Social Media Ads: Twice About Others; Once About You

Once you have created your portfolio pieces, the next step is to advertise it. It is in the advertising that you may encourage discussion or feedback as a short-term event.

Reciprocal behavior is the nature of most social media communities. The techniques I learned for Twitter seem to work well on most social media platforms.

When I follow someone on Twitter, I am saying I’m interested in what they have to say, either what they share or their skills or their line of business. My behavior of following someone on Twitter often causes them to follow me back.

In Twitter, it is considered poor form to constantly be tweeting about yourself. Celebrities might use their Twitter handle this way; it doesn’t translate well to the rest of us.

The recommended practice is to share and thank twice as much as you tweet about yourself. This means you might tweet about your new blog or piece, but then you should follow that tweet with two other tweets either sharing resources you found or responding to another person’s contribution.

This pattern of sharing other’s work and thanking others for their contributions establishes trust and community with your followers.

You don’t have to do this every hour. If you only lightly use a platform, it is okay to spread the tweets, posts or updates out over a few days. Just remember when you say something about yourself, then it is time to appreciate and share other’s accomplishments.

The nice thing about advertising a blog or piece on social media is you can catch people’s eye in a controlled manner. If your followers like it, they may share it with their followers, or they may privately message you with feedback. I like sharing in LinkedIn with 300 like-minded people; they do give me feedback. Sharing in Twitter is fun too, but with a wider less connected audience, the feedback decreases.

This type of sharing means most of the feedback will be in social media, as an event, away from your publishing platform. Since the life of a Tweet or post is often a few hours or days, the sharing and feedback isn’t permanent, but it is often helpful. You may hear some good advice to help you change your piece.