Market Your Own Marketing: Effective Ways to Share Your Work

Written communication channels

Sending an email to your colleagues is probably the easiest way to spread the word. You can write it on your own time, and, likewise, they can read it when they’ve got a moment.If you have bandwidth, I highly recommend you start these emails long before you launch, such as providing a short weekly status update of your project. To create interest you can include highlights from your research, fun findings, and the like.If you don’t have time for pre-work, at minimum you should craft a launch email to announce your project once it’s complete. Cover the basic what, when, why, where, and who of your project – i.e., what was the project, when did it start and finish, why you created it, where to see it, and who helped you get to the finish line.

Once that that is written, you can revise it into a quick report for your company’s internal newsletter.

In all of these channels, remember to show, not tell: included success metrics, testimonials/feedback, and screenshots.

Meetings and brown-bags

Another way to get the word out is face to face. Yes, you can grab colleagues in the hallway and chat over lunch about what you’re working on. Do this. But also make it more formalized with an official meeting … a grown-up show and tell of sorts.It’s true that people don’t love more meetings added to their calendars, but hear me out. You can do this quickly and efficiently, and receive little grumbling.There are a couple key groups to gather frequently to talk about projects.

The first is your immediate team. I recommend putting together a standing meeting with your direct colleagues. It doesn’t have to be fancy, nor long. Give each person two to three minutes, and/or two to three slides, tops – just enough time to spit out the project basics. Go round-robin, rapid-fire style. You can host these weekly or biweekly.

You also want to reach across teams to your colleagues in other departments. For this meeting, you may be able to get by with convening monthly – especially if you augment the face-to-face meetings with a weekly email status check in. This gathering may require a bit more time and planning – especially if you need to ask other teams for buy-in or signoff. But cap it at 30 minutes max.

In both cases, keep the agenda and the ship tight. Don’t get off on tangents. Just share your status, make eye contact with people you need to sync with, and let everyone have time to speak.

If you want to go more in-depth – perhaps after a project has wrapped – you can host a brownbag “lunch and learn” meeting where you share more details about the project and give your colleagues time to ask questions.

Send it up the chain

All done with your work? Great job. Now, don’t forget to tell your boss. And I don’t mean wait until your annual review. Bring it up in your regular 1:1.It’s common to use 1:1s to discuss the status of a project – and specially to kvetch when things aren’t going right or when you need some extra muscle help. But when you’re all done, and the project has landed, don’t forget to wrap it in a tidy package with a bow and tell your boss.You can also keep supervisors updated by forwarding to them the positive feedback and kudos you receive from clients, as well as sharing positive metrics and when you’ve achieved goals.

All of this can also help you prepare for that annual review. Instead of scrambling to curate your achievements once a year, stash your success all year long. Create a folder on your desk (or desktop) where you collect good news, reviews, and kudos. Make it a goal to put at least three or four things in that folder each year. Then, when it’s time for your employee review, open the folder.

Use internal tools

Does your company run its own intranet with profiles of employees and projects? Hit up your HR or employee relations team to get your work featured. While you’re at it, ask them about being included in any external client-facing collateral, too. You can also post to your company’s internally used social media tools, such as its Facebook page or Slack channel.

Enter contests and win awards

A cool way to share your work and get something in return is to submit to contests. These can be internal or external.For example, many companies have kudos programs or regular awards recognition processes and ceremonies. Nominate yourself if you can – or ask a colleague to submit your work for consideration.Industry contests, such as annual marketing and ad awards, are another good method of spreading the word about your successes. Many of these allow you to pitch your own work, so you don’t have to hit up any colleagues for help.

There’s a potential bonus in this, too. If you win, you get extra kudos and pats on the back – and a new credential to add to your portfolio and CV.