Designers: What is your self-promotion style?

People may have to strain their ears to hear you toot your own horn. In general, you shy away from drawing attention to yourself and view overt self-promotion as distasteful. You may feel that good work should speak for itself and be surprised if your efforts aren’t
rewarded. You pride yourself on performing well, regardless of the situation, and will often put your clients’ or co-workers’ needs ahead of any self-promotion efforts.

• Your strengths: You’re cognizant of others’ time and attention. It’s unlikely that your promotional efforts will be viewed as over-the-top. You tend to be thoughtful in terms of how you engage and interact with people, and never fail to view your self-promotion
eorts through an outside lens.

• Your challenges: Often, our greatest strengths are our weaknesses, and you have a tendency to overthink self-promotion, worrying that your efforts could be viewed as too self-serving. You also may assume that people aren’t interested in your accomplishments
or creative milestones—an often-faulty notion. Because you’re uncomfortable tooting your own horn, you may delay spreading the word about your achievements or shy away from it completely.

• Your game plan: Set aside time each week to contemplate how you might promote your recent projects, successes or client wins. Find a mentor to bounce ideas o of who can provide perspective and assurance. Consider bartering your design services with a PR professional who can help you with client outreach.

You’re team-oriented and feel more comfortable promoting group successes than individual contributions. You tend to give credit to team members and are often viewed as a motivational presence among your group. When you receive kudos on a project, you’re likely to defect attention, instead pointing out the contributions of everyone involved, from the creative director to the production assistant to the paper vendor.

• Your strengths: Nobody will ever accuse you of stealing the limelight. You’re a true team player and people appreciate your willingness to share the credit for projects. You’re appreciative of the assistance you receive and understand that most projects are group wins.

• Your challenges: You’re so focused on sharing the credit that you may not receive recognition for your specific contributions. You also may be hesitant to draw attention to yourself, resulting in others overlooking your accomplishments.

• Your game plan: Keep sharing the spotlight with members of your team. However, look at ways you can draw attention to your specific contributions on projects. Make a list of your successes over the past year, and think of ways you can share this information with your manager or clients. If you work inhouse, this might be through a performance review. If you’re an independent designer, sharing group successes with clients is a good idea; just make sure your customers appreciate that you’re the mastermind behind the work.

You’re happy to promote your skills and talents, as long as it’s from the safety of your keyboard. You strongly prefer online networking to interacting with people in person, and may view attending actual meetings and events as too time-consuming; after all, you can easily reach out to hundreds, if not thousands, of people via Twitter or Facebook. In fact, at gatherings, you often remain glued to your smartphone, chronicling the festivities for your followers, rather than actively engaging with those around you.

• Your strengths: You’re an adept user of social media, able to post snappy, interesting content that showcases your skills and talents. You may have hundreds of connections and are able to remain top-of-mind by sharing news and ideas online.

• Your challenges: You tend to sacrifice face time for Facebook time, and may not engage with people in person as often as you could. By focusing most of your efforts online, you may miss out on promoting your talents to those who aren’t as digitally connected
as you are.

• Your game plan: Make it a point to step away from the keyboard at least once a week and meet with those in your network, perhaps over coffee or lunch. Join at least one professional organization, such as the AIGA, the American Marketing Association, your local Ad Club or a MeetUp group in your area of specialization, and offer to give a presentation in your area of expertise. If you’re an independent designer, consider compiling some of your ideas into a periodic newsletter that you can send out to former and current customers.

You’re a savvy promoter, able to emit mellifluous toots from your horn that keep your clients and customers apprised of your successes without overwhelming them. You strike a good balance between personal outreach and digital connectivity that helps you stay fresh in the minds of your contact base.

• Your strengths: You acknowledge your successes with confidence but also give credit where it’s due. You use social media to connect with clients and candidates, and also are comfortable with in-person interactions.

• Your challenges: Although you appear to be a master at the art of self-promotion, as with all people, it may slide to the bottom of your to-do list when you’re busy.

• Your game plan: Continue to prioritize your self-promotion efforts. Although what you’re doing is working, don’t get too set in your ways: Be on the lookout for new promotional vehicles that can raise awareness of your skills and talents. Also, consider sharing your knack for self-promotion by mentoring a colleague or contact who is weak in this area.

Self-promotion comes as naturally as breathing to you. You can’t imagine not letting the world know about your achievements. Your ability to showcase your skills has boosted your career, and you’re always thinking of new ways to promote your talents.

• Your strengths: You’re a strong self-promoter who doesn’t shy away from letting others know of your contributions. You tend to be an early adopter of self-promotion vehicles, usually being among the first to use platforms like podcasting, YouTube and Twitter to market yourself.

• Your challenges: In your zeal to self-promote, you may occasionally overlook the efforts of those who are less likely to draw attention to their contributions. You also may go overboard with self-promotion efforts, sometimes coming across as too self-congratulatory in your attempt to raise awareness.

• Your game plan: Always look at your self-promotion efforts from the perspective of those on the receiving end. For example, if you want to promote the fact that your firm recently won a design competition, explore how you can make it more relevant to your audience: What valuable lessons from the project can you impart? If you work in-house, make sure you don’t step on toes by accepting too much credit for your group work, and look for ways to recognize the unsung heroes of the department.