Shameless Self-Promotion

Self-promotion. It's a topic of discussion that has been on my To-Do list since I first started conceptualizing this blog. A post I saw by Byron Rempel, a fabulous zombie artist I follow, prompted me to put a check mark next to it sooner rather than later. So here goes. 

How does one go about promoting a product or service? Easy right? Buy an ad in the newspaper, stick a commercial on TV during the Superbowl or get some celebrity to drop your name and you will sell millions of widgets. But what about the little guys? What about independent writer or artist? What about that guy making custom car parts on his lathe in the garage or that woman with a small pizza joint? How can these people leverage social media and the ever changing realm of advertising?

It seems like, these days, everyone is trying to jump on the bandwagon of social media and figure out how to gain customers and increase sales using the new technology. Unfortunately, from what I have read on various blogs and posts, and from my own experience, most have been unsuccessful. 

Some months ago I heard a story on NPR about a pizza place in Brooklyn trying to use Facebook advertising to gain customers. They spent a lot of money very quickly only to find out that most of their new "likes" were from people well outside of the New York area and would never actually translate into sales. 

As a page manager for a local store, I have learned that Facebook pages are fine for managing relationships with current customers, but do not result in new customers. Global social media is too big for a small brick and mortar store, the target audience is too small and too specific. Traditional media and word of mouth still seem to be best for your Mom and Pops.  

Facebook is no good for brick and mortar. But what about virtual stores? What about products and services that are transportable and shippable? Things like an e-book that can be sold anywhere in the world and your target audience is virtually limitless. This was the thought that I kept in mind as I began to promote Rising Tide. 

After I built up a basic Facebook presence I started to advertise. At first it was just one $5 ad. It added some "likes" to my page so I pumped in more money. I started testing out different types of ads and different audiences. 

• Generally, you choose between paying per impression (number of people who see your ad) and the number of people who click on your ad. At first you think impressions are the way to go, because they are so much cheaper but then you realize it takes a lot of impressions to result in a "like" or a sale. So you switch to the more expensive pay per click.
• If you are looking for "likes", pay per click is the way to go. I added a bunch of followers this way. But because you are paying for actions, Facebook is targeting people that are likely to take action. The result is a bunch of followers that are click happy and have "liked" everything on Facebook.
• Linking my ads directly to Amazon (instead of my page) was as good as lighting my cash on fire. Advertising for external pages gets very expensive, very quickly and provides limited insights.

Don't get me wrong, my advertising did result in a number of positive interactions with fans who are actively interested in my posts and writing. Just not $300 worth. I ultimately quit advertising on Facebook because even if I have a bunch of fans, I have no way to interact with them. The social media site has throttled back our feed so that only about 10% of our fans will actually see our posts. If you want to increase that, you have to pay for it. As an independent author, I can not afford to pay advertising to get fans and then again pay for them to see my posts. 

About the time I started getting fed up with my Facebook ad campaign, I started looking into Google +. So far, as a promotional tool, it has exceeded my expectations. There are no prohibitions on contacting new or unknown people. You can post publicly to access a huge audience and with the new communities you can access specific audiences. My blog viewership is up over 400% since I joined at the end of October. And the best part? I haven't spent a dime. Suck on that, Zuckerberg.

So to now come full circle and actually comment on the post I mentioned above. Don't be disillusioned, I am using G+ for the sole purpose of brand growth and self-promotion. Apparently, there are people out there who don't like that artists and the self-employed are using it for this purpose. To me, this is mind boggling. 

EVERYONE ON SOCIAL MEDIA IS PARTAKING IN SELF-PROMOTION! 

Yes even you. When you post that picture of your cat or your spaghetti and meatballs, that is brand promotion. You are promoting the idea of you. You are selling your personality and competing with others to say "I'm interesting, you should care about what I have to say and what I do." So, don't be surprised when other people try to get paid for it. 

That is all. Thank you Mr. Rempel for compelling me to check the box. Keep on doing what you do. Hurrah!