Every Professional Writer Needs a ‘Brand’
Here’s how to build one
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column about why journalists need to pay attention to their “brands,” and this is the promised service-y follow up column about what you need to do at minimum if you are not already a rich and famous person who either does not need to worry about these things because job security is not an issue for you or because anyone who would hire or work with you already knows who you are. Which is not me, and not most of you.
So first, I just want to reiterate a point from the prior column: building your brand is not you on the Internet, digitally yelling ME ME ME LOOK AT ME. It is simply putting your work, and by extension yourself, in places where people who can make your work successful are. And people in this context in include, colleagues, potential employers, and the people who are your audience — readers, viewers, listeners. All of the things on this list are inexpensive or free to do and most them require little or no time investment. So here we go:
NUMBER ONE: Have a website, ideally with your name as the URL, that explains who you are and what you do. If possible, put some of your work on that website. This might sound like a very DUH recommendation, but I do a lot of hiring and I always Google promising candidates and you’d be surprised at how often…
