I suppose networking is okay as long as it doesn't involve fake friendships. But the thing is I feel fake. I've been very unsocial the past several months, pretty much hiding from the world. Now I'm reaching out...blogging, Twittering. Why? Because I'm going to be trying to sell my book soon.
I don't like that. It makes me feel kind of sneaky.
On the other hand, it's probably good that I'm getting out there and being a little more social.
I do go through phases...social than very much not social.
I could say that maybe one of the reasons I'm writing a book is to reach out. Maybe the writing of the book was social itself, because I knew I'd eventually want people to read it.
As for promoting. That's a tricky one.
I think self-promotion in small doses is fine, and likely necessary. If you're trying to sell something or yourself, you have to get out there and say Look at me!
I think self-promotion in large doses is tacky and counterproductive. It makes people look vain. It makes them sound like a broken-record. It makes me tired of what they're selling before I've even bought or experienced it. An example would be TV promos that are shown way too often.
I think what's better than self-promotion is having other people promote you.
The best is having people promote you without any prompting or begging. They promote you just because they like what you're selling. They might even be strangers.
Second best would be someone promoting you after you've asked them to, or having a planned mutual promoting partnership. Hey you link to my website and I'll link to yours.
I personally love promoting people and their projects. I like linking to videos and blogs...stories I've read. It's exciting to think that maybe one day I'll help someone find fame and fortune. It hasn't happened yet. But who knows. Maybe one day....
A place that's all about promoting is Twitter. I think more than half the Tweets are of the promotional types.
There's one celebrity I really admire (acting wise, and his Tweets). It seems most of his Tweets are promoting other people's music. He links to videos. Since he's a celebrity with a lot of followers, I'm sure he's getting these artists a lot of attention. I really like that he does that.
Then there's another celebrity. Almost all of her Tweets are about her own project. It's me, me, me, me, me. Look at me. Look how great I am. Please buy my stuff! I'm so successful!
For me, her tweets are counterproductive. I really liked her before. I thought she was adorable. Wonderful. Now I just see her as being a bit up herself.
I guess in summary I'd say I think we should promote ourselves a little bit, promote other people a lot, and hope that there are people out there who like us enough that they'll promote us.
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