10 basics of shameless online self promotion

This Thursday night, I’ll be presenting on a panel about “Shameless Self Promotion” for the Hampton Roads chapter of AIGA. I’ll be talking about using social media for self promotion. Fitting, since I initially met the current president of AIGA, Mara Lubell, because she found my blog and contacted me. When she moved to the area a few years ago, she was looking for professionals to connect with and stumbled across my blog about social media and public relations. She explained in an e-mail via my contact form on the blog that we had a lot in common professionally. We met for dinner to discuss work, and it’s turned into a rewarding professional relationship, as well as an awesome friendship. That’s how it works when you follow these guidelines for online self promotion.

1. Be genuine. Your goal for networking online should always be to create meaningful relationships. Social media is about building relationships through many-to-many communication. So if you are simply trying to talk about yourself and make a sales pitch, you won’t get very far. You should be interested in helping others as much, if not more, than helping yourself. That level of authenticity is rewarded through social media.
2. Have something to share. Think about what you know well and how you can make that information unique to an online audience. No matter the topic, it’s guaranteed that thousands of other people are online posting about the very same topic. It’s not enough to post about what you know, you have to make it personal. For example, when I first started blogging about social media and public relations, I took the approach of blogging about the research I was doing for my master’s degree. As I researched and learned more about online communications, I shared my findings with others. The key to creating unique content is to incorporate your personal experiences.
3. Start blogging and posting. I realize not everyone is a writer. But it’s true, the best way to be found online (via search engines) is to blog lots of written content. If you can find something you are passionate about and write about it easily, get motivated and start cranking out the posts. The more content you write, the more people will find you. At the same time, don’t force a blog. If you loathe writing and just don’t feel like you can write compelling blog posts, do not start a blog. if you are not interested, no one else will be either. You can always post content in other formats: tweets, photos, video, animation, audio, streaming.  
4. Target your messages. Limit all of your online posts to 2-3 topics you really want to specialize in and avoid posting about content that doesn’t fit the bill. You may find other topics interesting, but if your audience is reading your blog and twitter posts for graphic design tips and you get off tangent by frequently posting about family, tv or cooking, it will seem distracting. For example, on Twitter, I try to keep my tweets focused on the topics covered in my two blogs (one blog is about social media PR and the other is about social good). Therefore, I try to tweet proportionately: 45 percent of my tweets about social media PR, 45 percent social good and only 10 percent random (new music, movies, experiences). It’s okay to have some random posts (that’s what gives you personality online). Just don’t go overboard and stay focused on your main messages.
5. Find where your new friends are. Social media goes well beyond blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Think about who you want to reach and where you might find them. Are there online communities specifically for that group? Search online for blogs, online communities and discussion forums related to your topics of interest. Then, participate in the communities and start learning why your target audience is online. This will help you figure out where your new friends might be hanging out online as well as what you could post that they would find interesting. For example, I find that Planet Green offers a great online community for topics related to my social good blog.
6. Make friends and build solid relationships. It’s time to be outgoing, which is a lot easier to do online than in person. First, get to know your new friends online. Read their blog posts and Twitter feeds and find out what they are interested in. Make friends by offering advice and helpful information, sharing links and starting up conversations by leaving comments and sending them @ replies. Don’t expect to form a relationship with an online stranger overnight. It takes time to build genuine online friendships. Simply stay tuned in to what interesting people are saying online and start from there.
7. Interact. As much as you might want to promote yourself, a genuine relationship is two-way. Learn from your new friends online and start by listening to what they have to say. Then, interact with them rather than talk about yourself. Comment on their posts and send @replies to respond to their tweets and offer helpful links and tips. Chances are if you have something in common, you will enjoy networking with each other.  I recently learned from Scott Stratten’s Blogworld keynote that the majority (about 70 percent) of your tweets should be @replies. Of course, once you are interacting, it's okay to send a promotional tweet for your yourself every once in a while.
8. Help people. You’ve heard the saying that it’s better to give than to receive. It’s true in social media. Giving will come back around. So, share your best ideas, pass job postings on to your followers, and help your online friends spread their messages. Over time, they’ll help you spread your messages, too.
9. Promote others. This goes along with helping people. How do you promote others? Well, look at how I just promoted Scott Stratten in #7 or Mara Lubell in the introduction of this piece. Share links to other people’s interesting content and retweet or repost their content. What goes around does eventually come around and you’ll find they may return the favor.
10. Brand yourself. Make sure your blog and social media sites show up in the search engine results for your name and/or the name of your business. This may not be easy if you have a common name, but it’s important. There are many other “Michelle Rogerson’s” mentioned online, but the majority of results for my name are links to my own content. While you can’t control search engine results, the more content you post, the more you are likely to show up for the keywords that describe you. Be consistent on every social media site and use the same name or keywords to brand yourself. If possible, pick one username and use it across the board for all social media sites. Buy the URL for your name as well. If you don’t have a blog or website, you can always use the URL as a landing page for your online presence. Here is a great landing page example, from a colleague, Holly Hoffman, who I met via Twitter and eventually in person at Blogworld back in October.

Making friends and networking online can be extremely valuable and rewarding. I have received many job opportunities and referrals for prospective clients and been offered wonderful speaking opportunities because of the self promotion I have done using my blogs, Twitter, Tumblr, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn and other tools. However, these benefits were not my first intention for becoming involved in social media. My first intention when I started communicating online was helping people by sharing my unique perspective with others and helping myself by learning from and interacting with people with similar interests. Start with that intention, and you’ll reap many rewards, including the benefits of self promotion.



Planning New Media Conventions for April 2010

I'm excited to announce I have joined the New Media Conventions team and plans are in the works for another social media conference in Hampton Roads for April 2010. I was privileged to be a speaker on "The Role of Public Relations in Social Media" and attend their first event in September at the Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club in Virginia Beach. The next New Media Conventions is going to be even bigger, and I'm looking forward to planning the program with many talented, social media savvy professionals from throughout Hampton Roads.  We're going to put Virginia Beach on the social media map!  Be sure to follow @NewMediaConv on Twitter as well as the hashtag for the next event, #NMC10. Also, check out the New Media Conventions blog for more information as plans for the big day are announced.