It’s easy to talk a big game on your social feeds, but it’s tough to keep the truth under wraps for long. Eventually, you’ll be exposed. And overselling yourself can be detrimental to your chances of landing publicity.
Three reasons to keep it real and not oversell yourself on your social feeds, press materials or media pitches:
- No one likes a know-it-all. Listen, no one knows everything. We get it. All of us. So, you don’t have to pretend to. In fact, people will trust you and relate to you on a much deeper level if you just shoot ’em straight. Tell them what you know and what you don’t. It’s not about having every answer. It’s about being trustworthy, likeable and serving your audience. If you do that, your audience will grow, which will grow your business/influence/sell books. And a bigger, more engaged audience helps credential you to do media (media likes to see that you’re someone an audience finds engaging) … which will grow your business/influence/sell more books, which will … Well, you get the picture.
- You’ll eventually be found out. You can oversell yourself online and in your pitch to media and maybe get yourself booked on a local outlet, sure. But, when you show up and you aren’t half the expert you claimed to be, guess what? You’ll be found out. And there will be a camera present. Or a microphone. The interview won’t come off well. You’ll look foolish. The outlet will be upset. You’ll never do another interview with them. And you won’t drive business/traffic to your website/business/social feeds/book, etc. No one wins. Sounds awful, right?
- You don’t have to. At some point, enough credentials are enough credentials. Local media outlets aren’t looking for a Nobel Prize winner (though I’m sure they’d be thrilled to have one). You don’t have to have a PhD and 50 years of experience to lock down an interview or draw an audience to your social feeds. In fact, when you’re reeeeeally overselling me on you, it makes me (be it right or wrong) … a little suspicious? Or leads me to believe maybe your ego is a little too attached to that resume? Give your audience or the media the highlights and just be a likeable, relatable resource.
