Here are three things which are absolutely, definitely not marketing strategies.
Also, they’re very common around my community.
1: Being The Best-Kept Secret
- Locking your social profiles down so we can’t see them without following you
- Squandering your social banner real-estate by displaying the view out of your front window
- Saying not a word about what you do in your bios, intros and profile headlines
- Getting a listing in some overcrowded online directory and imagining anyone might find you
- Keeping your personal profile “just for my friends and family” instead of using it for business
2: Being Authentic
Listen, champ. If you’re not authentic in every way, every day; if you’re not showing up as your real, true self in every interaction, why are you even wasting our time? It’s the least we expect.
Once you’ve nailed that you can start marketing, but you’ve still got all that work ahead of you.
3: Constantly Sharing Other People’s Content
I don’t mean referencing lines that catch your eye within your own writing, or even leaning on someone else’s wisdom for ideas. No, I mean lazily slapping up memes, posts, videos and links to other content created entirely not by you.
- You’re not giving us a clue who you really are
- You’re not enhancing your brand authority
- You’re fading into the wallpaper of our newsfeed
- It makes you look like you have no ideas of your own
- Nobody will give you money for that
There are many more dumbass ideas masquerading as marketing strategies, and I might remind you of a few of them anytime soon.
For now, these are round about the top three.