How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk
How do you self-promote? Or do you even think it’s important to promote yourself? You can’t be the best kept secret. It took me a while to figure that out. You may be one of the many women small business owners, who doesn’t want to toot her own horn. But self-promotion is a must if you want to succeed in business. Self-promotion is not a bad concept. However, there’s a right way to do it. How to Self-Promote Without Being a Jerk by Bruce Kasanoff will help you.
This book has a lot of information. And it will take a lot to unpack. He covers things I didn’t consciously think about. Virtual self-promotion is critical these days. Many of the strategies you’ll be able to implement right away.
The title of the book caught my attention. And I wanted to see what the author had to say about self-promotion. The book has a 4.4 out of 5 rating on Amazon, based on 264 customer ratings. I don’t place much stock on Amazon reviews, but they were interesting to read.
Reading a book summary is an excellent way to get the key concepts from business books. It’s also a great way to decide which books to buy to explore more deeply. Click the Readitforme link to join. Think of this subscription as your speed-reading superpower. You read the summary, therefore, you can digest and process the book faster.
What is How to Self-Promote Without Being a Jerk by Bruce Kasanoff About?
According to Bruce Kasanoff, How to Self-Promote Without Being a Jerk is a,
“Collection of actionable tips, organized around these eight elements. These tips will help you gain the right kind of attention.”
Is what you offer clear? Make it easy for others to understand what you have to offer. And what you want to accomplish? Help others, and you will help yourself. The book mentions the following paired characteristics and traits:
Be generous and expert; trustworthy and clear; open-minded and adaptable; persistent and present.
How to Self-Promote Without Being a Jerk: 8 Elements
- Generous: Help others long before and after you need their help.
- Expert: Do your best at all times. Be extremely competent in one or more areas.
- Trustworthy: Take ownership of your words and actions. Recognize that you live in a world where they'll be recorded, remembered, analyzed and replayed there.
- Clear: Know what you want and be able to communicate it.
- Open-Minded: No matter how knowledgeable and successful you become, never stop learning and listening.
- Adaptable: Keep your options open. Expect surprises.
- Persistent: Keep trying even when you're tempted to quit.
- Present: Learn from the past, prepare for the future, but be mindful of the present.
Be Generous:
Whenever you meet someone, think, help this person. If someone is struggling at work, help her to improve her skills. When you think about this person, it will change the way others perceive you. Others may perceive you as positive, helpful, and dependable. The best way to help yourself is to always be looking for ways to help others.
Introduce Others:
Find ways to introduce others.Introducing others helps to build your network. The more people you connect, the more they will talk about you, your work, and interests, and how they can help.
Answer These Questions
- Who can help another person you know?
- Whose personalities or goals might mesh well?
- Who could use help from another?
- Do you know people who live or work close together who need to meet?
- Who needs a break from their kids, routine, or colleagues.
Serve, Don't Sell
- Serve the best interests of the people who you want to impress.
- When it's hard to, do more.
- The harder it is to help someone, the more it matters when you do it.
- Serve first before you sell.
- Be generous in a way that’s meaningful. Giving is a benefit to the giver.
Give Away Good Ideas
The secret to success on social media is to give away valuable ideas for free. This helps you to build credibility and create value and contacts.
Promote Others Online
The secret to social media is to help others. The more you support others, the more incredible you become. Look out for valuable news that others will find useful.
Be Expert
- Become an expert.
- Be memorable.
- Use your expertise to help others.
Start Small
What gives you credibility? You need building blocks. The basics matter. Build a strong foundation. Know and master the basics.
Prove It
Only make claims you can prove. The more evidence you cite the better.
Specialize
Be known for something specific.
Be Trustworthy
Tell the whole truth. Be specific about your accomplishments.
Have you read?
Life is a Contact Sport by Ken Kragen, Book Review
Be Perfect
When promoting yourself don't make mistakes. Prove your work.
Be There in Tough Times
- Tough times present opportunities for bonding.
- Social connection is critical for success and longevity.
- Be someone who others can trust.
Use Levels of Substance
A good example is Knowledge@Wharton. They use four different levels of substance. Could you create something similar?
How to Self-Promote Without Being a Jerk: 4 Different Levels of Substance
- Quick summary of Wharton research finding our news item.
- Short article that adds some details, but is still easy to read.
- Detailed piece which could include an interview with a professor who led related research.
- Readers who are interested could click through to read the research paper.
Make it easy for readers to dive deeper into the information you share. Make it so that they can get all the basic information as well.
Example: Write an article then embed a PowerPoint presentation.
Respect the Authenticity Condition
- Social influence is the power of people interacting authentically with other people. It’s a limitless source of energy for your career and life.
- Authenticity condition. Likely is only powerful when people authentically like something.
- When you elevate social media to the heights of social influence, you must speak with an authentic voice.
