What’s the use of marketing yourself?

We love attention. As I get older and the people around me start to consider their longterm goals, many of them are looking to build a ‘personal brand’. I’m not so sure it’s worth it.

We live in an age of optimised, cunningly tailored Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts that present us as the best possible version of ourselves. We want to look our best literally and figuratively, and on a very basic level, we just want to know people are looking.

It’s too late to jump on the boat of fake marketing

That’s so 2015. I’ll be honest, I’ve tried it too. I tried to growth-hack Twitter just last week — here I stand, one week later preaching against the behaviour. I realised on my first day of trying to navigate it that it wasn’t worth my time. What was I trying to gain? A false sense of notoriety from people who won’t actually read my content?

Of course, these marketing methods must be founded in some truth. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t exist. As with anything, however, you have to take it with a pinch of salt. Just because one person with a semi-noteworthy Medium account says they reached 1000 recommendations using [insert nerdy tech method] doesn’t mean that it’ll work for you and your goals.

This realisation led to a shift in my focus from building up a viewership to building up great content. I’m not where I would like to be yet, but all the energy I was previously putting into false marketing now goes into my content instead.

No one likes to be hustled

I’ve frustratedly deleted countless emails from companies unknown to me that appear in my inbox on the daily. While I don’t speak on behalf of my entire demographic, I’d say I’m in the majority when I proclaim that I will never click on random emails. In this instance, it’s not what you’re saying, what you’re selling or who you are, but how you’re getting to me.

There are so many variables that could doom you from the get-go, so why bother?

Focus on creating cracking content as opposed to trying to reach as many people as possible as fast as possible. Word of mouth will always be in the background working in your favour, so long as you have content worth talking about.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about feedback whatsoever.

Instagram likes still determine my self worth. If 10,000 people view A New Generation’s Playbook, I’d be absolutely over the moon. But I’ve made the conscious decision to take my foot off the pedal when it comes to marketing my ‘personal brand’ and let people do what they do best: judge me for themselves.

Being effectively unique doesn’t come from the branding of the product; it comes from the product itself.

Whether you want to end global warming or sell lemonade, make sure you walk the walk. Go do some volunteering or squeeze some lemons. That’s how things get done — the attention will follow naturally.