How To Promote Yourself on Social Sites Without Actually "Promoting Yourself"

I was recently asked the question, "How do you market your company on social news / bookmarking sites without appearing like a spammer?" This is a great question -- one that has a pretty straightforward answer but which also requires a lot of work. Why? Because it is easy to sign up for a social bookmarking site and simply submit your own "stuff." Submitting your own stuff does however not guarantee that your efforts will be successful. There is actually a lot more to it.

Tooting your own horn If I could sum up in two words how to be promote yourself on sites such as Digg, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Twitter and the others without actually promoting yourself, I would say, "Get involved!" And how does one actually get involved in a social news / bookmarking site? By being an active member of the community.

It is really no different than web forums which are still around but are quickly being replaced with social media. Typical profile of a web forum spammer - they join an active forum and do nothing else but toot their own horn. This typically consists on dropping links to their own site(s), promoting their own products or services or even in feeble attempt to help or provide advice, invite other forum members to their own sites for "more information" rather than keeping the conversation going on the forum itself.

I see the same scenario happen over and over again with social news and bookmarking sites. Here are a few indicators that someone is there merely for self promotion and/or gain:

ONLY submits sites they own or have an interest in
DOES NOT vote on anything from other sites
Attempts to FRIEND EVERYBODY even though they may not know them or have any common interests
Doesn't know how to FOLLOW THE RULES of the community
Creates MULTIPLE PROFILES so they can vote their stuff up

While there may be rare occurrences where this type of behavior has some measure of success, most often it fails. That is due to the fact that success with social sites is largely dependent on the community itself.

So how does one promote themselves on these site properly? The essential ingredient is to become involved in the community. Instead of just submitting your own content all the time, submit and vote on other people's content. Also get involved in the conversation (commenting on submissions), friend those you know or who have similar interests as you and even help combat spam (where applicable).

When these things become your regular practice, it then becomes easy and even perfectly acceptable to "slip" your own content in from time to time. Your content will also have more merit because you yourself are viewed as a respectable member of the community.

I would also advise one to pick and choose which social news / bookmarking sites you want to spend your time on. Sure there are tools a plenty that will allow you to submit content to multiple social sites, all with the click of a button. However, rather than quantity you should concern yourself over quality. In other words, focus your efforts on the social sites you are going to be involved in and sites that going to be related to the content you are submitting (i.e. don't submit an article on power tools to social site geared towards women).

Bottom line to to actually use social sites for what they were intended for. Add value to the community and the community will pay you back.

Mixx It! |

Digg It |

Post to del.icio.us |

Post to Reddit |

Post to Furl

Comments

I think the biggest challenge for several people in terms of knowing how to effectively use social media to their advantage is the time it takes to get that actively involved. It's easier for these folks to post whatever and add whoever but to be truly involved and get into these social networking cliques takes time and effort -- something not everyone has. If someone can learn how to best utilize their time on these mediums - even if only for a few minutes a day...they may be successful.

Comment by: Pay Per Click Journal | July 8, 2008 02:35 PM

Well put David. I wonder why so many people don't get it. I think people forget the social part of social media. Here's a great definition I found for social "relating to a group of members who are mutually dependent for the good of the group". Selfish drive by promotion does not fit that description.

Comment by: David Temple | July 8, 2008 07:31 PM

Wow I really agree with your idea indeed! Getting involved through making friends of same taste and likes, regularly voting and interacting, commenting and other similar activites can fetch fruitful results in the long term. Being an active member for any social bookmarking website is pretty important for getting benefits. Well said: " Promote Yourself on Social Sites Without Actually Promoting Yourself"

Comment by: Parrot Bluetooth | July 17, 2008 04:48 AM

I agree with this, infact the very meaning of a Community is that there is regular interaction amongst the members without any self promotion aspect coming in. Promoting one's business is the essence of marketing but the method which is followed to carry out this is very important. Being a part of a community brings within yourself a sense of responsibility which should be kept in mind by each individual

Comment by: Tom Tomer | July 29, 2008 06:07 AM

No disagreement from me either. It can be very time-consuming to participate in communities, and I think many people get frustrated when things don't pay off immediately. But slow and steady wins the race.

Comment by: Jonathan | August 15, 2008 11:34 AM

Well put together,I agree with you as well. Social Marketing is a great way to get your name out there and meet friends interested in what your doing...People tend to buy because they like the person who is "selling the product" so if they dont like you or feel they know you,then you may have a tough time selling to them(especially online). Social Media gives us a platform in which to do this,without all that pressure of selling in person.

Comment by: Kathy Baka | August 15, 2008 04:11 PM

It's all about content!

If your interesting to your niche, the rest will follow

Comment by: ZaggedEdge | August 16, 2008 08:37 PM

It is great job promoting ourselves in social sites without promoting ourselves on those sites. For this a person needs to have patient. Because, no one can get success at one's. He need to workhard and hard till he gets success.

Comment by: sanjay | September 3, 2008 10:26 PM

In a social setting you need to be genuine, otherwise you will never be able to effectively connect with the community.

Comment by: Search Marketing Canada | September 5, 2008 08:20 PM