MARKETING FOR THE EVERYDAY GEEK

Hello!I'm Zoe Landon(or @hupfen if you like)Talk originally given at ACT-W Portland

“ I'm an author and programmer.And a few other things, but we'll get to those later.

For now, let's judge some books by their covers.

J.D. Robb vs. Nora Roberts

One is bold, strong, masculine.

It evokes action, suspense, danger.

Looks very much like a thriller.

The other, more feminine and relaxed.

Even with that title, it feels non-threatening. A romance, perhaps.

“ Two very different genres.

Two very different books.

Written by the same person.

“ That contextual difference, that sense of targeted brand, is something authors are great at.

And, in a way, geeks can be too.

ACTIVITY 1Who is your audience?

Audience

Seriously. Pause for a moment. These slides will still be here when you get back.

Think about what you consider your audience to be. Who are you marketing to? Whose attention do you want to grab?

Hiring managers?Potential clients?Other geeks?

1.Sales!(Sorry)

“ I know. Sales can be a dirty word.

But sales is all persuasion, and persuasion is vital to marketing yourself.

“ You know yourself better than anyone else, even though others may think they know you.

You have to persuade people that your interpretation of you is the best.

Persuasion

So, how do you persuade someone?

Depends on the audience. This deck has sources cited because those better persuade a technical audience - my audience, right now.

But if we're gonna talk about persuasion, let's talk about the pinnacle of the field: politics.

“ People who dodge questions artfully are liked and trusted more than people who respond to questions truthfully but with less polish.

-- Todd Rogers and Michael Norton

Rogers & Norton

These guys are political researchers. They analyzed a bunch of political speech, ran surveys, so on and so forth.

They found that the most persuasive and likeable candidates were the most eloquent ones - regardless of whether or not they actually answered the questions posed to them.

ELOQUENCE BEAT HONESTY

“ This would be really disappointing if it weren't for paraverbal indicators of dishonesty.

When most people lie, they stammer. Their speech becomes less eloquent.

“ Really good politicians can overcome this, but most people give either subtle or overt tells (described by Sporer and Schwandt) that make them seem less eloquent when lying.

People notice, if only subconsciously.

ELOQUENCE IS EASIER WHEN BEING HONEST

IN OTHER WORDS...

CONVINCE YOUR AUDIENCE BY NOT BULLSHITTING THEM

Non-bullshitting

When you're trying to market yourself to your audience, you need to sell them on the idea of you. If you're lying to them, not only will you not be terribly convincing in the process, eventually you get caught out. That ruins a lot.

This does require knowing what your audience expects, and knowing where you do and don't fit that. It means knowing when an audience isn't for you. It can be tempting to be all things to all people, but a lot of people suck. It's not worth it.

ACTIVITY 2What do people see?

Perception

If you're going to market yourself, it helps to know how you're seen.

Be honest with yourself. This isn't about what you want people to see, but what you think (or know!) people see of you right now.

This can be physical, psychological, anything about you. Positive, negative, true or false.

2.Your Brand

Brand

Whatever you came up with, that's part of your brand.

Because everything that's perceived about you - true or false - is part of your brand.

Which means you can't control it. Nobody can.

Brand is in the eye of the beholder.

“ However, as design cannot respond to each person on an individual basis, designers must search for some areas of commonality.

-- Robert Jacobson

“ This whole topic is the basis of Gestalt psychology. Perception and reality have a complex relationship.

Adjusting reality can adjust perception, but there are other approaches that work too.

TELL A STORYPEOPLE LOVE STORIES

Stories

The human brain likes stories. Just about all advertising is telling stories, either explicitly or implicitly. Because it works.

We get plenty of opportunities to tell stories - introducing ourselves, explaining a project, and so on. What we say in those stories influences what people know and how they feel.

Truth helps here, but it's not strictly necessary. For example...

“ An early 2000s web project called Significant Objects took small, $1 thrift store items and listed them on eBay.

But first, they got stories attached to them. Stories like...

“ It dumped snowed one evening, so I got out my velvet swatch, antler-handled magnifying glass, and ice crystal identification guide to take to the riverbank at sunset.-- Trinie Dalton

“ That's just the first sentence.

It goes on for four paragraphs.

What was it selling?

Stories

A butter dish.

It sold for $9.50.

Because it had a strong, evocative story attached to it that influenced what people felt its value was.

STORIES HELP CREATE THE PERCEPTION YOU WANT

“ ...They can also help create a perception you don't want.

Consider McGregor and Holmes' research on conflict in romantic relationships.

“ ...the cognitive side effects of storytelling may help cause idealization and satisfaction in relationships.

-- Ian McGregor and John G. Holmes

Car Crash Effect

The choice of words can drastically alter a story. Conflict that once seemed minor can become major.

Say two cars "bumped" and people will think the speed was lower than if you say those same two cars "smashed".

Stories are vital, but they can do harm just as well as they can help.

3.Your Brands(Plural)

“ It's worth mentioning that you have several "brands", depending on the context. Each comes with its own stories.

Sometimes, like pen names, you want to keep them separate.

ACTIVITY 3What do you consider yourself?

