Maria Rekrut here from Niagara on the Lake Cottage Rental. I came across a great Blog on Self Promotion on Social Media that I wanted to share, with all of my Baby Boomer/Zoomer followers on my Social Media networks. As a Baby Boomer/Zoomer, this concept of self promotion goes against the very grain of how we were taught to view and do business marketing.
Business Marketing was in the 3rd person person plural “We” not in the first person singular ”I” and the actual owner of the business was promoted by other forms of advertising and people. Now all of the business strategies that I learned are changing over into using Social Media as a vehicle to Brand and Market your business product, whether you’re the brand or your product is the “brand”
I came across this great Blog by Marsha Collier that has a different perspective to self promotion that I found of great interest and wanted to share with you.
6 Steps to Painless Social Media Self-Promotion
A common topic for discussion is promotion for small businesses and personal brands. When it comes to social media, the responsibility for promotion falls on the shoulders of the own(chief cook and bottle washer). Even though my books are published by one of the top 10 publishers in the world, I still need to take responsibility for my own brand.
I’ve personally been promoting my work and books in the real world and online for over 15 years and it’s the most difficult task on my plate. Even on the “About” pages of my websites, I am loathe to blow my own horn. I might consider myself an introvert, or I might just feel the mere act is bragging.
To be fair to those who do it well, it takes nerve to think there are thousands of people waiting around to hang on to your latest words or hot new project. We may have products, businesses or books to promote, but not everyone has a similar promotional style.
1. Social media is a bit like Dish Network’s Auto Hop. A feature which enables viewers to jump past commercials and get back to the show.
Especially when your promotional messages become too overwhelming — folks will just tune you out and unfollow. Your job is not to leave people feeling spammed. not what you plan to do. You are your brand. Your message is your topic.
2. Promote others: Even if it chokes you a bit to give a hat-tip to the competition, social promotion is symbiotic. Helping others with pure intentions builds your social credibility.
3. Stay on topic! If you have a business audience, keep the kitten and puppy pictures to a minimum and save the emoticons for your personal friends.
4. Curate the best content that ties in with your online community; whether photo or product.
5. Tell stories! Storytelling about successes is a favorite read. Do you personally have any? Perhaps stories of those who have benefitted from your work?
6. Build trust by not sharing topics out of your wheelhouse just because they are trending. But do sprinkle personal posts, they bring humanity to your brand.
Lose any feeling of entitlement — no one is required to follow (or listen to) you. You need to romance your customers by engaging in conversations and commenting.
This has worked for me. If you’re into technology, e-commerce or customer service, you can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, or my website. I may not always be posting about the same topics, but I try to engage in the topics in which I think my customers are interested.
I’d love to hear from you about how you’ve grown your business. How you are using social media to grow your business. What social media strategies have worked for you the most? Make sure that we touch base on my social media channels.
Happy Investing
Maria Rekrut
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