The Challenge of Self-Promotion

I have wrestled with self-promotion for a very long time. On one hand, if you are involved in any creative enterprise, you need to be willing to promote your work. More than that, you need to be borderline annoying a lot of the time because there is so much content being created all the time that if you are not active and aggressive, it is very easy to get lost in the crowd.

On the other hand, there is a point when borderline annoying becomes actually annoying, and you turn people away. You know I am not going to name names or call anyone out in this type of post, but I imagine you have seen people who make you roll your eyes. Every single conversation becomes an opportunity to lean into their product, service, or work. It almost makes you feel like saying, “Yes, I know you wrote a book.”

There is a fine balance. You have to be aggressive enough to stand out from the crowd and be noticed, but you don’t want to be overly aggressive so that you turn people off.

I imagine that some of you might have an immediate counterargument, suggesting that you shouldn’t have to promote very hard at all. If you create something of high quality, people will recognize it. That is romantic, but I am not convinced that is true. Some of my most brilliant friends wrote articles when I was still editing An Unexpected Journal, and they never gained a large readership. Obviously, you can discuss several different variables, such as theme, title, search engine optimization, cover image, and, yes, the author’s existing audience. I understand that. However, due to the nature of the Internet, the vast amount of available content, and the short shelf life of just about anything online, quality alone is not enough to stand out.

You may wonder what creators can do in light of the various dynamics at play. I have a few suggestions.

1. Don’t Go Where You Don’t Belong

I see this all the time on X. Something goes viral or at least generates a lot of traffic. People respond to the viral post with a link to their own content that is only tangentially related to the original post. I now know to avoid those accounts because they’re going to be annoying and try to leverage every account for their own benefit. This is the equivalent of going up to people, forcing yourself into the conversation, and changing the topic. It is not a good look. I know you want to go where the eyes are, but normal people like normal conversations.

2. Don’t Oversell Yourself

In academia, you hear about people who falsify their credentials. On the Internet, you hear about people who have a brand-new, GROUNDBREAKING theory that really is the same hot take that 50 other people have had because it is really not all that hot. I love J.R.R. Tolkien. I have studied his work and believe I am relatively well-read. I would never claim to be an expert on J.R.R. Tolkien. I know more than quite a few people, but it's not a good look for me to oversell myself as something I'm not. I’m not saying we should diminish our credentials, but overinflating them in a way that is blatantly obvious doesn’t work.

3. Sound like a Person

There are some Facebook friends I am connected with who seem to have their posts written by a PR firm all the time. It is not a problem that they are trying to make the best posts they can, but there is a level of sanitizing the human element out of the post that is simply unattractive. This tendency is worsening with the advent of AI. With so many people using similar programs to “improve” their writing, we are trending toward a unisound. If you want to promote yourself, then you promote yourself. If you hire a PR firm, let them handle the sanitized content. You be a person.

4. Use Appropriate Opportunities Well

My friends over at The Overthinkers Facebook group will have Self-Promotion Saturday. They encourage people to post what they are working on in the comments. Given this article, I imagine you think that I avoid that like the plague. I actually love those posts. I often find myself flipping through the comments. Why? It genuinely is cool to see what people are doing. Self-promotion in the appropriate place is a great thing, and when you have those opportunities, do your best to take advantage of them. If I am reading that comment thread, you have me in the audience. I am actively listening and want to hear what you have to say. Hit me with your best shot.

5. Technology Is Your Friend

I know that we all might not be good at technology, but it is undeniable that you are going to want to optimize whatever resources you have to be found by people online. Search engine optimization is also crucial, as well as using the right keywords to describe your product accurately. Why? I mentioned earlier how appropriate opportunities are beneficial. When people Google the topic you have a podcast about, you have them captured if you can get in front of them. They may become your biggest fan if they know about you. You need to give yourself the best opportunity to do that if you are serious about promoting your project. There are plenty of books and websites dedicated to optimization strategies, and there are lots of basics that are a lot better than doing nothing. Yes, the Internet is crowded. Yes, you are not the only one doing what you do most likely. At least do your best to get in front of people who want to talk about what you’re talking about.

6. Friends Are Your Friends

I always appreciate when people share my work. It feels good to know that someone finds value in it and wants to share it with someone else. As a writer, it gives you a lift. As a reader, I have to admit that I am more likely to read something that somebody shared written by someone else than something that someone shared written by themselves. Yes, I realize the irony that you are reading this article because I likely shared it with you. However, just like products on Amazon, we like to read the reviews. Of course, the company likes its own products. Of course, they want me to buy the product. However, when my friend tells me about a great product that actually means something to me. Get your friends on board with your project. Yes, they are biased because they are your friends, but it is vital to get a team of people supporting you. It adds credibility. Soon, friends of your friends will hopefully start following you as well, and the snowball continues.

As I said above, I have wrestled with this concept for a long time. I don’t mean to put down people who are working hard to promote a project that they believe is good, true, and beautiful. If you are trying to make a living off your project, I understand that you need to make it work. However, I share these tips as simply things that I have noticed as a relatively online person. As I said, there is a fine line between self-promotion and being irritating. If you can hit that line, you will do well. If I had to summarize this entire article, I think I would say:

Don’t Be Annoying; Use All Relevant Opportunities to Maximum Effect