How to market yourself

First off, I hate to think of my work or myself as something that I need to market. It makes me feel like a commodity and not a scholar. Yet, I have learned in my few years in academe that marketing does help in the quest for tenure. Marketing may also help if you are asking for any "special" accommodation, particularly when it comes to taking a leave from your normal teaching, research, and service responsibilities.

There are the obvious ways to market your work: speak loudly in department meetings about your latest accomplishment; strategically leave your latest publication in the department office and in the mailboxes of important colleagues; and, tell everyone who will listen how busy you are with your latest grant project/book/article. Although this is one way of getting the word out about your productivity, I go for the more strategic and targeted approach that I find less annoying.

Here are a few ways to market yourself so that your colleagues and campus administrators understand that your leave and subsequent temporary drop in productivity (If you are being honest with yourself, your productivity will decrease right after having a child) does not reflect your overall success as an academic.

1. Identify the important players. Before strategizing ways to market your academic work, you want to identify those colleagues and administrators locally and nationally who will be influential in your tenure review. These are the very people whom you will send publications to and communicate with about your work.
2. Don't be shy. In order to market your work, you must be willing to be bold. The first time that one of my mentors suggested that I send a recent publication to a few people, I felt shy and insecure. What if they thought I was being presumptuous about their interest? Would I look egotistical or self-important? The truth is that many academics and administrators will not just accidentally come across your work. You need to make it a point to be upfront about you accomplishments.
3. Strategically send articles/books. Implied in point two, you will use your new boldness to send out your work to those important colleagues. Normally, a publisher sends additional free copies of your books once they are published. Don't let those just sit on a shelf. Write a list of people whom you referenced frequently, colleagues who will review your tenure portfolio, and other people who may be interested and send out that publication with a short note.
4. Allow others to brag about your accomplishments. With a little bit of networking and some strategic use of those extra book copies, you may find that a few people start to brag about your accomplishments. Let them do so! Also, brag about your colleagues who are doing good work.
5. Update your CV online. Many college and university websites are terribly out of date and your CV is available to the Internet searching public without all your latest accomplishments. Network with the tech people and ask to have your most recent CV posted every few months. As tenure-track faculty, our CVs get more and more impressive.
6. Use department and college publications. At some point, you will get an email from a campus employee asking for a list of your latest publications, research grants, presentations etc. to place in a department newsletter or college publication. Take the advice of the second point and send them a detailed list. Check the publication after it is printed to make sure that your work is cited. One note of caution, be careful not to overwhelm those publications, meter out your accomplishments so that you have a steady stream of work and not just one productive semester or year.
7. Get connected online with social networking sites. Social networking sites often appear to be used only by high school students and young adults. Actually, you will be surprised at how many people have a facebook page. Get your virtual network going by placing a professional looking profile on one of the sites.