Over the past few weeks I have found myself pondering about Arthur Miller’s iconic Willy Loman. If you are unfamiliar with the character, please stop reading and pick up a copy of Death of a Salesman, or click here for a quick version. Now I am not suggesting that any of us will face the plight of Loman, but rather that with social media, we all play the role of salesman in some way within the social Web.

Don’t believe me? Look at your Twitter stream, how many mentions of a (client), self-Tweeting blog post or folks re-Tweeting of people passing along their blog posts?

Chances are that there are a lot. Now I am not saying that this is a bad thing as social media is the biggest self-promotional soapbox of all time, but rather show some restraint and practice what the companies doing social well are practicing – the soft sell.

Not sure what a soft sell is? Dictionary.com defines it as –noun a method of advertising or selling that is quietly persuasive, subtle, and indirect (opposed to hard sell).

This is a philosophy that I strongly believe in and it is something that we when we converse with customers on the Vistaprint Twitter account (examples here & here). The reason that it’s something that I can really sink my teeth into is that purchases are an emotional thing. When I buy something if the salesman is too pushy or not too attentive, I tune them out. The same goes when receiving multiple emails or Tweets from companies that do not address my needs as a consumer or address the questions that I am looking to get answered.

Two companies that really offer the right balance are Kodak and Peek. In the case of Kodak, their Twitter team helped me make a decision on a camera that I was stuck on looking at Amazon reviews. To their credit, they pushed me to the lesser priced version due to my lack of photography skills. For Peek, their team was very patient with me as I was investigating their Twitter/email handheld device. They were also very gracious when the fit just wasn’t there for me.

You are probably wondering how these examples of companies doing right mean to self-promotion in the social space. Now while personal branding has taken on a new life in the Web we all play in, it is still branding. Pushing too hard and you can turn off the people who follow you.

Think about your promotion as if it were an email coming from a large brand. How long would it take you to tune out seeing the same message three to five times from a company? The same holds true seeing a blog post or client mention. Now I am not innocent in this and have done it a few times, but see the error in what I’ve done. If you produce great content for your blog or land a great hit, share away, just do it in moderation. If the content is that great, your friends will share it as well.

Otherwise you may turn off your audience and fall victim to a fate similar to Willy Loman.

Over the past few weeks I have found myself pondering about Arthur Miller’s iconic Willy Loman. If you are unfamiliar with the character, please stop reading and pick up a copy of Death of a Salesman, or click here for a quick version. Now I am not suggesting that any of us will face the plight of Loman, but rather that with social media, we all play the role of salesman in some way within the social Web.

Don’t believe me? Look at your Twitter stream, how many mentions of a (client), self-Tweeting blog post or folks re-Tweeting of people passing along their blog posts?

Chances are that there are a lot. Now I am not saying that this is a bad thing as social media is the biggest self-promotional soapbox of all time, but rather show some restraint and practice what the companies doing social well are practicing – the soft sell.

Not sure what a soft sell is? Dictionary.com defines it as –noun a method of advertising or selling that is quietly persuasive, subtle, and indirect (opposed to hard sell).

This is a philosophy that I strongly believe in and it is something that we when we converse with customers on the Vistaprint Twitter account (examples here & here). The reason that it’s something that I can really sink my teeth into is that purchases are an emotional thing. When I buy something if the salesman is too pushy or not too attentive, I tune them out. The same goes when receiving multiple emails or Tweets from companies that do not address my needs as a consumer or address the questions that I am looking to get answered.

Two companies that really offer the right balance are Kodak and Peek. In the case of Kodak, their Twitter team helped me make a decision on a camera that I was stuck on looking at Amazon reviews. To their credit, they pushed me to the lesser priced version due to my lack of photography skills. For Peek, their team was very patient with me as I was investigating their Twitter/email handheld device. They were also very gracious when the fit just wasn’t there for me.

You are probably wondering how these examples of companies doing right mean to self-promotion in the social space. Now while personal branding has taken on a new life in the Web we all play in, it is still branding. Pushing too hard and you can turn off the people who follow you.

Think about your promotion as if it were an email coming from a large brand. How long would it take you to tune out seeing the same message three to five times from a company? The same holds true seeing a blog post or client mention. Now I am not innocent in this and have done it a few times, but see the error in what I’ve done. If you produce great content for your blog or land a great hit, share away, just do it in moderation. If the content is that great, your friends will share it as well.

Otherwise you may turn off your audience and fall victim to a fate similar to Willy Loman.

