answer, but if we put our heads together, we can develop and execute new ways to help our friends and mentors sell more books and hear them speak more frequently at industry events.

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Comments (8)

Sep 08, 2009

Kenneth Yeung said...

Self-promotion is all fine and good but I think people (including myself) feel that by promoting ourselves rather than other people, folks will think we're being rather selfish and also being braggarts. This is unfortunately the truth that we have. I think if people start to balance out their own self-promotion versus non-self, it will hopefully get better. I know that when I was young, it wasn't nice to brag about things so that might be why it's led to some hesitation by some.

Sep 08, 2009

Adam Helweh said...

You don't need to self promote Liza. Your already on my A-list along with Ken.

Sep 08, 2009

Chia Hwu said...

Learning the balance between highlighting your accomplishments, excessive self-promotion/excessive humility is definitely a fine line. Being willing/able to highlight what you or a colleague has done in an eloquent way is a good skill to have.

Sep 08, 2009

Nong W. said...

Is it really self-promotion or that you have something to say and people really want to hear you? I'm a Posterous newbie and love to share my thoughts.

Sep 08, 2009

Barbara A. Zelnick said...

This post hit home. Self promotion is such a challenge! I'm really excited about helping others move toward their goals, but it's hard to put my own forward. Self promotion has a bad rap from so many different angles and yet its a big part of successful personal branding.

Sep 09, 2009

Jorge Jaime said...

It will be cool to just start being vocal of what we like. I will use gary vaynerchuk as an example of how he promotes himself, while he also makes tons of people help him promote himself. I think that we all agree that if we want to promote someone or ourselves we first need to believe that what we want to promote is awesome.

I think that the idea of just talking about the ideas IRL will help a lot. Also organizing events like BarCamps and trying to invite people to talk or promote some tools to help.

The idea is that our mentors themselves have to put some tools available to makes us help. But that's only one way. I will think of it all day and see with what I come up. I hope you all will do the same.

Sep 14, 2009

Ron Proctor said...

Self promotion is OK... its essentially branding yourself after you have taken these steps: 1) to know yourself in order to present yourself more effectively - what works best for you? 2) check your self esteem, determine how positive is your "positve mental attitude" 3) make a plan for You Inc. in order to take a hard look at yourself, your finances, and your business ideas...you cannot do enough research, network, and plan, plan, plan.

You want to align with an organization or do you have the entrepreneur spirit / inclination / daring? If so, then analyze yourself with this list:
* Do you have the confident, take-charge personality it takes to run your own show?
* Does your family support your entrepreneurial project?
* Do you have the tenacity to stick with it?
* Are you ready for a significant time commitment? Starting a business often involves more than a 40 hours a week.
* Are you comfortable with a certain level of uncertainty and chaos?
* Are you a risk-taker?

Am I talking to the choir here?

Sep 14, 2009

Liza Sperling said...

Great points, Ron, and nice entrepreneurial checklist as well. You can't say it enough, so I don't consider it preaching to the choir. Entrepreneurs are romanticized without enough attention given to the implicit costs. The benefits are celebrated, but it is not for everyone.

Liza With A "Z"

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