There is no point at which you can say, “Well, I’m successful now. I might as well take a nap.”
Carrie Fisher, Author and Actress
Self-promotion is simply another name for marketing yourself. Just as publicity agents make sure that the media pick up stories about their clients, you must become your own publicist to guarantee that news of your value (and promotability) gets around.
In this two-part blog, I’m going to go over eight quick, easy, and totally doable methods for marketing yourself. Let’s jump right in and cover the first four…
- Find a project you can call your own
Volunteer for a project and then work hard to do a good job on it. By having tangible proof of your own excellent accomplishment(s), you’ll gain both credibility and visibility. People will be able to say, “Wow! You really did a great job on that!”
A very close friend of mine, Chelsey, has just completed a large, difficult project for her company. (I can’t mention the company’s name, but let’s just say that you probably have one of their many breakfast cereal varieties in your kitchen cabinet.) This project had been put off for years. It was the project no one wanted to do: to compile a complete list of ingredients and sources (whether GMO or non-GMO) for each of the company’s long line of consumable products, and make the information instantly available via database to the customer service representatives. Chelsey worked for many months on this project, which, by the way, was not even remotely related to her “official” job description. At long last, she finished. The result? Positive feedback from the far-reaching corners of her company. From senior management. From people she’d never even met. This high-profile project received the attention of virtually every department in the company. And you can bet that Chelsey’s own boss took fresh notice of her value, as well. So grab a project and get going!
- Share your accomplishments
Be clear about how much you’ve accomplished to the people in charge. Again, there’s nothing wrong with a little honest advertising: “Wow, we’ve managed to contact 60 prospective clients today and send them promotional offers!” Let people know how well you and your department are doing. Don’t be heavy-handed and boastful, though. And certainly don’t gloat. Be positive and enthusiastic, and the right people will notice.
“Do not brag or insert yourself inappropriately,” write authors Molly Dickinson Shepard and Jane K. Stimmler in Stop Whining and Start Winning. “Rather, represent yourself in a positive way at opportune times. Promote yourself with finesse and subtlety and people will respect and admire you for it!”
- Write, write, write
Does writing scare you? Look around at the people in your organization who occupy the positions you’d like to have someday. Notice what they have in common. One of those things is most likely their ability to express themselves in writing.
Way back when, the memo was once the tool of choice for communicating within the business world. Managers would dictate their message to an assistant, or they’d type it up themselves, and then pass it around to everyone who needed to see it. It was a process that took at least a day, just to get the memo out and then to expect answers–either in the form of another memo, phone call, or meeting–to start trickling in.
These days, almost everyone communicates via e-mail, which means that you can get your message out there in minutes.
But should you just quickly bang something out and hit “send?”
Many large corporations have e-mail policies that, if followed, will save you from embarrassing or even legal blunders. Others have no stipulations about what should or shouldn’t go into an e-mail message, so you’re largely on your own (unless you want to devise one for your company and use it to justify a promotion—just a thought!).
Even with policies, however, it can be tough to know how to word a professional e-mail that must express an idea in businesslike verbiage. In their book E-Mail Rules, authors Nancy Flynn and Randolph Kahn, suggest you put your message to the elevator test. “Imagine you are in an elevator crowded with colleagues, customers, and competitors,” they write. “What tone would you use? What would you say? What information would you reveal, and what would you keep under wraps? If you wouldn’t say it aloud while sharing close quarters with the people you work for, with, and against, don’t write it in an e-mail message.” Great advice!
And don’t think for a minute that you can just erase things off your PC and they’ll be gone. Any good IT administrator knows right where to find all those questionable e-mails and instant messages you thought were gone forever. With computers, act as though there’s someone looking over your shoulder at all times.
Back to writing skills. If you’re not confident about style and usage, do something now to improve them. Take a class or a seminar in business writing. If you have trouble with grammar or spelling, find a self-study guide to help you—there are plenty of excellent ones on line. No matter how good your spell-check software, it will never catch every error.
Keep a file of well-written communications—e-mails, letters, memos, and reports. Label the file “prototypes.” Don’t be concerned with who wrote them or what they’re about, only with how well they’re written. Is each communication direct? Easy to understand? Did its author make his or her point in as few words as possible? Are the words and sentences easy to understand? Is it written in a conversational style? Is the format easy to follow? Study the writing of those whose writing you admire to learn what makes them good and to familiarize yourself with the standards of your organization.
- Attend trade conventions
Trade shows and conventions are a great place to learn a lot more about your business in a short time. Tell your boss you’d like to attend, and prepare some good reasons why it would benefit the company if you did. Does your company have an exhibit at the convention? Then say you’d love to work at the booth. Or explain that you are very interested in becoming more active in your industry-related professional association (if you haven’t already done so, now would be a good time to join one!) and how doing so could benefit the company.
If going to a national convention is too much to expect, see if there’s a local meeting or a regional conference you can attend. These, too, are great occasions for networking.
If you do attend a convention, sample a little of everything. Spend some time in workshops and educational sessions, on the exhibit hall floor, and in the public gathering areas. Talk with other attendees. Network! Make it your goal to take home the names of at least ten new contacts—and then keep in touch with those people. This is how networks and support groups are built.
When you return from any of these sessions, be sure to prepare a full report of your trip for the manager who okayed your attendance. And while you’re at it, include a handwritten thank you note!
That’s it for today. Join me on October 2nd for Part Two of “How to be your own publicist.” And while we’re apart, see if you can implement just one of these suggestions. I believe you’ll reap some seriously positive benefits!