Gotta Be Visible Authenticity
The entrepreneurs and brand managers I work with both often start by asking how to use the social web. Their goal is to promote their business or their brand. The worry that seems consistently common in every first question is that they appear professional and helpful. No one wants to appear to be too aggressive in social web space.
How to Promote Your Business Without Being a Seen as Smiling Shark
When the wrong kind of promotion comes our way, it feels like we’re not being seen as people, but more like prey. Who wants to do business with someone that comes at us like a shark? No one in a marketing or sales role wants to be perceived like that.
I’ve found that the key to elegant and authentic promotion is being fully present in the conversation. Too often we start talking before we listen. Too often we haven’t fully considered what brought us to be interacting. Knowing who we are, what we offer, and how it fits our reader-customers before we even start a conversation can make promoting a blog, a business, or a brand as seamless as talking to a friend about how our day went.
These questions can get us to that information.
- Are you truly passionate and excited about it? If not, go find out how you can be. Be clear on what drives you.
“Can I tell you why I’m so excited to be working with big companies on big ideas that connect people and change lives in ways that really mean something.”
- Can you articulate that passion and excitement? What words explain why you are willing to invest the time of your life building that blog, business, or brand? Be able to tell the story that connects you to what you’re sharing. People will identify with that.
“Every day people I work with tell me that they think that what we’ve put together to connect with new business is going to be so much easier and so much fun.”
- Can you name and claim what you offer so that folks can attribute it you? Can you explain how your blog, your brand, or your business will change people’s lives in a clear and specifically good way? Give that a name so that the idea stick. Draw a picture with words and name that. Become the person who is the only one who provides that.
“Folks who know how to talk about their unique value attract amazing people who want to be part of what they’re doing. Knowing what you offer is powerful.”
- Do you call folks to action and offer them an easy way to talk about what you’re building? Can you show them how joining you will make what they do easier, faster, and more meaningful? If you don’t tell folks how to join, be a part, they could think you don’t want them to. Gotta invite them.
“If want you to talk about how to do that, it only takes about 45 minutes.”
- Do you invite people offer their experience? Do you ask folks how you might reach more people who could benefit from your brand, your book, or your product? If they offer suggestions, do you follow through?
“If you were me, what would you differently to offer folks like more value in faster, better, more meaningful ways?”
- Do you ask people to talk about you? Do you give them ways they might do that, ways that make them feel proud for helping you?
“So glad you found value, would you tell your colleagues about our work together? I’d love to help them too. We can all grow together.”
Not every questions fits into every conversation. The thing is that when we know ourselves, our business goals, how to partner and how to extend an irresistible offer, promotion gets to be as passionately authentic as the other parts of the work we do.
How do you make sure that your promotion is authentically you?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Great post with great thought provoking questions. I dont know the answers for my business and that scares me.
Thank you, Darrell!
In these days of Retweeting and working with clients, my comment box is getting lonely. It’s nice to find a friendly face here. 🙂
Think about one question at a time. They took me quite a while to get to, but each answer is easier than the one before it. 🙂
LIZ!!! Thank You I just printed this out to go over my speech for my presentation tomorrow…Such a Great help!!!
Kesha!
Delighted. Good luck with your presentation. I think you’re going to rock!
Reading this makes me realize I have to re-evaluate a lot of things, but I also recognize some things I’m doing well.
Hi Karen,
One of the best things about you is how you’re always learning so fearlessly. So glad you see how good you are and still keep improving. 🙂
Hey, one of those “haven’t commented in a while” guys, right here! I just got back to work after surgery- I missed your blog, Liz!
I like to tackle #2 the most. Writing with passion (my job) fires me up. I can go on for a while, and I feel like I’m contributing to someone else’s stoke.
#4 is my biggest weak spot. That’s the selling part, no?
Hi Ben,
So glad you back and hope you’re feeling better!
I love it that your job inspires and fuels you. That makes a day of working worth doing! Yeah!
If self-promotion is the issue, maybe you should look at it differently … Hate Self-Promotion? Could Trust Be the Issue? http://bit.ly/3epn0Y
You hit the nail on the head with the sentence about being fully engaged and present in the conversation. As I’ve found, that is the key to any relationship, be it personal or professional. You have to “invest” that much to even get to the other things you mention. So many forget this and then wonder why they aren’t successful. You have to give a little to get a little.
GREAT article, and I don’t use caps all that often.
Carmen
Hi Carmen!
I love that you used the word invest. I use it often when I talk about business relationships. Investing with our thinking, our trust, and our believing often decides who hears our message and who misunderstand it. Those who do invest back and help us build what we’re building. 🙂
Thank you, for the all caps. 🙂
This is a great post! You could argue that those are questions you should ask yourself when interviewing for a new job. You need to be passionate about what you are going to do!
Liz,
You are right, we wouldn’t want to deal with sharks and as I came to ponder about the mistakes I must have done with social networking, I realized that I must have been to pushy that’s why people tend to move away from me, not checking on the things I recommend, because I’ve built a reputation that I always tell them to check things for me, always pointing to links. It’s funny that I’ve been so guilty of that crime, haha.
Hi Liz,
These are very good thought-provoking points, and right on target. Indeed, authenticity, passion and a call to action all lead to increased credibility, trust and sales. I have focused on most of these…still a few to work on! Thanks for the kick :)))
Susan
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I love sharing your posts, I feel that everyone can learn from you. I love that you give us such wonderful advice. Thank you for your great insight.
Very good. Thanks!
If anyone came to me using verbiage like that my eyes would glaze over and then I would toss them out.
Always, always, always speak to customers and prospects in their own language.