Self Marketing Skills:
Position Yourself as a Leader in Your Field

We all know that horrible feeling—you invest your time, energy, and perhaps some money to attend a networking event, and you get there and feel uncomfortable. You stand around feeling somewhat needy and desperate and aren’t sure what to do.

When you go to networking events, you want to position yourself as a leader, not an average networker. It is important to distinguish yourself as someone who is credible, someone who stands out, and someone who is memorable.

Generate Curiosity

You know those people that you can’t help but to want to know more about? They are like a magnet, drawing others to them. This is the goal.

When you network as a leader, you draw people to you. Rather than others feeling like you’re promoting yourself, they will be curious about you and what you do. They automatically want to learn more.

Here are 3 easy ways to arouse curiosity.

1. Ask questions and express genuine curiosity. You’ll attract others to you when you express interest, caring, and empathy for them and their work. According to the law of reciprocity, they will then want to learn more about you and align with you.
    
2. Be aware of body language. Body language speaks more powerfully than what you actually say. Smile, make eye contact, have an open body posture with your shoulders back, and gesture naturally. This will give you a confident persona that attracts others.
    
3. Invest in your appearance. Learn what colors, fabrics, and fits look best on you. Get a high-quality haircut. For women, get your makeup done. You will feel more confident which will come across to others. It may be superficial, but we want to learn more about those who we perceive as attractive.

Be Memorable

Once you’ve captured people’s attention with your confidence and leadership, you want to keep it—not just for that event, but for the future. Here are 3 ways to carve out a place in people’s memories for yourself and your business:

1. Brand yourself. Pick one aspect of your work and make yourself an expert in it, such as “the woman who gracefully handles difficult customers”. This makes you invaluable and memorable.
    
2. Tell stories. Stories engage others and make you memorable. Show your value by telling the success stories of your clients or customers.
    
3. Speak in specifics. Market the results of your work by highlighting outcomes and data. This type of self-marketing delivers value without coming across as self-promotional.

These tips will help you at formal networking events as well as any situation where you meet potential clients or joint venture partners. They will help make your marketing efforts pay off and make the process much more enjoyable, which is always the goal.

Keywords

Self Marketing Skills, self marketing, networking event, network as a leader, promoting yourself, law of reciprocity, body language, confident persona, self-marketing, joint venture partners

Bio

Larina Kase, PsyD, MBA is a business psychologist and marketing coach. She is regularly quoted in media such as Inc., Entrepreneur, Selling Power, and The New York Times. Download her popular report Stand Out! Marketing that Grabs Attention and Gets Results at www.pascoaching.com/standout