This morning I tweeted this question to 10e20’s followers:
A few responses started to trickle in, and most of them followed the same train of thought:
- ChrisBennett: “When you self proclaim that you are a ’social media expert’”
- Amabaie: “A social media d-bag is someone who asks more than he gives. The rest is just details.”
- LoriBourne: “Only promote yourself and no one else; call yourself a social media “expert”; promote yourself anonymously & hope no one notices”
- Audette: “those hateful auto DMs that try to sell you something. FAIL”
- KennyHyder: “when you ask me to be a fan of your lame ass fb fan page just because we’re friends; people that straight up ask me to follow them on twitter”
I’m sensing a bit of a pattern here. It appears that many folks’ definition of a social media d-bag is someone who is too self-promotional. Social media marketing can be a slippery slope; after all, the main point of marketing is to promote yourself or your services. However, once you throw that whole “social” element into the mix, what was once “me me me” has now evolved into “me + you + everyone we know.”
Think about a party you’ve gone to. Everyone’s been in a social situation where they’ve experienced the self-absorbed person or the one-upper. They can’t wait for you to finish your story so they can immediately best it with a “better” one involving them, or they don’t bother asking you how things have been and would instead prefer to drone on about every minute detail of their lives. These types of people are really the hit of the party, aren’t they? You sneak an eye roll to your buddy and wait until the end of the night so you can complain about “that jerk who wouldn’t stop bragging about himself.” Nobody wants to be that guy in real life among a group of twenty or so people, so why would you online across a network of millions?
Constantly tooting your own horn can be detrimental to your business. Even if you’re actually a hard worker and knowledgeable in your field, you can turn off a lot of people who may think the following:
- You’re selfish (and possibly untrustworthy). Who wants to do business with someone who only thinks about himself? How is this person going to help you if he seems to be lacking in the generosity department? Are you always going to have a hidden agenda? Will you only help someone out for personal gain?
- You’re narrow-minded. If you only share content you’ve produced or spread your own advice, people might get the impression that you might not be open-minded enough to consider other points of view or share third party information.
- You’re a possible spammer. Nothing smells spammier than self-serving comments and links that always point back to your website.
Even if the above assumptions aren’t true, a lot of people may think otherwise. Take a look at how you portray yourself socially and see if you can potentially scale back the promotional stuff. Look at the following:
- Your blog. Are you always blogging about your company or your products? Try introducing some non-company related information, such as interesting industry news you’ve heard or some general tips that your readers will find helpful.
- Your tweets. Always tweeting links to your products or services? Never responding to people who tweet at you? Mix up your tweeting style — throw in tweets to your followers, responses, general chitchat and observations, interesting links you’ve come across (that aren’t from your site), etc.
- Your comments. If you’re commenting on someone else’s blog, make the remarks relevant to the post and don’t drop a link to a specific page or blog post on your site unless it’s absolutely relevant.
- Your Facebook profile. Even if you have a fan page, mix up the wall posts once in a while. Show appreciation to your fans by giving them some acknowledgment. Share some cool tips, poll them for their opinion/input, post some pictures and videos, share industry news and information, etc.
You don’t have to be afraid to promote yourself and your business, just be mindful of how often you’re bombarding your followers and peers with self-serving information. If you mix in a healthy array of information along with the self-promotions, your promotions may end up being more beneficial because they’ll stand out more and seem more important and genuine.
Do you have any other tips on how to be self-promotional without being repetitive, selfish or pushy? Share your examples and suggestions in the comments!
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28 Responses to “Are You Overly Self-Promotional?”
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Nice post – particularly the tips at the end. Regards Twitter, random quotes and statements out of context aren't very interesting. And while responding to people is important to build relationships, visiting someone's Twitter account for the first time to see nothing but '@'s, make's it hard to see the value in a follow. This reinforces your 'mix it up' message.
Please visit my website at…. LOL
Social media DBs remind me of the days of Chamber of Commerce mixers (those of you old enough to remember those). There was always that annoying guy/gal who would pitch every person in the room, hand everyone a business card, and never offered to buy drinks.
Excellent question. This is something that I have always been very aware of and NEVER want to be. It's also what we preach to our clients: Don't just broadcast – listen and give back too!
You're totally right. The best accounts seem to be a great mix of information, which always keeps things fresh and maintains interest.
Good point, Michael. Douchebags in person will almost certainly be douchebags in social media circles. It's often difficult to get people who have a tendency to be broadcasters rather than conversationalists to see the value in building rapport through genuine interaction. If they don't understand that in reference to face-to-face interaction, they're even less likely to "get it" as it applies to social media.
