TORONTO—Professor at New York-based School of Visual Arts, editor and publisher of Graphic Define magazine and “all around web nerd,” Daniel Schutzsmith took to the stage at FITC to talk to a full house about the skills necessary to market yourself. He was one of more than 70 speakers at the design and technology conference held in Toronto on April 25 to 27.

The way you market your work is as important as the product you produce, said Schutzsmith. Here is a list of his suggestions on how to make yourself and your work stand out from the crowd: 

• Make a connection: Choose 10 reporters to send press releases to about your projects and personalize the emails to them. Schutzsmith said personalizing the email guarantees a reply.
• Show personality: Let staff have their own space on your company website, clients want to see who is working on their projects.
• Start an e-zine: Schutzsmith used the example of New York-based firm PSFK, which began generating daily content on its site to get noticed.
• Track the conversation: Schutzsmith emphasized the importance of tracking all the comments, content and information you put out, mentioning services such as Cocomment, which can track all of your company comment activity on the web.
• Think outside the box: When creating press releases and business cards, make them interesting enough that people will want to show at least five others your material.
• Focus on the message: Keep it to one area of expertise at a time. “When someone says your name, what is the one word you want to come up?” asks Schutzsmith.
• Encourage feedback: If your activity generates feedback, it means people are listening, he said. And listen to the feedback.
• Be humble and have fun: “You have something that you love to do, you’re creating things that have your name on them,” said Schutzsmith. “If you’re not having fun doing it then go be an accountant.”

Contact: Fitc.ca, Graphicdefine.org