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Craft a brand story for yourself
THE SEPTEMBER meeting of London Freelance Branch was unapologetically drawn in to the methodology of selling oneself as a "brand", courtesy of our invited speaker, the journalist and leadership coach Sudhana Singh.
Sudhana Singh: "Brand associations are vital SEO tools that help you form strong relationships with your consumers."
Leading members deftly through a fast-changing slide deck that was strong in imagery and blissfully concise in text, Singh introduced a model she had devised that used story-telling techniques to build a memorable brand for oneself as a freelance writer - a personality legend, if you like, by which readers will identify you with your work on an emotional level. She referred to it as an "Imbue Story Brand Model" and proceeded to serve up one example after another to illustrate her point.
Singh's conceptual diagrams of layered thought processes, and referencing to "buying behaviour" and "customer journeys" might have smacked of a marketing presentation at times but pulling LFB members out of their comfort zone seemed part of the plan. Selling oneself is part of being a freelance. Successful marketers understand the pulling power of "branding" and "brand loyalty" - and so should we.
SEO that sizzles
Much of Singh's approach comes down to crafted storytelling in order to build a rapport - or as they say these days, "engage" - with readers.
"Social psychologists," she noted "tell us that from ancient times, leaders and marketers relied on stories to change people's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour. They found that stories have the power to persuade listeners and mentally transport them into the world depicted in the story. They returned from this journey with a change in attitude."
Apply this concept to your own life story, and you have the building blocks to create a personal brand. Capture the imagination; elicit empathy. But for this, she said, you need: a clear, strong plotline and - possibly to the discomfort of hard-boiled news reporters in the Zoom room - "a marketing message with embedded values".
Do this, Singh said, and you'll have "SEO [search engine optimisation] that sizzles".
This certainly raised the hackles of one or two members attending the meeting, who took the opportunity of the Q&A session afterwards to challenged Singh on certain points. "Someone else looks after our SEO" was one comment, which possibly missed the point of what building a personal brand is all about.
Doubt were also cast on her examples of people who had fascinating back-stories that shape our attitudes towards them: Nelson Mandela, Marcus Rashford, Sam Walton, Thomas Edison, Pele, Coco Chanel, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, the "rugged, strong and masculine" Richard Branson (snigger)... but not a journalist among them. On the other hand, maybe that's because journalists habitually pooh-pooh the idea of self-marketing even though we have the skills to craft a personal brand through storytelling brilliantly.
The Imbue Story Brand Model may not apply specifically to current affairs reporters any more than to proofreaders and studio technicians. But journalism is a broad church: feature writers, podcasters, photographers, illustrators, documentary makers, speechwriters and broadcasters, for example, are all storytellers in their own way. And who of us freelances wouldn't want "brand loyalty" from our "customers"- that is, our readers, viewers, listeners... our digital audience?