Larry Chiang uses social media to sell people on new ideas. Last month, Harvard Business School’s, Harbus, featured him in a cover story, “What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School“. If you liked 9 Things They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School, Cut and Paste Other People’s Work and How to Close a Deal Via Voicemail, you’ll love this post: “The Secret Truths of Self Promotion “.
By Larry Chiang
Social media is the new vehicle of choice for self-promotion.
A big example is SXSW. They have a panel voting system that allows you to vote up or down an idea. People on Twitter that submitted a panel relentlessly promote their panel. Conversion on tweets to actual votes and comments on panels can be horrifying as there are still panels with zero comments.
I have been told I am an over-the-top self-promoter. Any label that is put upon me good or bad I will accept (err swallow). Yeah, it is Chapter 11 of my book. The book is ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘ and the chapter is called, “Failing Forward, Dealing with Hardship”
I asked my close friends why I get away with ruthless self-promotion, and it yielded four tips for y’all to read.
-1- Be Funny.
Clown like antics break the monotony of work.
Dave McClure of FoundersFund said, “You better stay funny because once you don’t, you won’t be allowed to keep plugging your book all the time”.
-2- Temper Your Self-Promotion with Mentorship
My tweets can be VERY spam like. I was selling my book on Twitter two years before the release date. James Andrews wrote an article in Fast Company on “Thought DJs“where he cited me as “enjoying my business commentary”.
I seek to mentor people about entrepreneurship, sales and credit scoring.
-3- Support the People that Promote You.
Jessica Vascellero wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal that quoted me on parties here in Silicon Valley and linked to my book. You can bet that when she writes a book, I’ll be in line as fast as when Sarah Lacy wrote a book. And yes, I’ll be the one co-hosting her book signing. Supporting the people that promote you is forgotten a lot by the Ivy Hero, Life Zero.
-4- Dedicate your Self-Promotion to Someone or Some Cause
When we start Yoga class, my Yogi, Giselle Mari, asks everyone to dedicate their time to someone who couldn’t be here. It makes your practice better.
Self-promotion is the same way. If I promoted myself without any thought of Mark McCormack, I’d have Larry-lash. Its like whip-lash but much, much worse. Mark McCormack was a mentor and wrote the legendary book, “What They Don’t Teach at Stanford Business School“
Search “#vcSecrets” and you’ll see good stuff about venture capital secrets. I left it free of links to my 2010 SXSW VC Panel which is VC Secrets: Raising Money in Austin vs Kansas (vs Silicon Valley).
Stay tuned. I am promoting the movie rights to my book when I host a Sundance after party.
If you liked this, you may also check:
 Larry is writing a sequel to a book he did not write. It comes out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘.
Larry’s book releases 9-9-09 |
This post was cranked out in about an hour so email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com
Larry Chiang is the founder of Deep Underground Credit Knowledge 9 (Duck9). He hacked Fair Isaac’s FICO credit algorithm and battles lies told by the credit industry such as Fair Isaac’s claim that the average FICO is 720. The real average is 535.
Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line.
Larry speaks on stuff they don't teach in B-school to help you get street smart in doing business. In college, he started a business that helps college students with their FICO score. He loves entrepreneurs, Ben and Jerry's ice cream and after parties. You can reach him at:
