1. Seth Godin said, 'Marketing is a contest for people's attention.' The best way for us to market ourselves in the working world is to bring value to those who need it.
2. Marketing yourself is also about having a good personal image. All the advice below is based on the fact that you are really good at your stuff.
3. Sadly, many approach marketing oneself as selling fluff, of vague claims to be a 'guru', 'ninja' or whatever, especially in their online interactions. Everyone seems to be a 'guru' these days. But we will not taking of this shady stuff here.
4. Let's start with your image
Having a good personal image means us doing our job well, showing commitment, projecting energy, having a positive attitude, willingness to keep on learning, enjoying the work, giving respect, being dependable, being punctual, being well-groomed and so on.
5. The people we need to 'sell to': Bosses/supervisors, colleagues, peers in the same industry, team members who report to you, clients, customers (present/future), suppliers
6. Why marketing ourselves is important
Because there are many who need our services but don't know we exist. Because there are many of us with the same skill set and similar experience, so how do we stand out in the crowd?
7. Ways we are marketing ourselves
Resumes, job interviews, meetings, industry event participation, social media posts, blog posts...
8. How we can market better
Now that we know we are marketing ourselves all the time, time we learned to 'control the message'- learning how to effectively portray ourselves and to make sure that message ('I am valuable') reaches to the maximum number of people who matter.
9. Marketing ourselves: What is your brand? What will get you the notice?
What is that one thing most valuable and useful about you? Start with a list, rank the items and finalize one or two.
10. The elevator pitch / Introductions
Can you put what is most valuable and useful about in a 15-second line?
11. The medium
Ways to actively self-promote yourself: Public speaking, giving ‘good’ presentation, the morning welcome 'smile', and stepping forward and 'making your self useful, volunteer, make yourself known',
For people who can write or code, a blog is a good way to go. Some may try magazine articles (if your target group reads magazines), etc.
For people who want to write but won't because they are afriad they might say something they shouldn't or are unable to go in details, a Twitter account is the way to go- putting out small bits of wisdom (which others have said), useful links about the niche, replies to others in your niche...
For people who want to teach, videos are a good method.
Using social media to market yourself: Be where the most people from your industry are- Linkedin, Behance, Twitter etc. There are two broad steps involved here. First: Heavy duty content development (answering all the questions and covering all the issues in your niche- start with things that others haven't covered) and content curation (choosing the best useful content online related to your niche). Second: Heavy duty online involvement- 1. Commenting on popular blogs, Twitter accounts and relevant tweets, forums and groups, 2. Promoting links of all the useful stuff you have written or created everywhere your industry people frequent, and 3. Finding the influencers in your niche, people who built big followings- give comments and replies to their posts and tweets, suggest your stuff...in general, make friends and make yourself known as someone very interested in the direction your industry is taking.
How are you at giving presentations and public speeches? Can you summarize some idea in to a catchy phrase?
Other options: Conferences (the problem of the crowd remains)
12. Willingness to do something different, come off as 'different'
Move against the grain, that is a good say to stand out from the crowd, a handy way to move through the information overload.
For example, if you see most people in your industry blindly copying a tactic or following someone who think is leading them in the wrong direction ('Pied piper'), write a series of blog posts exposing the idea/person, solutions etc. And make sure all this 'against the grain' message is available in multiple formats and is seen by the relevant people 'wherever they are' and this key.
Thank you for reading.
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