How to self-promote
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I think I need to do more to self-promote in order to get business opportunities and generally develop my career. Working as a one man band for a smallish manufacturing company, I don't get to meet many fellow IT pros, and I've been here ten years so have tended to lose touch with contacts at previous employers. I started writing a blog a few years ago (carnivalboy.wordpress.com), but that's become more of a way of documenting notes for my own personal use. It only gets about a dozen visitors a day. I feel I should do more.
I'm on LinkedIn, but don't get involved in any of the groups. I joined a virtualisation group, but ignore it. I post on Spiceworks and here. Both are great, though a little US-centric (I'm British). I go to a few seminars put on by IT suppliers and manufacturers. There's never much networking going on at these seminars. I tend to find they are mostly attended by people from larger organisations who turn up in groups and only talk to each other or spend the day staring at their phones. There's very few SMB one-man band types (partly, I guess, because it's so hard to leave the office when you work on your own). I'm an introvert, so none of this stuff is easy for me. I have to force it.
Head hunters are hardly knocking down my door with fantastically exciting new opportunities! What should I do?
Please post any tips on this thread.
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well, it sounds like you've highlighted the points you need to work on. There's no magic to it, pick one aspect you feel "weak" in and work on being a bit more extroverted with it. Take a sales course.
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One starting point is.... branding. I post as myself. That's really my picture and really my name. All of my social media and all activities that I do consider my branding and I make sure that it is uniform. Articles for publication, facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Spiceworks, MangoLassi, my own websites, etc. Always my name and my picture. No matter what I am doing professionally I make sure that my brand is always well presented - no different than a business would do.
If, after reading your posts here, I was a recruiter and wanted to find you. How would I do that?
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That's a good point, Scott.
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I've been randomly recognized on the street before, in a city in which I do not live. It's pretty weird.
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I do a lot of blogging and stuff too. Both professionally and non-professionally. I publicly journal, podcast, write real articles, write about hobbies, participate in forums and social communities, etc. A broad base of self branding.
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You don't appear to need sleep or any kind of rest, which must help.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
You don't appear to need sleep or any kind of rest, which must help.
It does help.
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@scottalanmiller said:
One starting point is.... branding. I post as myself. That's really my picture and really my name. All of my social media and all activities that I do consider my branding and I make sure that it is uniform. Articles for publication, facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Spiceworks, MangoLassi, my own websites, etc. Always my name and my picture. No matter what I am doing professionally I make sure that my brand is always well presented - no different than a business would do.
If, after reading your posts here, I was a recruiter and wanted to find you. How would I do that?
Glad to see this.. Yes working on it ,:)
