How to Promote Yourself

First though I would stop and ask why do you want to promote yourself and what is your end goal? Are you trying to become an influencer, get a job, or gain recognition in the field?

Here are some ideas (depending on your level of experience):

• Start a Blog: I would say an easy way to promote yourself is by starting a blog. You can answer questions on it, post research or side projects, put your own spin on the field, etc. I would start out with creating a personal website with a professional domain and then cross-posting to sites like Linkedin, Medium, Dev.to and other places. Then promote those blog posts on social media.
• Write for other Online Publications: This is similar to the topic above but if you search Medium, you’ll find a lot of UX focused publications like UX Planet and UX Collective. Look into what the requirements are to become a writer for them and start pitching articles.
• Put “[Your Title]” in all your social media handles: This one is really easy and free!
• Volunteer: There are a lot of opportunities out there to volunteer your skills. Not only will this get you real life skills, but it’s great for networking as well. You don’t have to volunteer a ton of time, but even 5–10 hours a week will help out a lot.
• Mentor: There are a ton of people also looking to break into your field and if you have some seniority in the field, there are lots of people looking for mentors. ADPList is a good place to start for free.
• Create Courses: You can look into how to publish a class on Udemy, Skillshare, or Linkedin Learning. If you like teaching, this is a good way to not only get name recognition but to earn some money as well on the side.
• Publish an Ebook: Another writing method that involves earning some money as well. If you have a lot of knowledge, you can look into self publishing an Ebook on Amazon, Gumroad, and other places.
• Be Active on Social Media: This method can be really time consuming but also possibly rewarding. The community is active on almost every social media platform out there. Look for ways you can contribute to conversations without seeking anything in return.
• Be Active in your Local Community: There might be opportunities for your to get involved in some local networking or professional clubs around you. Some of them might be career specific if you’re lucky, otherwise there’s always general clubs as well. See how you can participate by showing up to meetings and events and if you’re feeling up to it, volunteer with them!
• Give Talks: If you’re a good speaker, some conferences will pay you to give talks for them. Or you can give talks for free. Find local conferences and pitch your presentations to them.
• Host a Podcast or be a guest speaker: These days, everyone has a podcast but people still love listening to them! Maybe writing isn't your style, but you can talk a lot! Look into creating a podcast or if that sounds like a lot of work, look into opportunities to be a guest host or speaker on one.
• Promote other people: People don't always love it when you're talking about yourself. As awesome as you are, it always helps to promote other people as well. Maybe someone wrote a really cool book or they made a really helpful tutorial. Make sure to share it and give them credit for it.
• Participate in Open Source projects: This is good for your own skill set, portfolio, and name recognition. Look for projects that you can contribute to, even if its just helping to debug some code or double check someone's work.