Branding for freelance journalists
How to set yourself apart and get noticed
Personal branding is an essential but often overlooked part of our job. As a freelance journalist, you are the business, and therefore, you are the brand. For anyone who hates the idea of self-promotion, this might be an uncomfortable thought, but if you can get it right, it can help bring in the commissions.
Your brand represents who you are and what you believe in. It is how you want to be perceived by the outside world, prospective editors, and employers. Taking care over how you come across in the digital world and making sure you are consistent and professional can go a long way. Your brand sets you apart from the competition and lets people know what they can expect from you.
But how do you get it right as a freelance journalist?
What is your USP?
An excellent place to start is to think about what makes you unique. What makes you stand out from the crowd of other journalists? Do you have a specialist area of research? A powerful set of contacts? Or a different background? Think about your skillset and your experiences, and how you can best sell yourself.
Try defining your brand by writing down your values, personality, and mission and building your USP around this.
Digital audit
Your online profile is really important, and it should reflect your professionalism as well as your personality. Before you start building and promoting your digital profile, it’s a good idea to have a quick online spring clean. Remove any old posts on social media that no longer resonate with the image you would like to portray professionally or create new social media accounts only for your work.
One of the things we regularly see at FFJ is a lack of consistency across your digital presence. Try to use the same headshot and the same style or colours across all your online accounts, making it much quicker for editors and clients to find you. They will not have time to cross-reference, so make their life easy by being consistent.
Social media
Social media is likely to be a large part of your digital presence. You don’t necessarily need a grand strategy in place, the most important thing is to keep showing up and post regularly. If you find the idea of a presence on every platform overwhelming, pick one or two and do them well, and put your social energy into growing an engaged audience.
Think about what your audience will share, what people want to know about, and what conversations you can join. Pick subjects that are in your niche and start connecting with people on your chosen networks. And make sure all your social networks connect, so however someone finds you, they can easily access your complete online profile.
Twitter is the number one social network for journalists. It’s a great place to link up with others in the industry, keep an eye on trends and find call outs for pitches. Take care writing your profile description by using the space to describe your specialism and then link to your published work or portfolio. Try not to only tweet links to your stories, engage with your followers and show some personality.
Facebook is helpful to network privately as a journalist, often within closed groups. But be aware that editors hang out in these groups too, so it is vital that your contributions still reflect your brand and remain professional. Some of the Facebook groups we find useful include Young Journalist Community, No.1 Freelance Media Women, The Celebrity Interview Club, Women in Journalism and of course, our very own friendly Freelancing for Journalists group.
LinkedIn can be a useful place to network, with job call outs and valuable discussions. After realising there was a lot more to LinkedIn than we first thought, we made a podcast episode, ‘Demystifying LinkedIn’, which details how you can use the platform as part of your personal brand strategy and learn to get the most out of it.
A lot of journalists are showcasing their work on Instagram too. Stories can be a great place to showcase ‘behind the scenes’, reels can highlight your personality and will increase your visibility on the platform.
TikTok is a new one for us, but we are seeing an increasing number of journalists using it to brand themselves and their work. If you are unsure about how TikTok can help you as a journalist, you might be interested in our upcoming ‘Guest Sessions’ webinar. See more details and book your slot at the link further down the newsletter.
Websites
It is essential to have a portfolio of previous work so editors can easily find your work. This can be on your own dedicated website or through a clippings website such as Muckrack, Clippings.me and JournoPortfolio. Whichever one you opt for, make sure your contact details are visible, including your email address and your public social media accounts.
Email signature
Your email signature should also be consistent with your other digital branding and can be another valuable place to promote your work. It should include your name, your phone number and email address, your social media handles and a link to your portfolio. Sometimes it works to have a short paragraph detailing who you have worked for and your area of specialism. Websites such as Signature Maker and Wisestamp can help you make a professional-looking email signature.
Become an expert
Another good way to grow your brand is to become an expert in a particular area of your work. Often, after an in-depth article, research can be re-used and pitched elsewhere to radio, television or podcasts. Offer opinions and speak publicly on your topic, and as momentum builds, people will start to approach you, increasing your reach and adding credibility to your brand.
Brand Me
Think of your brand as an umbrella bringing together all your work, values and personality in a professional way. Consistency is crucial, as are regular updates and interactions. It is up to you to nurture and curate your personal brand into something that represents you and your values, honestly and positively.
If you want to find out more about the importance of branding, check out episode 5 of our podcast series here, Branding and Supplementary Income.
The latest podcast episode is out!
In this week’s Freelancing for Journalists podcast episode we talk to Rachael Davies and Imara Jones about reporting on gender and identity. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.
We are doing this series in collaboration with the Freelance Journalism Assembly. Part of the European Journalism Centre, they offer a range of free resources on freelancing and are running a conference on the 8th-10th June. Do sign up at their website to see what is on offer.
What’s coming up
Our next event is our Guest Sessions webinar on TikTok with the excellent and knowledgeable host Neve Gordon-Farleigh.
Neve will take you through everything you need to know about how to make the most of the thriving video-sharing platform as a journalist. The lunchtime session on the 9th June is suitable for students / journalists new to TikTok, those looking to boost their following and journalism tutors looking to integrate TikTok into their teaching. To find out more and book your place click the button below.
Triumph of the week
Getting two features submitted days before deadline and negotiating a pay rise. That’s more than one but but all well worth celebrating!
That feeling when…
The small 250-word ‘should be really easy’ commission takes twice as long to sort and fact-check than the 750-word news feature commissioned on the same day. Never listen when someone promises something will be simple…
Do keep sending in your Listener Dilemmas for us to answer in the next series of the podcast which we are starting to record very soon.
Either post a message in our Facebook Community or contact us at freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com.
Bye for now!
