No one likes a braggart! As children, it was a lesson learnt from lengthy conversations about a white lie we took too far. Slowly, we became accustomed to associating personal stories with bragging with some stopping altogether. From a professional perspective, self-promotion is a dicey subject to approach. In truth, self-promotion is the only way to move forward; recommendations can only get you so far. 

But why do we hesitate to self-promote?

For years, self-promotion has been mislabelled as bragging; a negative attribute full of deceit and pride. The undertone has taken noble practices such as strong will, professional confidence, and industrial understanding, designating them as undesirable attitudes. While it affects the genders equally, career women suffer the most, earning them titles such as brash, rude, and proud. But here is the difference between bragging, self-promotion (publicity) and advertising

• Bragging: It’s making the narrative about YOU. Boasting about a particular topic without any evidence or facts to back it all up. Taking credit is not necessarily bragging but if the credit is not entirely due, then it definitely is. 
• Self-promotion (Publicity): It’s about starting with the facts as a way of proving your argument. Firstly, it’s about building on evidence on a subject and letting the facts steer the conversation away from you. Gradually, the narrative automatically gravitates towards painting you in the intended light.
• Advertising: The focus on the product, service or action is undeniable. Above all, the connection to the person (you) or the organization is likely to remain mostly anonymous or less obvious. In a way, advertising is more like branding rather than bragging since the conversation follows the product or service.

Storytime!

Jenine had been applying for an opportunity with immense potential for her business. The financial potential could take her business national in under two years and global in less than a decade. However, she was in it for the portfolio expansion as well as the chance to work with the best of the best for FREE! Last week, she received an email confirming that her business was the only one selected for the opportunity in the entire country citing her extensive work in the non-profit sector. The first thing she did was email her entire support system including business associates to share the good news. 

To Jenine, the email was a big congratulations to everyone who had shared in the success. Most importantly, it was part of her marketing habits that had taken root. However, some of the contacts saw it as bragging about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; which she wasn’t. In the end, it all boiled down to the individual perspectives of the recipients in question. 

Bottomline…

There is a very fine line between bragging, publicity, and advertising. Deferring the credit by using collective terms such as ‘the team’ and ‘share the credit’ would make an unbelievable difference in perspective.