Just saw this on Seth Godin’s blog today, and thought I’d pass it along. Go read it – but here’s the jist:
- Seth writes about self-promotion
- He explains that 37 Signals doesn’t do self-promotion, because they’re “promoting useful ideas. They’re promoting tactics or products that actually benefit the person they’re reaching out to.”
Then he sums it up by saying “that’s because they’re doing you-promotion, not me-promotion.”
And that made me think – which type of promotion do libraries do? When we want people to know about our databases for example – do we do me-promotion (i.e., “we have a new business database”) or do we do you-promotion (i.e., “we have a way for your new business to gather B2B leads…. in this new database at the library.”)?
I’m not even sure those are good examples of me- and you-promotion… but – do you get this idea? In our advertising, in our writing, in our video making (for those libraries doing video) – are you simply sharing what you have? Or are you emphasizing the benefit to the customer? Showing the customer what our content, our expertise, our form of community will do for them?
That has the potential TO BE HUGE.
Thoughts?