So, I’ve got a real post coming later today on three steps to setting up a social media strategy, but I wanted to share a funny exchange from this morning.
My husband is a history geek. He just finished his master’s in Middle Eastern History and is now starting a Ph. D. in Political Science. As such, he’s prone to share tidbits of “interesting” information that he comes across during his research.
Husband: “Hey, I just found out what Saddam Hussein did before he became the leader of the Baath Party.”
Me: “Marketing?”
Husband: “No. He was a torturer.”
Me: “There’s a lot of overlap.”
I think I was at least half right.
On that note, I’ll take a minute to share a great post by a true social media expert – Chris Brogan. His post “How to Market an Offline Event Online” provides great basic information for anyone looking to promote a live event. But the real gold nugget we can all take away is something that isn’t said frequently enough:
Without being “that guy” (and never forget, I mean this for either gender), mentioning your event is easy across your Twitter, your Facebook, your LinkedIn status, and all the other social sites that make sense to promote. A word of caution: this gets close to what feels like carpet-bombing, so go gently. In fact, out in front of such a promotional effort, make sure you’re doing your good deeds and promoting others, and sharing other good information. People don’t like a tireless self-promoter, but they don’t mind someone who shares the good stuff, even when some of it’s their own.
Keep an eye on subtlety and make sure your self-promotion is only part of the content you’re sharing. Otherwise, it’s just torture.
