by John Burfitt
19 June 2015
Consider this. If someone wanted to find you for a commission for a new assignment, how easy would it be to locate you?
It was a conversation I had recently in a magazine office as three freelancers chatted about their online presence. As it turned out, I was the only one with any kind of professional online calling card.
“Anyone who knows me knows how to find me,” said one, while another commented, “I don’t bother with any of that social media stuff for work – I have two regular gigs and that will never change.”
I certainly hope so, for his sake. There continues to be a divide between people who have embraced online to create a professional presence and those people who don’t think it is worth their efforts. But when your professional reputation is your greatest asset and what you most have to rely on when freelancing, it seems ill advised not to embrace every opportunity to increase the prospects of new work.
So, try this – Google yourself and see what comes up. If an editor has lost your details or knows you only by reputation, how easy would it be to get in contact with you? Are you a matter of clicks away, or hidden somewhere in an old 1990s White Pages listing? And how long would that editor dig around trying to find you before moving onto the next person on the list of contenders?
Professional social media can still seem overwhelming to some, so just what do you do to build that personal brand and an easy way to locate you? Here are some ideas that worked for me:
A personal website A few years back, an editor I had worked with for years uttered these words; “It’s just as well I know you, because if I didn’t and you came pitching to me for work and I found no online presence, I would delete your email at once.” So shaken by his words, within a week, I had created a personal website, representing what I had done in my career and the skills I offer now. The site cost $300. By the end the first week of going live, I had made that cost back 12 times over in new commissions that came from my site.
LinkedIn Someone once described LinkedIn as ‘Facebook for professionals’. Your LinkedIn page should outline clearly what you have done, what skills you have and what your interests are. An online strategist friend advised me to post every two days with new work I had published, or topics I found professionally interesting. “Always consider the kind of image you are creating from the material you are posting to the people looking at it.” Within months of following her advice, I had attracted five big commissions from new clients directly from my profile.
Twitter Some journalists use Twitter to shout to the world their grievances, from latest political policy to not being able to find matching socks. Others use Twitter to continue to build a professional image, highlighting new work they have just published, featuring places and people they have encountered for work and posting material worthy of discussion. As we have been taught to be objective in our role as journalists, just remember some things are better off expressed privately and others publicly – and online is about as public as you can get.
A blog A Blog can be a great way to expand on the tighter word count posts you are placing on LinkedIn and Twitter. Some journos use their Blogs to write about what happened behind the scenes on a recent assignment or some musings about the current state of the industry or an idea they want to bring up for discussion. Again, this should be an opportunity for people to connect with you, so be sure to include details for easy contact.
Pictures Everyone needs a professional picture these days. A picture of you at your cousin’s wedding hugging the bride or a smiling selfie at the pub is not going to cut it as a representation of your best professional self. Dig out some old shots of you on assignment or have new images taken showing you as you would like potential clients to see you. With the proliferation of cameras we have access to, there is no excuse for a bad picture – or even no picture.
One last thing… The first thing I responded when my social media advisor friend suggested all of this was, “I don’t have time to do this – it will take hours every day.” And it will, if you let it. It is a matter of building into the daily schedule time to attend to your profiles, and not allowing it to consume more than 15 minutes a day. But never forget the impact those 15 minutes can have in attracting new clients. Just never let your reputation get lost.
Do you agree that all of the above is important? Or do you think you don’t need to bother because you’ll never be out of work?
