Should a Marketer Market Himself?

I joined Facebook several months ago just to see something someone had sent me – I had to be a member to view their Facebook profile.  I haven’t paid much attention to it since.  Then, on Friday, it occurred to me that many of the people who use and appreciate Facebook are the same ones who were reacting to news that I was blogging now with, “Cool – send me the URL.”  So in a blatant display of self-promotion, I visited the Facebook pages of all 8  (ooooh) of my Facebook “friends” and trolled their  friends lists for people I know, and sent friend requests to those who I thought wouldn’t mind.

My theory was that the more people who visited my Facebook page, the more chance that they would see my blog URL and the more likely they might be to visit.  If they like what I write about, they may become regular visitors and maybe even recommend me to other people whom I don’t know (yet).  The whole exercise felt slightly self-aggrandizing and spammy at the time, but two things now convince me it was a good idea:

1.  It worked.  My blog traffic hit a new record on Friday, and the weekend numbers were significantly better than normal.  And I now have fifty Facebook friends!  (Still far fewer than the hundreds my friend Kim has…)

2.  And, as someone who writes about, and pretends to know something about, Web 2.0 marketing, isn’t it my duty to self-promote?  I got to thinking about the last time I was involved in hiring someone for a marketing-related role.  The résumés of most of the applicants were dull dull dull.  Now mine (pictured) is no Rembrandt, but it shows that I took a little time on the most important document I will probably ever write.  And guess what?  I got two people to proof-read  it, too.

I’m not going to get off on the tangent of how many people submitted CV’s with spelling and grammar errors – that’s a whole other galaxy of dumb.  But if you want to impress me with with your potential as a marketing professional, do NOT submit a document that is virtually indistinguishable from everyone else’s.  Use some colour pixels, for heaven’s sake – they don’t cost any more.

Similarly, consider whether you can be impressing me with your online presence.  I believe the day is fast approaching when the idea of a marketing person who isn’t blogging (or Facebooking or MySpacing or Second Lifeing or existing online in some other way) will be as incongruous as a physician who smokes.

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