Some of you may have already cringed at the title of this post. Some of you however understand the importance of tooting your own horn! Excerpt from the book jacket of Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It by Peggy Klaus:  5 v! I4 ]3 |3 |: h
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“In today’s competitive business world, bragging is a necessity – not a choice! Remaining quiet about yourself, or worse, downplaying your successes leads to being underappreciated, or even allowing others to take credit for your achievements. When done with grade and style, bragging promotes your best asset – you!”
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+ p9 r& V( F+ N- w0 m; A! vNow, some people out there think that you should not have to brag; that a job well done will earn you the chatter that will get your recognized. In some cases, yes I absolutely believe this. I also believe that in some instances, you shouldn’t brag about what you do, such as in charitable giving. However, promoting yourself is important if you want to move up in your company or be recognized within your industry as a player. Others won’t necessarily do this for you so sometimes you have to have a “Yay me!” moment for yourself.
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Understandably, if you are doing great things with your career, or in any area of your life for that matter, there will be others – coworkers, competitors, associates, family, etc. – who will see this as a challenge to their own ambitions (or lack thereof!). I like to call these people “crabs”. When a large number of crabs are in a bucket, it’s not necessary to place a lid on said bucket to keep them in. This is due to the crabs' habit of pulling and tugging on one another, so that when one is about to escape over the top, the freedom-loving crab's compatriots pull him or her back in. This term is often used to describe the behavior of subcultures in society who seem to do everything in their power to destroy the ambitions of those among them who wish to improve themselves. & M5 b6 ?9 N6 J& P* R; p

- ^, r- a9 {1 U9 g$ mTo this I say – brag on! “Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius” (Fulton J. Sheen). Not everyone is going to like seeing you be accomplished. Just remember: if everyone likes you, you’re probably not doing anything worthwhile! There are many ways of accomplishing this that will also leave your reputation and integrity intact.
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7 b- C* q( n. x" x2 N0 n) pDo something noteworthy and tell others about it. This is a huge “duh” in my book. If you’ve accomplished something awesome, tell people! Just do it with class and not with arrogance. Shally Steckerl has created a wonderful collection of training materials and consulting services over the last several years. He’s done something worth promoting, in my book, and he does that! He posts on his blog and other blogs when he has new materials available and when he will be doing speaking engagements. I doubt there is a single person in recruiting/research who hasn’t at least heard of Shally. Barbara Ling is another person who has done something worth talking about. She has been in research longer than most people and has partnered with recruiters and researchers to promote her training services. Maureen Sharib’s famous email signature is a great example of self-promotion. Some people complain about it being so long – Maureen, I say make it longer! You’ve earned it.

Pull Marketing. The first person to introduce this to me was Joel Cheesman. I had the pleasure of dining with him while I was working in Cleveland last fall and he downloaded some really great stuff to me. His thoughts on pull marketing were to give away a little of your knowledge/expertise/product for free and it will bring people back for more (“pulling” people to you as opposed to “pushing” yourself or your product on others). This leaves them with a good taste in their mouth for you, and they will be more likely to spread good publicity for you. Word of mouth marketing is the oldest and most effective method of marketing out there. A perfect example of how Joel does this is his new wiki. On this wiki, he created a video going over some basic use of the site, but he mentions something on the video that struck me: part of his intention with this wiki was for people to use HIS good name and HIS site’s good ranking with Google, et al to promote themselves. This type of move is the reason why Joel’s name is on everyone’s lips and why he gets sweet deals like the partnership with JobCentral. (I encourage all of you to check this out at http://wiki.cheezhead.com) 3 D8 Z, a- ?  |) x1 U
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Get in the back pocket of someone who is an expert at what you do (get a mentor(s)!). No one who has accomplished anything worthwhile in life has done so without mentorship at some point. This is something that helped me personally. I have been an admirer of several recruiting researchers for several years, and I aspired to be as good at what I do as they. So, I simply reached out to them and asked for some of their time. I guarantee you, doing this with someone who is an expert in your own field will not only flatter that person, but it will also show them that you have the ambition to make something of yourself. Chances are, they were you way back in the day, hoping for a crumb from the table of someone they desired to be mentored by. Consider this also – most successful people will be willing to help someone who genuinely desires knowledge. Those who refuse to share their knowledge generally do not stay on top for long. These people, when they see your genuine desire to learn and grow, will be more than willing to put in a good word for you within your industry. They will be key in helping you become an expert yourself. The best way to thank them? Turn around and pay it forward by assisting others….
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9 a# R- r+ k( C9 P3 U2 M# gRead and comment on industry-related articles. Nothing flatters another person like acknowledging their work and complimenting them. By reading articles written by others in your industry and leaving comments (on a blog, shoot them an email, place a phone call, etc.) you will get your name in their mind. Usually, they will want to know who you are and what you do. This is a great opportunity for you to shine!0 o$ ]% x. N) ]. W" a4 Z6 R
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& V. G  |4 ?: f1 ?Start your own blog. I won’t go into much detail on this because there are others out there who can tell you more about self-promotion than I could through this, but creating a blog either for your own personal branding or for your company’s branding is a great way for you to present press releases, interesting tidbits, and personal plugs to get your name out there.+ @. f* R) C! T$ m' G+ [; f: l

