Do recession worries spark self-branding interest?
I’m not going to lie to you: I’ve been absent from this blog for quite some time, thanks to the last round of layoffs at the Post-Dispatch, which changed my job substantially into a melding of print and online duties, and two rounds of furloughs that have many of us covering for many others.
I know I’m not alone; many of you are in the same boat. Throw in summer vacations and college visits with my daughter, and pretty soon, it’s August.
I’ve been getting back to my blog this week, during the last of my furlough days. I’ve dusted off the site, cleaned up a few plugins and will shortly do that upgrade to WP 2.8.4.
Meanwhile, I noticed something interesting about my web stats. My No. 2 web post of all time is something I wrote way back in January. It’s a meta-post called “14 great sites about branding your own journalism.” Let’s face it, the page views aren’t huge, but they’re substantially larger than many other posts.
My theory: As the recession drags on and we continue to hunt for ways to keep our jobs, there is more interest in learning how to develop and capitalize on our personal brands. I take no credit for the expertise behind the links (gathered, by the way, using Publish2’s WordPress tool). I’ve checked the links and updated a few that weren’t good anymore. At least one is a brand new link; can’t find the old one!
Oh, and the No. 1 blog post on my site: That’s easy: “St. Louis Post-Dispatch seeks social media intern.” Not a surprise, eh? Internships get’em every time. Alas, that internship has come and gone (thank you, Andrew Mason!) and we haven’t been able to offer it again.
14 great sites about branding your own journalism
The idea of creating a “brand” around yourself and your work has typically been anathema to most journalists. It’s an attitude that should change for a few reasons.
1) We can use the skills of personal branding to enhance our value to the organizations for which we work.
2) Audiences can relate as easily to an individual who produces good content as to a “corporate” brand — perhaps more so.
3) Journalism isn’t a one-way street anymore (if it ever was). Build a network and be consistent with your content and your identity. That’s a brand.
4) Younger people get this instinctively; they’ve been weaned on it.
Here’s 14 links I thought had something helpful to say about creating that personal brand. Among the most important: Creating an area of expertise and creating content regularly; and becoming involved in an authentic way in social networks — rather than just becoming a self-promoter. Read more
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