Constant Promotion or Subtle Promotion

[KristineS]

I spend some time on social media sites and occasionally I'll meet someone there who does nothing but promote his or her blog. Every post or comment is simply a version of "hey, look at what I wrote on my blog!"

Personally, I'm an advocate of more subtle promotion. Occasionally I might mention that I wrote what I think is a good post and I hope people will go check it out. My blogs are also always in my signature or profile, but I don't push them actively very hard.

I'm wondering which tactic you think works better. Does constant promotion turn you off? Is subtle promotion too easy to ignore?

[vangogh]

I like subtle too, though I have a hunch the type of promotion depends somewhat on the audience. Think of all those pages filled with sale copy that go on for every and lead to an ebook. When I see them I instantly think spam, but I also know those pages work.

I prefer being more subtle though and trying to persuade people as opposed to sell to them. I do think it's ok to be consistent if you aren't pushing hard sells at people.

Every so often a little hard sell is ok too, though most of the time I prefer the subtle approach.

[KristineS]

I just hate it when all people do is push their posts. There are a few people on Plurk like that, and it annoys me. If all you're doing is asking people to Stumble or Digg your stuff or pushing your latest blog post, you're not interacting and your not adding to the general conversation.

[vangogh]

I know the people you mean. Very quickly I stop paying attention to anything they post. There are even a few very popular bloggers who I stopped reading because all they do is promote.

Some people promote a lot, but also provide a lot of valuable content too. The more valuable content you provide the more you can get away with the promotion.

[theGypsy]

Well, I also Plurk about other things... but have no probs shamelessly promoting my own posts when one comes out.... but I am also pimping other peeps stuff all the time as well (on Plurk, FriendFeed, Social Median, Stumble) - thus have no probs pimping my own stuff

Also, my readers are wonderful folks and very encouraging of my work... so I also feel peeps may actually WANT me to let them know when something new is up... hell, I get peeps asking me when I am going to post so they can be the first to Sphinn/Stumble it... which is altogether weird fer sure....

.. I think the best part is when you really don't have to anymore. A year ago I was writing into a void and only had a select few mates and cohorts reading it. Now, I can put up stuff and peeps simply do the pimping for me... Is that cause I am a great writer? unlikely...ha ha ha ... more that I have been active supporting others and folks just do the same for me.

.... but I am still never shy pimping my stuff and those that aren't interested... they can go past that message, or stop following me altogether.

.... hee hee...

[vangogh]

You're a good example Dave. Sure you promote your own stuff at times, but you provide more than enough valuable messages that I don't mind. Granted I know you well enough that I wasn't going to mind anyway, but I think you get my point.

You also are very generous in promoting others, which in my opinion grants you more leniency when promoting yourself.

How much is too much has to be taken in the context of the whole. One person who has 5 out of 5 self promotional plurks is worse than another who has 100 out of 1000 self promotional plurks.

There are also ways to promote yourself without trying to trick people into clicking. Some people think they're being subtle when they aren't at all.

[KristineS]

You took the words right out of my mouth, Vangogh. I'm not saying that promotion itself is inherently wrong. Heck, I do it on occasion. I'm just drawing a distinction between people who promote and contribute and people who just promote. The former don't bother me. The latter do, at times.

[theGypsy]

Agreed... I really do enjoy finding 'new voices' in the bloggosphere and almost always check out stuff peeps drop links to in Plurk or Twitter.... but it gets old fast if the person does nothing but promote their own stuff....

Sphinn is a great example as I would NEVER promote peeps that only submitted their own stuff... I even emailed a few peeps to explain that if they wanted acceptance, they should submit maybe 10 other posts to every 1 of their own...

I find it to be very reciprocal ultimately... thus promoting other peeps almost always pays back. I am all about spreading the love!!! woot!! :p

[KristineS]

I definitely think spreading the love is a good thing and I always encourage it. Ultimately it gets you a lot further than obsessively pursuing your own agenda at all costs.

[vangogh]

In my monthly roundup posts I've been making more and more of a commitment to finding unknown sites to link to. I've been cutting back on the popular month over month and spreading the love more.

There's nothing wrong with self-promotion, but you can't do it at the expense of being genuine. The more you give the more you get back.

[KristineS]

I try to do the same with the Community Wednesday posts on the GSI blog. I have certain writers I gravitate too, but I'm trying to draw some attention to some of the lesser known writers.

[vangogh]

Yeah, I figured the top sites didn't really need all the attention. I also figured that most people had already read the posts from the top sites since we all read them already. By linking out to lesser known authors there's always a few things people haven't seen making the round up post more valuable overall.