On being self-promotional in social media

When I began writing my blog (almost four years ago), I wasn’t on Twitter (I can’t even recall if it existed), I didn’t really know much about the Vancouver social media/PR/tech scene, I was pretty much unknown. I blogged because I liked it. I wanted to share my thoughts with the world, for whoever in that world wanted to read them. I really didn’t care much whether I had a small or large readership. I blogged without looking at my stats, I knew that only 3 people read my blog (in April 2006). That number, right now, is much larger. And, admittedly, I do promote my posts on Twitter. I publish them to Twitter (using WordTwit).

Often times (particularly with contests and ticket/freebie giveaways) I will tweet about them over and over (I do try to promote them on different occasions, at varying times of the day and week). If it’s a post that relates to a cause of mine (like those where I reference Mental Health Camp), I’ll also tweet about them several times in a week.

Or if I think the content of my post is valuable, or if I’m doing a review of an event, or something. That’s usually when I repeat the same blog post over and over. If I need feedback from my readers, I’ll re-tweet it to no end until I get enough comments on a post that I feel confident I don’t need more commentary.

Today, I tweeted asking about when did “informing people about something I did” become “self-promotion“. I really asked with the intention to make sure that I didn’t sound too self-promote-y. Why? Because, really, I don’t *need* to promote myself. I feel incredibly successful as I am (here I go again with the lack of humility – ooops) right now. And I’ve previously written that it’s not always “all about me” (although I’m very self-deprecating and often times, I write that it *is* all about me, and that I rule).

My friends Jen and Derek responded to my question with equal candor, and I think (and Jen agrees) that Derek put it best. I appreciated Jen’s honesty in reminding me that sometimes, humility is not my best quality (I do try, though!).

But Derek’s description is a beauty, and it’s the rule I plan to live by. Thanks Derek. No wonder you’re a PenMachine. You DO have a way with words.

I do plan to keep promoting my stuff only inasmuch it serves and helps my readers and Twitter followers. I don’t actually think I need to promote myself that much. And I hope that people will call me on it (within reason and with tact) if I ever become too self-promote-y. Although, as my friend Jo Van Every says, some people will say that any promote-y will be “too self-promote-y”. So, if that’s the case, I’ll ignore those

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Related posts:

1. On self-promotion and my role in the social media ecosystem
2. My recent Social Media Club Victoria talk: “Towards an Action-Focused Agenda for Social Change Using Social Media” (#smcvictoria) @smcvictoria
3. On being jaded with social media for social change
4. Canadian social media and social computing data/statistics
5. On the relationship between mainsteam media, social media and academia 1: Mainstream media and social media’s complex relationship