2 ~7 c; `- @5 b( S( [' x6 n+ ?Interview others and promote THEM. I think Dave Mendoza does a great job with this. On his blog, almost every other day it seems there is an interview synopsis of someone with whom he’s spoken recently. Paul J. DeBettignies does this also on MN Headhunter by promoting positions and other blogs he enjoys. Jim Stroud, of course, with The Recruiter’s Lounge, does a fabulous job of promoting other people. Bill Vick’s XtremeRecruiting site is another example. Who doesn’t want to talk to Bill Vick? Having an interview with him, in the recruiting business, is a feather in your cap. These folks, among many others, have made it a habit of promoting OTHERS, and consequently draw a great deal of attention to themselves as well. Just recently, I saw a post from Bill about some cities around the nation that he will be visiting. I re-posted that on my company’s internal blog and the feedback was wonderful; everyone wanted to know how they could reach him to set up a time to chat.

Have a contest! What better way to draw attention to yourself or your company than to offer a fun contest. I wrote a post discussing recruitment hiring challenges a couple of months ago. Lots of companies are starting to adopt this as a method of recruitment. Rob McIntosh created buzz about Microsoft and about himself with his ‘find my dog’ challenge. Jim Stroud followed suit by presenting a similar challenge. Holding a contest like these will draw attention to you and/or your company. In addition, participating in a contest like this will also draw attention to you! I participated in Jim’s challenge and found his dog; that allowed me to be recognized as one of a few who accomplished this and promoted my name to others in the industry. I myself just held an NCAA basketball tournament pool and invited my network to participate. I had several folks who joined in to win a nice prize that was a collaboration of purchases and donations from experts within our industry. This created some friendly bantering in the pool as well as some name recognition not only for myself, but also for my prize contributors as well as the contest winner, so everyone who participated in this got their horn tooted.
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7 x- P% d& \2 y, ^4 f% E! uCreate profiles on professional/social networking sites and link, link, link! Probably the best way to promote yourself and get your name out there, in my book, is to just make yourself available by networking. I won’t list out all the sites where this can be done because this list is long, but sites like MySpace, FaceBook, Doostang, Xing, Second Life, SoFlow, and of course LinkedIn are all places where this can be accomplished. Once you set up your self-promotion, start connecting! And I’m not just talking with people….set up blogrolls with links to other people’s sites. Ask any SEO expert and they’ll probably tell you that you build stock in your rankings based on the number of links to and from your site. Dave Mendoza once again is an expert on networking using these tools. I don’t know how many folks he is directly connected with, but I’m sure it is several thousand and climbing. One thing here: don’t join a networking site if you do not plan to network. I am amused at some folks on LinkedIn who refuse a request because “they don’t know you”. Catch-22 – how are you going to get to know others if you don’t take the opportunity to get to know them? Just remember to connect with integrity and maintain good rapport with your connections; don’t exploit your network and promote with class.. X% P5 a0 w& q/ f* {
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These of course are only a few suggestions. You can also self-promote by attending conventions and seminars, doing speaking engagements, conduct training classes, and lots more.% b8 `0 c. E; i9 V

' N- G8 H* A. |& t! iAnd in following suit with my own suggestions here tonight: I will be doing a birthday self-promotion this coming Tuesday, April 10th. Yes, my 28th birthday! I’m going to do a live webcam for the day while I work so that I can get the opportunity to wave hello to those who have enjoyed reading my rantings on www.amybethhale.com. Please feel free to stop by; the 3:30pm show is bound to be different from the 9:30am show!