And should you be?After watching some of Hey Fran Hey's videos on YouTube, I stumbled on one where she was chatting with a YouTuber I had never heard of before, Shameless Maya. Captivated by her short blonde haircut (love it!) I clicked over to her channel to see what she was all about.Not long after, I found these videos (these are the first YouTube videos she posted...this was before she cut her hair) where she details her desire to come out of her shell and learn to put herself out there. She is an artist and a photographer and was sick of doing great work that no one knew about. In a radical attempt to combat this, she decided to embark on a year-long challenge where she committed to "shamelessly" promoting herself online for 365 days, hence her name, Shameless Maya. Check them out below:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRBib529A-8https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqQSx3NX8RUApparently I'm late to the whole #shamelessmaya movement she started because this girl has since blown up! It's safe to say her strategy definitely worked. The real goal behind her self-promotion was to overcome her fears of putting herself out there and to not be ashamed of her work and uniqueness.I love this premise and I completely empathize with her. She is uber talented and has produced hundreds of witty, creative videos, so I think the attention is well deserved. That said, I'm personally still on the fence when it comes to shameless self-promotion (versus just regular, moderate self-promotion).

My Reluctance to Shamelessly Self-Promote

My back-and-forth-ness with shameless self promotion, is simply because the idea of "shameless self-promotion" generally leaves a bad taste in my mouth. When I think of shameless self-promotion, I honestly don't think of a creative, endearing person just trying to get their name out there like Shameless Maya -- I think of someone obnoxious and over the top like Kanye West or Kim Kardashian.Now don't get me wrong, I think it's definitely important to put yourself out there and promote your work -- obviously or I wouldn't be promoting this blog!But should I promote myself shamelessly though? In Shameless Maya's case, I think by "shameless" she just meant promoting your work without fear, i.e. having no shame about what you do. I definitely agree with this and strive to do this already. But also with "shameless self promotion" comes the connotation of promoting yourself constantly and without restraint. It's the "constant" and "without restraint" part that makes me feel squeamish. How much is too much???Furthermore, even more than promotion, I think it's important to create something of value to the audience you are trying to serve. While self-promotion is a necessary tool, I do think there are too many people who endlessly promote themselves in a non-value-adding, narcissistic way.That's the kind of self promotion I want distance myself from but it can feel like a thin line at times. By the sheer nature of social media, you have to put yourself out there several times a day, on several different mediums, just to reach a good sized group of people! I've been reluctant to post things before because I didn't want to over-promote.So that leaves me to wonder: is shameless self-promotion the issue or is the content of what's being promoted the issue? Is there a limit to how much you should self-promote?Here's another video from Shameless Maya done well after her movement took off and she became popular. In this video, she talks about some of the down falls of social media popularity and how it's negatively influenced her work at times. Just food for thought...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu8sdvTIhS4

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So what do you think? Is shameless self-promotion something to strive for or avoid? Are you a frequent self-promoter? Or are you tired of all the self-promotion? How much is too much? How do you balance?

Recommended Reading:

(From the "Yes! You should promote yourself!" camp) Some Thoughts on Self-Promotion and Why Arrogant People Think it's Wrong

(From the "No, promote yourself less" camp) More Doing, Less Promoting: The Key to Creating Great Work

(Photo by looking4poetry via Creative Commons. All edits are mine.)