Be Clear
- Have One Point: When you include too much in your communication, the message gets lost. Focus on one point.
- Minimize the trivial: Only tell people what they need to know to help you accomplish what's important to you.
- Use a lot of pictures: About one in three people are visual. Books with pictures outperform those without.
The Theory of Seven
The author coined this theory. The theory says adults are not much different from seven year olds, they just pretend. We have short attention spans and welcome distractions. You can use the Theory of Seven by doing the following.
- Be clear about what to do next. Don't be an intellectual, be clear and offer simple to understand guidance.
- Don’t be an intellectual: Give people simple, memorable guidance.
- Don't assume others are idiots, communicate your message in a clear, clear and simple manner.
- Keep things moving. If you want to inspire, keep things fresh. Get feedback and use it. You can’t succeed without getting feedback. Feedback is insurance against disaster.
- Ask for three criticisms. To get honest feedback that you can use, ask for three criticisms. You could ask for three things they think you should change.
- Be Open-Minded. Try something different once in a while.
- Travel in new circles: Expose yourself to new ideas. Reach out to others who are different.
- Every week, get out of your comfort zone. Meet people who think differently.
- Attack your blind spots. You are limited by your beliefs and attitudes. The more set you are in your ways the more blind spots you have. This is dangerous. Question your attitudes and beliefs question your blind spots.
- Make bold proposals. People hold themselves back by not taking bold steps.
- Point/Counterpoint. When you meet someone, you disagree with, both of you could try, arguing both points of view point.
Admit it, you are in show business. The most effective people act as if they were in show business.
- Put your products on a stage. Treat your products like stars.
- At showtime, they give every ounce of energy. When you're open, it's show time so give 100%.
- Energy flows two ways. You have to give to employees, so they continue giving to you.
- Their standards are very high. You have to work hard every week.
- Understand that showmanship is an art, not a science. There isn't a magic formula for delivering a hit product, all the time.
- Honor the unwritten rule: Need to understand and honor the unwritten rules.
Be Adaptable
Change the cover: When an idea does not work, change the cover. When the author’s document does not get enough views, he changes the cover and the title. Sometimes as much as five times. Do this with articles, ebooks, white papers. Keep making changes until the idea helps other people.
Rewrite rewrite rewrite: Keep on rewriting until you have a polished document.
Use fear to your advantage: Use fear as a motivator. Prepare to help to eliminate fear. Let the panic run its course, then take charge.
Partner: No one succeeds alone. Choose partners who have a solid reputation – have common goals and values.
Think a bit like an academic: Be flexible, that's one of the ways to try in the future. Professors are always doing research and learning. Use knowledge to drive your career. Academics collaborate with each other.
Keep learning: Put time into your learning. Education is the best insurance policy, you can buy for your career.
Be persistent: Don't take no answer. Be consistent checking back with people. Wait a few days then send a follow up email.
Exceed Promises: Dramatically exceed expectations and others will talk about you in glowing terms. Be more creative, more inventive, and more reliable.
Ask for referrals: Motivate others to refer people to you.
- Be bold: Ask others for referrals.
- Celebrate: Celebrate all the time, and invite others.
- Support what your network supports: Help your network of contacts in efforts that are meaningful to them.
- Make your references easy to access: Make it easy for the other person.
- Say thanks: Say thank you when someone has helped you. Ask if there are ways you can help.
Take credit: When you're praised for work well done, don't minimize your efforts. Be grateful for the acknowledgement.
Be Present
- Really listen: Not listening is disrespectful. When you grasp what others are saying, and you respond, you're perceived as being smarter. When someone says something, build on it when responding.
- Talk less: When you talk less, people pay attention. You can get to the point quickly.
- Change your perspective: Zoom In, Zoom Out. Zoom in on the details, zoom out to highlight the big picture.
- To Zoom in: Use research to back your claims.
- Zoom away from your subject matter, understanding where it fits in the bigger picture – view of colleagues’ community profession. This allows you to identify weak points and objectives, objections to your ideas.
- Be ultra quiet: Your brain needs time to process new experiences.
- Get in front of people: Big media gives you credibility. Get out of the office and meet with people.
The most accomplished people read books every day. They carve out the time in their schedule. When they face a problem, they often find the solution embedded in the pages of a book. Let me help you to solve your own problems. Click the link MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World to buy.
Final Thoughts: How to Self-Promote Without Being a Jerk by Bruce Kasanoff
I enjoyed reading this book. It made me aware of how much work I need to do in promoting myself. I’ve been frustrated and irritated with most of the people who do LinkedIn lead generation. And most of them don’t do it well. They’re just a modern day version of the snake oil salesperson.
Professionals need to read a book such as How to Self-Promote Without Being a Jerk by Bruce Kasanoff. They’ll learn how to serve others.
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