Janelle: It sounds like an oxymoron – Publicity for Introverts – can you speak to that?
Jane: Publicity for Introverts sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not really. The first thing you have to remember is that there is no one type of introvert. I am not a big fan of labels, however, many of the people I speak to are self-proclaimed introverts, so they have basically labeled themselves. There is no one flavor of introvert, so you can be an introvert but maybe don’t mind public speaking, however you are just not that comfortable meeting and speaking to new people one on one. There are thousand of different combinations, and there are many ways to do publicity, so Publicity for Introverts is really not an oxymoron.
The very definition of public relations, of which publicity is a part, is communicating about a product, brand or person to an audience or the public. It’s also about the management, the deliberate management of your image and of your message. We all do that whether we are conscious of it or not; what we decide to share on social media, what picture we decide to post, share with the public, that kind of thing. We are all doing it to some extent already, so I don’t believe its oxymoronic and I do believe people can learn to do things that they don’t think are within their comfort zone or just can’t imagine them doing. That’s the definition of stretching yourself, reinventing yourself and really getting at the great stuff for yourself and your business.
