As a blogger or freelancer, it’s important to create awareness about your blog/freelance business. I spend a lot of time on the internet trying to publicize Fashion and Style Police, and get my content in front of my potential readers and clients. Although it’s necessary to put your work and business out there, you need to do it with caution so you don’t become a nuisance.
There is a thin line between promoting yourself, your blog or your business and outright spamming. Some people don’t know the difference and because of this they unknowingly spam on the internet everyday. More often than not, such people get bashed doing it but some never know how annoying their continuous noise promotion really is.
If you promote yourself tactfully, you’ll find yourself building a loyal following, making great connections, building relationships and grabbing many clients. To guide your activities, here’s a test you can use to determine whether you’re spamming or self-promoting. Whenever you want to write a post or create any sort of content on social media, stop and ask yourself; “Will this post or piece of content make my business grow in the long run, nurture my audience and still tell people know about me?” If it won’t, then you’re most likely spamming. If it will, then you’re self-promoting.
Just to keep you in the clear, here are 3 characteristics that will help you know the difference between self-promotion and spamming.
1. Frequency of posting
One of the first things you notice about self-promotional content and spam is the difference in the frequency at which the post is made. A piece of content becomes spammy when you post the same kind of content several times a day using the same medium. For example, you post the same link to your blog 5 times in the same Facebook group. That can be annoying, especially to someone who has already seen the same link several times before.
When you are self-promoting you talk about yourself or your business frequently but not so frequently. So you can share an Instagram story highlighting what you have been up to that day, tweeting links to different blog post once in 2 hours, chit-chat with your followers, and go live on your Facebook page. This way you are promoting your business, but in different ways.
2. Value of the content
Most times, as you promote you give value to your audience especially when you share tips or tricks as a means to show your expertise. The goal is to inform as well as create awareness.
When it comes to spamming, spammers share little or no value with their audience. You gain nothing of benefit. Spammers just drop links and don’t share actionable steps. Their primary aim is to get you to click, buy or download. There is usually no value added for spammers, but professional promoters know there should always be something in it for the readers.
3. Build relationships
Spamming creates no reason for making connections or building relationships with people. Spammers do not care about whom they should share their content with. They can post to anyone and to anywhere. Oftentimes they pick random social media accounts or emails and send their content without caring whether their content will be useful to those people or not.
Those who self-promote take time to identify their audience and build relationships with them through helping out or sharing useful information. They do not post just anywhere. They carefully select where they post because they believe that it is more effective to show their expertise to those who will really need it. Those who self-promote build real relationships and grow their network. They also share other useful content from fellow bloggers/freelancers on their social media platforms.
What do you think of self-promotion and spamming? Do you have any tip to share?
