Happy New Year folks!

I didn’t get out an edition of this newsletter at the end of the last year because I was knee deep in what I call “Vlognukah” (8 pre-filmed videos for the 8 days of Chanukah), my thoughts and prayers go out to anyone who attempted vlogmas because jesus christ I don’t know how people do it.

Also with a new year I like trying new things so this is something different than usual. Instead of three newsy things happening in the creator economy you’re getting my musings on a particular topic. Would love to hear your thoughts if you like this kind of format. I promise to still keep it short and sweet.

I know all too well the feeling that you are spamming and inconveniencing people when you have something to share and promote. Maybe you’ve written a book, perhaps it’s a new series of your podcast or a YouTube video that you are particularly proud of. As creators, we feel a lot of shame and guilt about asking people for their money or their time. It can feel uncomfortable and like you need to constantly apologise for the self promotion.

Despite absolutely hating the self promotion I know how necessary it is and I’m also aware of what marketers always say: it takes 7 times of someone seeing something/encountering a thing for them to then take action on it (is it still 7? I wonder if it’s gone up in recent years in terms of how stretched our attentions are). Pair that with knowing that not all your followers see all your content. Only the super hardcore fans really see everything. I’ve known this for years but I wasn’t confronted with it actually in practice until recently and it hits different.

Back in November I hustled my way into the Wicked: For Good premiere by posting daily content related to Wicked and basically begging for an invite (classy.) My audience really got behind my mission and low and behold it worked. In my excitement, I, of course, made a bunch of posts (reels and photo dumps) of my experience at the premiere. I was a bit nervous about spamming people but I was having too much fun to care and then I noticed something. On the fifth post I did (THE FIFTH!) about going to the premiere there were still comments saying things along the lines of “omg you actually did it!” like they hadn’t seen my previous FOUR posts about the whole thing.

I was honestly shocked but it makes sense considering what I know about marketing and social media. I just needed to feel it in practice to truly understand. So please, take this as a lesson. You are NOT spamming people. Please, self-promote! Talk about the things you make! Talk about the things you love! Over and over and over again. And maybe a few people will see it 😅

How do you deal with the balance of self-promotion and feeling like you’re spamming people?

Til next time,

Hannah

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