Over the past few weeks I have found myself pondering about Arthur Miller’s iconic Willy Loman. If you are unfamiliar with the character, please stop reading and pick up a copy of Death of a Salesman, or click here for a quick version. Now I am not suggesting that any of us will face the plight of Loman, but rather that with social media, we all play the role of salesman in some way within the social Web.

Don’t believe me? Look at your Twitter stream, how many mentions of a (client), self-Tweeting blog post or folks re-Tweeting of people passing along their blog posts?

Chances are that there are a lot. Now I am not saying that this is a bad thing as social media is the biggest self-promotional soapbox of all time, but rather show some restraint and practice what the companies doing social well are practicing – the soft sell.

Not sure what a soft sell is? Dictionary.com defines it as –noun a method of advertising or selling that is quietly persuasive, subtle, and indirect (opposed to hard sell).

This is a philosophy that I strongly believe in and it is something that we when we converse with customers on the Vistaprint Twitter account (examples here & here). The reason that it’s something that I can really sink my teeth into is that purchases are an emotional thing. When I buy something if the salesman is too pushy or not too attentive, I tune them out. The same goes when receiving multiple emails or Tweets from companies that do not address my needs as a consumer or address the questions that I am looking to get answered.

Two companies that really offer the right balance are Kodak and Peek. In the case of Kodak, their Twitter team helped me make a decision on a camera that I was stuck on looking at Amazon reviews. To their credit, they pushed me to the lesser priced version due to my lack of photography skills. For Peek, their team was very patient with me as I was investigating their Twitter/email handheld device. They were also very gracious when the fit just wasn’t there for me.

You are probably wondering how these examples of companies doing right mean to self-promotion in the social space. Now while personal branding has taken on a new life in the Web we all play in, it is still branding. Pushing too hard and you can turn off the people who follow you.

Think about your promotion as if it were an email coming from a large brand. How long would it take you to tune out seeing the same message three to five times from a company? The same holds true seeing a blog post or client mention. Now I am not innocent in this and have done it a few times, but see the error in what I’ve done. If you produce great content for your blog or land a great hit, share away, just do it in moderation. If the content is that great, your friends will share it as well.

Otherwise you may turn off your audience and fall victim to a fate similar to Willy Loman.

Over the past few weeks I have found myself pondering about Arthur Miller’s iconic Willy Loman. If you are unfamiliar with the character, please stop reading and pick up a copy of Death of a Salesman, or click here for a quick version. Now I am not suggesting that any of us will face the plight of Loman, but rather that with social media, we all play the role of salesman in some way within the social Web.

Don’t believe me? Look at your Twitter stream, how many mentions of a (client), self-Tweeting blog post or folks re-Tweeting of people passing along their blog posts?

Chances are that there are a lot. Now I am not saying that this is a bad thing as social media is the biggest self-promotional soapbox of all time, but rather show some restraint and practice what the companies doing social well are practicing – the soft sell.

Not sure what a soft sell is? Dictionary.com defines it as –noun a method of advertising or selling that is quietly persuasive, subtle, and indirect (opposed to hard sell).

This is a philosophy that I strongly believe in and it is something that we when we converse with customers on the Vistaprint Twitter account (examples here & here). The reason that it’s something that I can really sink my teeth into is that purchases are an emotional thing. When I buy something if the salesman is too pushy or not too attentive, I tune them out. The same goes when receiving multiple emails or Tweets from companies that do not address my needs as a consumer or address the questions that I am looking to get answered.

Two companies that really offer the right balance are Kodak and Peek. In the case of Kodak, their Twitter team helped me make a decision on a camera that I was stuck on looking at Amazon reviews. To their credit, they pushed me to the lesser priced version due to my lack of photography skills. For Peek, their team was very patient with me as I was investigating their Twitter/email handheld device. They were also very gracious when the fit just wasn’t there for me.

You are probably wondering how these examples of companies doing right mean to self-promotion in the social space. Now while personal branding has taken on a new life in the Web we all play in, it is still branding. Pushing too hard and you can turn off the people who follow you.

Think about your promotion as if it were an email coming from a large brand. How long would it take you to tune out seeing the same message three to five times from a company? The same holds true seeing a blog post or client mention. Now I am not innocent in this and have done it a few times, but see the error in what I’ve done. If you produce great content for your blog or land a great hit, share away, just do it in moderation. If the content is that great, your friends will share it as well.

Otherwise you may turn off your audience and fall victim to a fate similar to Willy Loman.