Personal Branding and Persona — How Does it Benefit Freelancers?

Are you someone who posts regularly on LinkedIn?

If yes, why do you do so? Is it because “that’s what everyone does these days” or because you want to build your digital persona?

Most freelance content writers still don’t realise the importance of personal branding. Even if they do, most of them don’t know how to do it. Before we get into the details, let me tell you a story.

Back in 2014, when I completed my Bachelors, I created a LinkedIn account and started exploring it. I didn’t know exactly why I needed one, but everyone had an account, and so did I. In 2016, I realised that LinkedIn was my online resume. It gave me visibility and put me right in front of recruiters.

So that’s what I did — optimise my LinkedIn as a job seeker and apply for jobs. But that was all — another job board.

Fast forward to 2020, and I finally realised that social media platforms were more than just an online presence — they are your online persona.

What is a Persona?

According to the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, the persona is a mask we wear to cover our true selves.

“The persona is a complicated system of relations between individual consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual.” — Carl Jung, C.W. Vol. 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology

As dark as it sounds, when it comes to social media, your persona need not be a false identity but a more polished, professional version of yourself that you choose to put out there.

Building Your Online Persona

Now, here’s the tricky part — how do you build your persona on Social Media?

This is where most people go wrong. There’s a common misconception among many freelancers that posting consistently on social media platforms is all they need as a strategy. That may give you engagement or a huge following. But does it mean you have a persona or a personal brand now? Not necessarily.

Here are 5 ways to create a compelling online persona:

1. Define your voice: I agree that writers need to be flexible in creating content with a different tone of voice. But just like defining your niche, you need a brand voice for your brand. I like to take a storytelling, creative approach in my writing, and I make sure it reflects in every content I put out online. A lot of writers get this wrong. I’ve seen writers with creative LinkedIn bios, but in their resume, it’s a bunch of copy-pasted, repurposed cr*p. They would send out application and outreach emails in a stiff, formal tone while having a completely different writing style in their social media posts. All these things not only confuse the algorithm but also project “inconsistency” to your target audience.
2. Identify and outline your goals: Trends are a great way to create content. But that said, it’s also way too common. When building your brand, you need to identify your goals and how you will connect them with your “potential clients”. Consider these questions while writing content:

• Why are you writing the specific piece of content?
• What are you trying to let your clients know through those posts?
• Will this content help build credibility for yourself?
• How does this resonate with the kind of writer you are?

3. Collaborate and connect with other creatives: If you are a writer, it’s almost 99% certain you will work with another creative. Connecting with fellow writers is great, as is connecting with designers, media managers, marketers, SEO and advertising specialists. This helps you understand the process and functioning of different segments and will make taking up challenging projects a little easier. This will also allow other creatives to understand your style and decide if it matches theirs, leading to a potential collaboration or even referral.

4. Build your assets using a brand kit: When you get into freelancing, one of the most common mistakes you can make is to have files/links of all the content you’ve written to date and share those as your portfolio. Pitching with a G-Drive link or a set of Word documents is fine, but that doesn’t really say a “business owner”. It doesn’t portray your persona, either.

Do these instead:

• Use tools such as Canva to make a FREE online portfolio or create a custom website using WordPress, Squarespace, etc. Pick 2 or 3 projects you are most proud of and display those. Tell the clients what services they’ll get from you.
• Start a blog. Write about you. What makes you human and different from other writers in your niche? What inspires you and excites you; what were your failures, and what are some of your success stories? Give potential clients a chance to see why choosing you would benefit them.
• Optimise all the professional online content with your brand colours, tone of voice, values and style. Let the content speak for itself.

5. Write guest posts and articles: With competition comes double the workload. And I totally understand why many writers, including me, focus all our energy on outreach and social media content, and we miss out on opportunities to create a name for ourselves. Whether paid or not, guest posts are a great way to keep up with your writing and build an online presence. If you Google “write for us” + your niche, you will find tons of websites calling for contributions.

You might think, “Well, that’s a long and hectic process.”

Yes, it is! Building your brand and persona takes time and effort. There are no 5-minute tricks and tips or AI tools that can make your brand for you. It’s a process that evolves and adapts with you over time so that you can work with clients who are perfect for you in the future.

Let me know in the comments what’s the creative process behind building your brand.