How To Promote Yourself Without Coming Across Like A Narcissist
Actors, Authors, Indie Film Producers, Artists, Musicians, and other Creatives this is for you unless you’ve reached A-List status already.
Publicity and Self Promotion
by Karynne Summars
Ahh, the difficult task of how to market and promote yourself. All creatives, unless they are A-List, need to do some self-promotion to become more known, but most don’t know how to do it without becoming annoying or appearing like a narcissist.
The typical “self-promotion” I see on social media are postings that are not really that effective because the creative puts himself/herself at the center rather than creating a fun or entertaining post with a more subtle message. This kind of self-promotion generally only works among your friends and existing supporters rather than attracting new fans and followers from the social media universe. What you really want to attract, however, are new fans/followers otherwise your promotion stays within the usual limits. I get it, it feels good when someone gets likes, etc. from friends in the social media pool but you also have to strive to attract new ones. Hey, you are a creative, right? So become creative about promoting yourself, too.
Here are a couple of tips that can help you get noticed without coming across like a narcissist.
Let Someone Do It For You
If you have a talented writer friend with a blog, for instance, try to make an arrangement with that person to write about you/your product/project, and whatever you want to promote on a regular basis. The blogger can write the best things about you and praise you to high heaven with you being the subject and not the [self] promoter. Just make sure that this person can really write well and understands you and your product/project otherwise that will backfire, too. And needless to say, it would be even more helpful if that person has a good amount of social media following and knows how to place his/her blog appropriately and timely.
If you know anyone writing for a publication, that’s even better. However, that is more difficult to achieve because a magazine writer has to select what kind of article fits his/her publication best and in some cases it also needs to be approved by the editor of the respective publication. If you have something unique, highly interesting, never seen before or inspirational to offer your chances of an article about you have just increased. Just know, that magazine editors get a lot of stuff to consider and they are extremely busy. You have to make it easy for them to want to write about you. That means to have an effective and clear bio and other details ready to send to them when they ask. If you have nothing and expect them to do all the legwork to write about you, your chances are slim unless you have something so spectacular or exclusive that they would kill to write about it.
Facebook Pages
Every creative should have a Facebook Page. A page is not your personal Facebook account but set up separately just for you as an actor, artist, musician, film producer, etc. Here you can upload all the cool stuff you have been doing and any blogs and/or articles written about you. You will need to promote this Facebook Page on all social media to get likes and followers. Don’t just post a link of your page but write a short interesting post with a Call To Action why they should follow your page. Get some advice from a creative who has set up a successful page and follow his/her strategy and also check out the pages of A-List stars to get some ideas.
Twitter is a very effective social media tool because even without many followers in the beginning it allows you to tag industry people as well as journalists and others important for your product/project. You can create a Twitter party for the launch of your new film, CD, book, etc. That will bring attention to you and the project if you do it correctly and in a non-narcissistic way. Learn how to do this properly or hire someone in the PR business who knows how to do it.
Another effective social media platform is Instagram. Make sure to use appropriate hashtags with the photos about your project or product and make it interesting. Don’t forget to create an interesting or inspiring caption with your photos to stand out if you want this platform to work for you.
Website
If you are serious about your creative business, a great website is a must. There are several great site providers out there to set up a killer website that gets you and what you do noticed. It’s relatively easy these days to set up a website but if you don’t know how to do it and don’t want to learn get help from someone who can do it for or with you. You may have to spend a couple of dollars but if you don’t invest in yourself why should other people? Everything in life and business has a price.
Finally, you don’t have to be on all platforms. It might overwhelm you. Being on all and therefore posting little would not be helpful. Select those that promise the best results for you and be on there on a regular basis.
For all of the above, the same rule applies. Post something interesting at least once a week. If you don’t post for a long time your account will go dormant with followers, so to speak. If you want attention, you have to work for it. “Lazy” posts won’t get you anywhere. Some may do more harm than good because people will start ignoring your posts. Learn how to master the world of self-promotion until you become A-List and your staff and followers will do it for you then.
Happy Promoting!