There’s no getting around it: Self-promotion is hard. It’s not that we, as singers, don’t like talking about ourselves. Sometimes we probably do too much. Instead, what’s hard about self-promotion is talking about our work in a way that is engaging to our listeners, makes them want to hear more, and potentially even invest in our work.
The two most difficult aspects of achieving these goals are essentially polar opposites. On one hand, it can be hard to work up the nerve to talk about your success (whereas we could probably stew over our failures all day). On the other hand, you don’t want to come off as full of yourself when you do talk about your work, even if it comes from a place of genuine excitement or enthusiasm.
In comes the Humblebrag.
I’ll capitalize the word for this post to help maintain its own identity, and I’ll define the Humblebrag as this: using a seemingly modest statement as a means of announcing an achievement that is actually worthy of great pride.
I’ll give you some blatant examples:
“In this costume all week for dress rehearsals, and it’s so hot in Italy!”
“After months of rejection letters, I’ve finally been ACCEPTED!”
“3 auditions in a row today and my feet are KILLING me!”
“I can’t believe I have so many gigs coming up, I need a personal assistant!”
You’ll notice that all of these examples have two things in common. First, the content of these statements is actually something rather enjoyable or even enviable. The first statement talks about a performance in Italy. The second got a job offer. The third is getting auditions. The fourth has a lot of work performing.
The second thing they have in common is the downplaying of the content with a negative statement. It’s so hot. I kept getting rejected. My feet hurt. I need help.
I’m not going to lie – it was hard coming up with those examples. That’s because the Humblebrag walks a very fine line. I personally believe that more often than not, people are not trying to Humblebrag. Instead, I believe people are either unaware of how different their life circumstance is from those around them, or (more likely) are hyper aware of it and don’t want to offend others. It seems that we are all so sensitive to the struggle that fellow singers go through that when it comes time to announce a well-deserved achievement, we end up walking on eggshells. We’re excited and want to tell everyone!… But we don’t want to upset our friends who maybe haven’t been doing as well. So we devalue the achievement with a possibly genuine but petty complaint.
Here’s the thing though: we’re actually making it worse this way. The Humblebrag is sort of like saying, “Oh, it’s not all that great that this great thing happened to me.” It’s condescending and not truly empathetic.
At the same time, sometimes we do need to check our own feelings. Why does that status update hurt me so much? Did they really say it in a bragging way, or is that singer truly just making a career announcement?
I want to help us all by examining our feelings at each end. Let’s start first with some questions we can ask ourselves before making an announcement on social media.
- What am I announcing? What specific details do I need to announce?
- Why am I announcing this? What is the goal of my announcement? (For example, do I want people to attend an event? Do I want them to listen to a recording? Do I want a bigger fan base based on my achievements?)
- Who is this announcement for? Am I saying it to my friends, colleagues, audience, or some combination?
- Do I have a professional page I can announce this on? Do I need to announce this on my personal page? If I want to announce it on both, would I phrase it differently?
- When I make this announcement, do I feel the need to downplay my achievement at all? Why is that?
- Does this post convey how I would share the same exact information offline?
- How do I feel about the way I’m saying this? If I were to read this update from someone else (a friend, a colleague), how would I feel?
Now, let’s think of some questions to ask ourselves if we read a status update and find ourselves getting jealous over the announcement.
- How was this announcement made? Did the announcer downplay their achievement?
- How do I feel about the substance of this announcement? Is this person’s achievement something I want for myself? If so, am I taking the steps needed to achieve this myself?
- How would I make this announcement if I had achieved the same goal?
- If I feel this post is truly a Humblebrag, is there an appropriate way to address it with this person? If not, would it be inappropriate to flag this post or remove it from my feed?
There is nothing wrong with feeling jealousy or disappointment from a true announcement. We work hard and root for each other, but sometimes it just stings.
If the comment in question is a true Humblebrag though, it is important to remember that the Humblebrag serves no larger purpose. It is ultimately alienating to our audience and our colleagues, which can really sour the industry for everyone.
How do you feel about the Humblebrag? Do you find it easy or difficult to write good promotional posts? Have you ever been guilty of the Humblebrag? What led you to do it? What kind of status update makes you think other people are guilty of the Humblebrag (no specifics please)? It seems worthwhile to me to air out this kind of baggage occasionally.