Self Promotion for Geeks: ThinkVisibility 2011

Self Promotion for Geeks: Let's Look at Attracting an Audience For Our Players

Peter Cooper presented the first session of the morning at #thinkvis. Whilst I consider myself to be but 'half a geek' and therefore only 'half' in need of self-promotion, Peter's remit for the session was to bring self-confessed 'geeks' out of their shells and get them noticed.

Starting with some examples of how this has worked to the extreme, Peter explained how the launch of Google Instant in September 2010 sparked a spin-off idea from Feross Aboukhadijeh who created YouTube Instant (which does what it says on the tin!) - catch him on twitter "freethefeross. Within 3 days of launching his YouTube mashup he was contacted by YouTube about a job opportunity - of which he accepted.

See the related news article from TechCrunch about Feross's Story.

Next up was Gary Vaynerchuk, who rose to huge success as a Wine Connoisseur - see his site for details too.

Emphasis was on "Thought Leadership" and how you should become the main point of contact for your niche, no matter how small.

Peter then discussed the personal and mental theories behind what hinders your move to becoming a "thought leader" = talking about meta-cognitive fitness and 'imposter syndrome' = how you may not believe you're ready to be said leader and how you would be perceived.

Check out the Self Promotion for Geeks Book for more information.