What do you want your Online Portfolio Visitors to remember about you?

This episode is part of a series called Portfolio Principles. In this series, I help people to build a more effective portfolio. Get weekly portfolio building tips.
All opinions my own.

You have an online brand, whether you like it or not. Everyone has one. When people Google your name, the search results determine how they will perceive you. Your Facebook photos, the amount of LinkedIn connections, your Twitter bio and your online portfolio all makes up your online brand.

People assume that your online brand represents reality. Therefore, much of how people perceive you and therefore what they remember of you is determined by your online brand.

Unfortunately, you cannot prevent people from tagging you on Facebook. You cannot prevent Google from displaying your party pictures. As a photographer, you cannot avoid that people will perceive you as a bad photographer because Facebook degrades the resolution of your beautiful photos. Clearly, most of the online content that makes up your online brand is hard to manage.

Most of the online content that makes up your online brand is hard to manage.

Fortunately, there is one place that is totally in your control. One place on which you can decide how you want to be perceived. Where you can choose how you want to be remembered. That place is your online portfolio.

There is one place where you can choose how you want to be remembered. That place is your online portfolio.

“What do you want your online portfolio visitors to remember about you?”

However, the most common mistake that people make on their online portfolio is that they don’t decide what they want to be remembered for. As a result they are not clear about what they stand for. Instead, they show everything they got.
They show an app design project they did at school. A website designed for a client. A poster design for their band. Even a painting they made in their spare time.
Here is the truth. Your visitors cannot process all of this. If you don’t decide and communicate how you want to be remembered, you will either be forgotten or remembered for the wrong things. If you are not clear about what you stand for, the internet will make it up for you. The internet gets it wrong 99 out of 100 times.

If you don’t decide and communicate how you want to be remembered, you will either be forgotten or remembered for the wrong things.

The internet is a noisy place. Everyone screams for attention. Everyone wants to be remembered. That’s why people think in terms of boxes. The internet will put you in a box, just to be able to process you. Instead of denying you should embrace this. Take initiative and make sure they put you in the right box.

The internet will put you in a box, just to be able to process you. Take initiative and make sure they put you in the right box.

You can take initiative by positioning yourself. Positioning is a term originally coined from marketing. From a marketing perspective, positioning is the space you want to occupy in your customers’ minds when they think about your brand.
Translating this to personal branding, you decide how you want to be remembered and communicate just that. It enables you to clarify your value and show how you are different from others.
You could position yourself as pretty much anything you want.
“A graphic designer specialized in wedding cards”, “A hybrid designer with strong prototyping skills” or “A food blogger that designs cars”.
The beauty of positioning is that it does not necessarily have to represent reality. You can position yourself as the person you aspire to be. The future version of yourself. Done effectively, people will believe you. Because the internet believes pretty much everything.

You can position yourself as the person you aspire to be. The future version of yourself.

The act of positioning yourself that is invaluable. While trying to decide how you communicate your value, you might discover what it actually is that sets you apart. You become more self-aware of how you relate to others by taking a position. Automatically you become more consistent in what you tell others about yourself.

While trying to decide how you communicate your value, you might discover what it actually is that sets you apart.

An effective positioning is extremely powerful. I will begin to speak for you because it provides others a framework to talk about you.

People won’t just think of graphic design when they think of you, they will think of you when they think of graphic design. That’s what you want.

People won’t just think of graphic design when they think of you, they will think of you when they think of graphic design.

There are many ways how to effectively position yourself. These are beyond the scopes of this post but will be discussed in the future.

For now just ask yourself: “What do you want your portfolio visitors to remember about you?”

This episode is part of a series called Portfolio Principles. In this series, I help people to build a more effective portfolio. Get weekly portfolio building tips.

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