Nearly all of my friends and colleagues in the career advice sphere regularly promote their media appearances and new projects on their blogs.
I don’t do this. I’ve never done this. I get as many decent opportunities as the next guy, but I’ve always considered blog content to be fairly sacred – reserved for career and business topics and that’s it. There’s a modesty element in it too. While I don’t have a problem casually mentioning a speaking engagement or new book in the context of a piece of advice, I’ve just always felt uncomfortable starting a post by broadcasting that I was just on NPR or in the New York Times.
Sometimes, though, I wonder if I’m doing myself a disservice by not promoting myself enough. If potential clients, partners, and readers aren’t actively told about what I’m doing, how will they see the value of what I can bring to them? How will they know that the platform I’ve already established as a career and business expert and author well-qualifies me for new, and possibly bigger, opportunities?
I believe that many of you probably have the same issue asserting your achievements at work, and as a result are not as visible and appreciated as you could be. What strategies do you use to walk the fine line between shamelessly bragging and flying too low under the radar?
I think it's especially difficult for women to promote themselves. Studies have shown that women expect to receive recognition and promotions based on their hard work, while men are much more at ease promoting themselves. I, too, had trouble with this in the beginning until I realized that the promotions are another component of establishing your authority and giving others a chance to learn from you in another context. So, go ahead...let us know what you're doing and we'll be happy to congratulate you on your success!
Anita Bruzzese
www.45things.com
Posted by: Anita Bruzzese | December 10, 2007 at 10:33 PM
Hi Anita, thanks for the vote of confidence, I'm going to try it next week!
Posted by: Alexandra Levit | December 12, 2007 at 12:54 AM
I agree! *waves 'Go A.L.' poster in the air*
Posted by: Andre | December 18, 2007 at 05:37 AM