What is your brand?
Just as reporters develop their journalistic skills, nowadays they also must strategize ways to promote themselves and their work across platforms, effectively building their “brand,” public relations experts said Nov. 2 at the APSE West Region meeting in Los Angeles.
Despite how uncomfortable it might be for some journalists, “There’s nothing wrong with selling yourself and your story,” said Glen Lehrman, a director with the public relations firm of Rogers & Cowen.
In fact, because the way people seek and receive information is changing so dramatically, you can’t hope to reach your potential as a journalist if you’re not strategically promoting what you have to offer, added Nicol Addison, public relations brand manager for Yahoo! Sports.
Lehrman, whose clients include NASCAR, the PGA Tour and LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham, joined Addison in emphasizing that reporters have expertise and access to sports figures that fans crave
even if they never pick up a newspaper. Take advantage of your expertise to develop communities of followers with whom you can interact online – for your good and theirs, Addison said.
Self-promotion tips she and Lehrman offered include:
Decide which audience you’re going after, Addison said. Who do you want to follow you outside of print? Once you determine who your audience is, pursue it using Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other social
networking tools.
Spend time creating your profile to ensure it reflects your brand.
What is your expertise? What will you offer that will make people want to “friend” you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter?
Be proactive, not just reactive, Lehrman said. Don’t just open an account and wait for people to find you. Spend time searching out those who you think would be interested in what you have to say and reach out to them.
Commit to a platform. If you start a Twitter account and begin building a Twitter community, stick with it. “It affects your brand if you start something, then slack off,” Addison said.
Don’t think simply posting links to your stories is enough. You must engage your audience in an ongoing conversation, Lehrman said, and a conversation is never one-sided. “In today’s world, people want to have give and take. You want people to respond to what you’re doing,” he said. “It’s too self-serving if you’re just posting and not accepting opinion.”
Offer yourself as a resource to traditional media outlets, Addison said. Agree to do radio and television interviews. Seek out speaking engagements in your community.
Your brand should be independent of your employer. It’s what you bring to the table regardless of where you work. “If you want to go off on your own at some point, it’s important that people know who
you are,” Lehrman said. Both he and Addison acknowledged the idea of creating an independent brand is controversial because some employers assert ownership rights over all content created by their employees.
“As we move forward, these things will be outlined in employee contracts,” Addison said.
