What you are branding
A personal brand is the reputation attached to a writer's work and conduct. Defining values, purpose, services and audience gives that reputation a deliberate direction and provides a consistent basis for professional presentation online and in person.
Reputation and professional presentation
Personal branding concerns what people remember and say about a professional after that person leaves the room: their reputation. Everyone therefore has a brand, whether or not they recognise or deliberately develop it. Making it explicit means communicating values, beliefs, skills, experience and what makes the person unique.
Branding also covers the actions used to promote a professional to prospective clients or employers, commonly through the CV, an online profile and face-to-face meetings or interviews. Websites and specialist portals are part of the same online presentation. Messages across these forms should be consistent, professional and given sufficient time and attention. A poorly prepared presentation can resemble handing a prospective client a visibly homemade business card.
A professional network should be approached as a place for business relationships rather than treated like a personal social feed. A recruitment practitioner's recommendation for people selling services is to present themselves as a brand, product or service rather than as a conventional full-time job seeker.
A freelance-business approach recommends five actions for personal branding.
- Think company rather than person or product.
- Know yourself.
- Create a cohesive product line.
- Communicate the brand.
- Manage the brand.
The recommended brand qualities are:
- Professional.
- Responsive.
- Timely.
- Reliable.
- Positive.
- Self-starting.
Values, vision and mission
Values, vision and mission should be defined before choosing or using social media.
- Values are what matters professionally, such as work quality or delivering good work to tight deadlines.
- Vision is the contribution the work should make, such as contributing to a healthier world.
- Mission adds how that contribution will be made, such as communicating academic research findings to a broader audience.
The preparation can also be organised around what, why and how.
- Define what is being marketed: writing, editing, translation, consulting, teaching or training, and the industry and audience the service addresses.
- Establish why: the vision and mission, distinctive skills and personal motivation for the work.
- Decide how: the strategy, networks, blogs and other platforms used to reach people.
A writer may serve more than one target audience. The target audience affects the choice of network and the language and jargon appropriate for online communication. The strategy should determine the networks used, because it identifies the colleagues, customers and prospective clients to reach. Connections, conversations and the value contributed to them matter more than a debate over whether the activity is called social media or social networking.
Clarity and authenticity
Understanding strengths, beliefs and motivation can help a writer explain what they bring to a team or organisation and distinguish jobs that fit from those likely to leave them dissatisfied. Without that clarity, an interview answer may become vague or generic and leave no reason to choose the writer for the work. Four benefits proposed by a professional coach are:
- Managing impact positively by behaving authentically rather than as other people are imagined to expect.
- Articulating values, purpose, skills and the value brought to an organisation or team.
- Connecting ability to the existing or desired reputation by expressing expertise and what the person is sought out for.
- Differentiating the person from competitors through what makes them unique.
Online presentation should portray the same person and professional encountered in person, rather than creating an expectation that a meeting then contradicts. Being authentic means presenting the person's best self. A clear identity, offer and distinction help identify the audience and the appropriate medium; focus, consistency and authenticity are preferable to an unfocused attempt to reach anyone.
Developing this clarity takes continuing refinement rather than a quick fix. One coaching method starts with a brief questionnaire about motivation, then explores the person's story and the essence of the brand. Feedback is also needed because reputation includes what others say: the writer has to ask for specific feedback, receive it and discuss it, even when doing so feels uncomfortable. Reviewing what has been learned and practising how to express and demonstrate strengths continues through everyday emails and communication with prospective clients.
Personal and employer brands
A brand can use a professional's own name or an invented business name, and the two can coexist for a business owner. Personal branding is available to medical writers, editors, translators, science journalists, people working in pharmaceuticals, devices and communications agencies, freelances and business owners.
A writer communicating for an employer or organisation is increasing its visibility and speaking on its behalf, whether expressing a personal opinion or the organisation's opinion. A business owner can express a personal vision through the business; a writer representing an agency should follow that agency's values and policies.
Two specialisms
A writer working in both veterinary and human medicine reported that the animal connection appeared to discourage prospective clients in human medicine. A branding practitioner's advice was to retain both when both genuinely matter to the writer's values, vision and mission, rather than separating them into different blogs or accounts. Articles, discussion and separate sections within one website or blog can explain why each matters and where they connect. Her personal view was that a client who does not understand or share those values may be someone the writer does not want to work with.