Identity

Don't worry about what other people see, but don't get too aspirational. Focus on what you are and do now.

Those aspects are key to your brands, and to the stories you tell. The overlaps between those - if overlaps exist at all - are also vital.

For example, I'm a bit of a Venn diagram.

You are aVenn Diagram

Programmer

Furry

Musician

Author

Complexity

Different parts of me have different importance. Being an author is important to me. Musician, not so much.

Most of them overlap, but not all. Being a musician and being a furry are completely separate.

All of them have stories behind them, each for a different audience.

YOU HAVE A SHITLOAD OF STORIES YOU CAN TELL

Pseudonyms

This separation is often why authors have pen names. It keeps distinct genres apart, so there's less confusion.

In the regular world, there are ways to do this to various degrees (unique Github or Twitter handles, for example). But, just as some authors own up to their pen names, there can be value in letting your stories overlap.

“ Furthermore, novel stimuli are known to activate brain regions also related to emotional processing, specifically the amygdala...

-- Judith Schomaker and Martijn Meeter

“ Those overlaps are opportunities for novelty.

People pay attention to novelty. Done right, it can help draw in and build your audience.

BEING A LITTLE WEIRDIS AWESOME

“ There's a line here. Too weird and you trigger fight-or-flight reactions. Not weird enough and you don't stand out.

Often, it's better to be more familiar. Birds of a feather and whatnot.

Localized Weirdness

What determines "too weird" is very context-driven. This is one more reason it's so important to know your audience.

Sometimes it takes serious effort to stand out. Sometimes, just being the one woman in the room does it.

And what's weird enough for one person might be too weird for another. It takes care to optimize, but it helps you market yourself.

4.Marketing(Finally!)

“ If you're checking out this deck, odds are you're concerned that you're not as good at marketing as you should be.

Don't worry, though.

WE ALL KINDA SUCK AT MARKETING AND IT'S OKAY

WELL OKAY PROFESSIONALS ARE GOOD AT IT BUT STILL

“ For the rest of us, it helps to think of marketing simply as exposure.

That's because effective marketing is the Mere Exposure Effect in action.

“ ...mere exposure to a briefly presented stimulus can increase positive affect through familiarity...

-- John G. Seamon; Nathan Brody; David M. Kauff

Mere Exposure

In a broad sense, the more people see you the more positively they think of you. It takes a long time for familiarity to breed contempt.

This has been observed since Robert Zajonc did his work in the 60s. It turned out, it almost doesn't matter what you do. The exposure was what really mattered.

Want Exposure?

▪ Go to meetups▪ Write some code▪ Make some design mockups▪ Write a blog▪ Give talks▪ Write a book▪ …▪ I dunno, just make stuff▪ (Hopefully stuff your audience would like)▪ And show it to them!

“ "To your audience" is the key part.

Even the luckiest of us have limited resources. There's only so much money, and we'll all die one day. So focusing your exposure is incredibly important.

5.Marketing to your audience(Or, doing it right)

“ Remember that whole Venn Diagram thing? Slide 44? Good times.

Each circle is a different audience. How you market to one isn't necessarily how you do another.

“ After all, Nora Roberts doesn't mention J.D. Robb on her website.

But then, Dean Koots has a bibliography column for his pen names, so...

Audience Focus

Paul Jarvis has his "rat people". It's not his main audience, but it's got some overlap, and it's important to his marketing.

A narrower focus on marketing to an audience gives you more freedom to be honest without hitting the fight-or-flight stage.

Kevin Kelly popularized the "1,000 True Fans", but the size of this audience doesn't matter as much as the focus and honesty.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCEFORGET THE REST

“ That narrowness helps minimize fight-or-flight reactions.

Doesn't avoid them, though. Remember, brand is relative. Everyone has their own idea of what's "too weird".

“ …[evidence] suggests that oxytocin, in conjunction with female reproductive hormones and endogenous opioid peptide mechanisms, may be at its core. -- Shelley E. Taylor, et. al.

Fight-or-Flight

"Too weird" can be something as innocuous as being female or PoC. It's extremely relative.

It probably won't surprise victims of harassment to learn that fight-or-flight can be gender biased. Men lean to fight, women lean to flight. Not always, but it's a studied lean.

No matter what, it's an inherent evolutionary reaction, and an inescapable part of marketing yourself - or anything else. Sometimes you just get a bad reaction.

QUESTION EVERYTHING

Gut Checks

Sometimes marketing is just bad, tone-deaf, offensive. But many times, it's perfectly acceptable, but it still turns someone away. It was too weird for them, or not weird enough to grab their attention.

Remember, brand is relative. But you have to consider how many people is too many. If you think you're losing too much audience, regroup. You don't want to market yourself into a bubble.

EPILOGUEWhat do you want to do?What do you want to be?

What Next?

A lot of effective marketing requires self-awareness - knowing who you are, what your audience is, what you could and should offer. It's a difficult, ongoing process that requires constant experimentation.

And it requires a lot of self-trust.

After all, you know you. It's your career you're marketing. Tell your story the way you know is right.

Thank You!Zoe Landon - @hupfenTheme via SlidesCarnivalIrrelevant stock photos via Death to Stock