Impact or Self-Promotion, Where's The Happy Medium

A brilliant colleague of mine, Geoff Livingston, wrote a blog post entitled "Play the Long Game: Impact Over Self-Promotion" where he discusses the merits of focusing on making an impact versus self-promotion. In his post, Geoff, makes a valid point that your impact has a lasting effect on on people an organizations.

I agree with him. If you can make lasting contributions to your community that you can refer to when looking for a change, is much more impactful than blatant touting your qualities.

There Is A Place For Self-Promotion

With the advent of the influencer and influence generation, self-promotion doesn't have much stigma as it once did. We all know that person who is so good at promoting what they do, that opportunities seem to flock to them. Because of this there's a market for influencers. Is it necessarily a good thing? It depends.

What we have to watch out for is the the rose-colored glasses of social media. It's these glasses that hide the minutia and the had work that goes on behind the scenes for most influencers. Many times we forget that on social media, even in the B2B world (ie. LinkedIn), we only see the good stuff: promotions, accomplishments and trips. These are just to accolades we see online. We don't see the long nights, and hard work that led to the end result.

Even with the hard work that goes into self-promotion, most of the time, we need realize that many of these efforts are just a flash in the pan. Focusing on making an impact lasts much longer and leads to better value for everyone involved. Is there some self-promotion involved in the overall impact, sometimes, but it's only one component of the overall effect.

So Is There A Happy Medium?

Possibly. Influence can be fickle. One day someone might have some influence on a group, the next day it's someone else. But in the end, focus on yourself and the impact that you bring to your tasks and roles both professionally and personally, you should see better, longer lasting gains, than the quick hits that over-self promoters get.

What do you think? Is there a happy medium? Hit the reply button and let me know! 🚀

I use ActiveWords daily! I highly recommend the program. It's the best in class.

Web Finds Of The Week

Wordle’s growth loop

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• For better or for worse we're all using Google for search. Yoni Heisler over at BGR has some nifty search tricks to make our lives easier.

Use of Google Analytics and data transfers to the United States: the CNIL orders a website manager/operator to comply | CNIL

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• I've talked about this development in the past. First Austria's data protection authority declared Google Analytics (and any other company storing European's data on US servers) illegal. Now it looks like the French are getting onboard. Time to buckle up!

Reddit Looks to Expand the Use of its ‘Reddit Talks’ Audio Rooms Option

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• Reddit is one of my favorite sites to visit online. Its communities are so far reaching in topics that I can almost find anything there. Now the social networking site is adding audio rooms to its offerings. For once, I'm actually intrigued with audio-based rooms. I can't wait to try them.

Don’t let the only press you get be negative - Debbie Goetz Media Connections

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• Debbie Goetz is a great friend of mine and an excellent PR practitioner. She makes some very salient points here to be proactive with your press coverage instead of reactive. The example is from 2020, but the points are still very relevant today.

Amazon SEO: A Comprehensive Guide For Sellers

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• This is a pretty good run down of Amazon's algorithm and how to optimize for it. One thing you need to make sure you don't do is buy reviews. That's as bad as buying links on Google.

What a Salesforce NFT cloud service could mean for marketers

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LinkedIn Tests New Option to Switch Off Political Posts in Your Feed

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• This is an interesting move on the part of LinkedIn. The business social network is allowing users to turn off political posts in their feed. What I'm not sure about is this turning off advertisements from political people or from Joe in accounting? I turned it off to test. I'll report back.

By the numbers: Super Bowl LVI

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Marketing Quote Of The Week

Podcast Of Note

Do you like podcasts where you feel like your at a table in a coffee shop drinking a warm beverage (I don't like to assume coffee is your drink of choice), having a great conversation for hours?

This is exactly what is Matt Bailey's podcast the Endless Coffee Cup.  Matt has this Midwestern charm and exuberance that comes through in every episode he has with marketing leaders. The show is approachable and like a good cup of coffee, it can't be put down. Have a listen, you won't be disappointed.

The Latest From Entrepreneur's Enigma Podcast

Joe Monzo is a good friend, client, and incredible entrepreneur. He has built his video marketing business from the ground up. He serves companies, non-profit and private schools with absolutely amazing and engaging videos to help them grow.

Check out the episode: https://socl.bz/ee-42

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