As a journalist, whether you work with multiple publications or engage with one publication at a time, your personal brand is key to adding credibility to your work. In the online world, a journalist’s brand identity is an amalgamation of tools including a personal website, blog, social media profiles and aggregation of published stories.
Simply creating the aforementioned digital properties is not enough for building a personal brand. It’s important to remain active and update them regularly with the latest information or links. To start: Journalists need a memorable, relevant domain name for their website that becomes an extension of their personality. In fact, domain names are highly useful in many ways when it comes to building and strengthening a personal brand.
Here are five of the most creative and unique ways journalists can use new domain extensions such as .PRESS to enrich their online brand.
1. Create a portfolio website
A portfolio website serves as an ideal avenue to further enhance your personal brand online as it indicates your field of work clearly. Here are some of the elements to include:
- Work experience, qualification, awards, affiliations, etc.
- Social media handles
- Blog
- Contact details
For inspiration, look at www.danielthomas.press and www.bryansmith.press.
2. Use branded URL shorteners
One of the most effective ways to add credibility to your online persona is to use branded links for everything that you share on social media. A branded link is a shortened link or a shortened URL but is meaningful and branded with your name. For example:
- Original link:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/05/11/six-steps-to-takebefore-launching-a-website - Shortened link (on bit.ly): https://bit.ly/2MeyE6m
- Branded link: https://radix.press/example
3. Get a branded email ID
If your website is www.samanthajones.press, you can create your email id as sam@samanthajones.press or me@samanthajones.press. This is a great way to create a strong brand touch point for your persona.
4. Brand your social media accounts
You can invest in a domain name and redirect it to your LinkedIn or any other social media page. That way, you can simply communicate your domain name instead of long and complicated URLs to direct people to your page. At a later stage, you can develop the same domain name into a website.
5. Gather all your links in one place
Pick a domain name where you can showcase all your social media pages as well as RSS feeds to every publication you contribute to. You can share this link in your visiting card and elsewhere for others to find you and to look up your work.
So, what are you waiting for? Get your .PRESS domain and start building your personal brand now!