It's a tough balance in our industry. This was something I was really sensitive to when I started my consultancy in '05, almost to the point of paranoia. At some point, I realized that there was such a thing as not self-promoting enough, especially in search marketing. If you sincerely believe in what you're doing and have some humility about it (recognizing that other people have worthwhile things to say and products/services to sell), you can find the happy medium.
I have to agree with everything that has been already said above! Think about the old way of marketing and what has happened to it – People have tuned out because their tired of listening to people give monologues. The consumers are now demanding dialogue. Its not enough for people or brands to just be on Twitter or Facebook – They have to use it as a tool to make real relationships and connections.
Its difficult to get this point across to people but its something that is necessary for social media to work. I think the best way to do self-promotion is by connecting with people who actually care about what you do. The only way of doing that is by communicating with people and engaging in conversations that matter and spark interest.
Chris asked me what I thought about the article after he saw that I was interested (I RT'd it after reading it). He knew I was already engaged and from that he wanted to hear what I though – Thats exactly how you engage your community and leverage social media. Get people talking and make sure its worth their time! Thanks Rebecca for the solid post and I look forward to sharing thoughts with you guys again soon.
That Chris guy should really consider starting his own social media marketing company. Oh wait…
How about situations when it's a corporate account (like an NFL team on Twitter)?
I think team accounts and stuff like that is a bit different. You're following specifically to hear about team news and updates. It's a different level of fandom for me to follow the Detroit Lions (heh) and reading news about the players, training and games vs. me following @chiropractic and seeing nothing but 2-for-1 specials on chiropractic adjustments.
Mike – you are a Raiders fan right? (btw – sorry to out you
Would you rather them just broadcast everything or mix that with some interaction with fans?
Think about the stuff that most pro sports teams do before or at half-time to honor fans or have contests – why couldn't (or shouldn't) that carry over into their social media efforts?
Ooh, good point. Okay, take half of what I said and all of what Chris said to craft a Super Mecha Answer.
Thanks for the twitter link
Wanted to clarify what I meant by "promote yourself anonymously…" I was thinking of a social media "guru" I happened across who created a Facebook fan page and then created some FB accounts to leave comments & hit the "like" button. Only you could tell by the comments it was all the same person. *shudder*
Agree with everything that's been said – funny how people don't mind you promoting yourself as long as you also promote others. Perhaps it makes them feel like you are truly looking out for their welfare by sharing great resources (including your own), not just out to make a buck.
Very good post with a lot of good advice. I've tried to find the balance of branding myself/my blog and being social. Sometimes it works better than others.
I agree with you Chris. normally I would not expect interaction but as an example I was at the last Raiders Ravens season game (with such good seats I was meeting players). Would have been extra cool to see interaction from the house (@Raiders) twitter profile when it came to fans tweeting pics, plays, or other game related stuff (I'm thinking even tailgating photos). Will have to find some examples of brands doing this exceptionally well to get an example.
We use a 30/70 rule when we discuss social media content creation. 30% self-promotional (at most) and 70% general/informative/etc.
Sadly, there are quite a few companies that look at us like we're crazy when we tell them about this ratio.
"What do you mean I can't promote our product/service in every single tweet we send? What's the point of that?"
Ha, this is a funny post. I forwarded your post who, in turn, sent me a link to the 'new media d-bag' youtube video. Not sure if you've seen it, but worth the view and right in line with what you're talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSP8xm_gaK4
Any tips for a d-bag intervention? Anonymous survey results, declining 'engagement', pitting two unknowing (to them) social media d-bags in the same room and see how they feel about each other, etc. ?
Excellent post! People often do not realize that they talk too much about them selves.A fact is that visitors do not care about you, they care only about what there is in it for them.So, instead of blatantly self promoting why not talk about benefits and recommend a solution to their problem.
I like the 30/70 rule and that you don't care what other companies think. Worry about what's best for your company image and let those chumps self-promote themselves to death.
Thanks for the clarification, Lori! That's pretty shameless for someone to set up fake accounts in order to popularize his fan page.
Hah, nice video! Regarding "intervention," it's probably easier to change a new media douchebag's habits if you're their superior and you just say "We're being overly promotional and need to scale it back a bit." Regarding people who are in charge of their own brand/company, hmm, that's another matter.
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As a college student, I've always viewed social media as simply a way to connect and socialize with friends. However, with the idea of getting ready to embark into the professional world, this post really provided excellent tips and advice for how to treat these sites from a professional standpoint. We tend to forget sometimes that the information we post does represent us.
As a freelancer I tend to promote myself everytime it´s humanly possible. It starts to get to me and try to tone it down a notch. In the web I try to lower my voice.
I love your blog and think you are right to raise this important issue.
yeah. i really appreciate the visitors here. there are many ideas. thanks for sharing with us.
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