{"id":3588,"date":"2017-07-27T12:53:47","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T11:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/?p=3588"},"modified":"2026-07-05T20:11:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T19:11:57","slug":"advice-for-building-a-strong-personal-brand-as-a-journalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/2017\/07\/27\/advice-for-building-a-strong-personal-brand-as-a-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice for building a strong personal brand as a journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"
Clothilde Goujard<\/a> |<\/div>\n
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Updated at 9:19 a.m. on July 25, 2017<\/em><\/p>\n

In the social media age, journalists \u2014 especially when they\u2019re starting out \u2014 are increasingly encouraged to develop and perfect a personal brand on many platforms.<\/p>\n

LinkedIn profiles with polished resumes, personal websites or portfolios and myriad social media accounts aren\u2019t just for \u201cinfluencers\u201d or tech journalists, but for everyone in the industry.<\/p>\n

This is to the extent that some journalists have written about the process of \u201centrepreneurializing a persona\u201d to be \u201cdistinguished from all the other content providers,\u201d<\/a> while researchers have looked at this phenomenon from an academic eye. \u201cIdentity Lost? The Personal Impact of Brand Journalism,\u201d<\/a> a study by Avery E. Holton of The University of Utah and Logan Molyneux of Temple University, shows reporters struggle with balancing their professional and personal identities online.<\/p>\n

\u201cReporters feel pressure to stake a claim on their beat, develop a presence as an expert in their profession and area of coverage, and act as a representative of the news organization at all times,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Liz Plank, the Vox.com journalist who\u2019s most known for her interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau<\/a> of Canada and frank discussions<\/a> of women\u2019s issues, maintains an active social media presence as @feministabulous<\/a>. Named one of Forbes\u2019 30 under 30 in the media<\/a>, Plank is on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Snapchat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exhausting, but at the same time I would have never been able to work in journalism if I hadn\u2019t done that and I hadn\u2019t been noticing that people did want to follow me even before I started writing,\u201d she told IJNet<\/a> in May 2016.<\/p>\n

For her, publishing your work as a journalist is just the starting point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI write, I produce, I\u2019m the host of a series and that\u2019s a lot of work \u2014 but then once it\u2019s published, it\u2019s only the beginning,\u201d she says. \u201cI have to promote it, I have to send it, I have to constantly make sure that it gets seen. So it\u2019s a lot of work. But it\u2019s easy, it\u2019s like second nature to me because I was born into social media. I love social media and I like sharing ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/feministabulous\/status\/887305880164847616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fijnet.org%2Fen%2Fblog%2Fadvice-building-strong-personal-brand-journalist<\/p>\n

Corinne Podger<\/a>, a mobile journalism trainer and journalism lecturer at Australia\u2019s Macleay College, started her career at a time when social media didn\u2019t exist and says the evolving job market has created this need for a personal brand. She\u2019s used social media to her advantage, building her brand around her growing reputation as a mobile journalism educator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joined Twitter in 2011 and quickly became aware of this global conversation and community that existed,\u201d she says. \u201cI realized that if I wanted to gain brand recognition and build a reputation around the training work that I was beginning to do, I would need to be in that space.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a lecturer, she emphasizes the need to build a brand to her students.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir first job will likely be as freelancers, so they really need an online portfolio that works,\u201d she says. \u201cBeyond having a website, they need to understand the accounts that employers will look at. They need a Twitter, they need a Facebook, a LinkedIn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miriam Berger<\/a>, a freelance journalist based in Jerusalem, is aware of how important her internet and social media presence is for her job, especially her portfolio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to show editors what you\u2019ve done before (…) to have a place where they can quickly look up your information,\u201d she says, adding that it allows you to show off your best work.<\/p>\n

She adjusts her tone depending on the platform \u2014 Twitter being more professional, for instance, and Instagram more \u201cfun\u201d and personal \u2014 and remains careful about who can access her platforms by checking her privacy settings so her professional and personal life don\u2019t overlap too much.<\/p>\n

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.@maxmobile<\/a> kicking off 2 days of workshops & training for @MINAmobile<\/a>. Looking forward to training these folks! #mojo<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/huZokmvqNf<\/a><\/p>\n

— Corinne Podger: @corinnepodger (Threads), LinkedIn (@corinne_podger) July 15, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n