How to Build a Brand: Social Networking Platforms

Personal branding is not the first thing we think of when we think of having a career in the film industry, but in the age of the internet, knowing how to market yourself and your work is a crucial step towards standing out in a competitive field like the film industry. Social networking websites move beyond a simple resume or portfolio and turn your career journey into a marketing opportunity for yourself. Whether you like it or not, we all have a personal brand, but learning how to curate them online is a helpful tool when looking for work. So, what does it really mean to create a brand for yourself? 

What is a Personal Brand?

A personal brand is any memorable aspect of your filmmaking portfolio that makes you stand out to employers. In an over-saturated world of content, building a brand gives filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their creative identities and stand out. Additionally, the film industry is close-knit and built off of networking and connections. Being able to curate a reputation for consistently producing strong creative content, can help you get your name on a “short list,” and connect you with other filmmakers or projects that you would collaborate well with. 

Being quickly recognizable is a key aspect of a personal brand. Clients and employers alike benefit from having a strong idea of who you are and what you do as a filmmaker. The clearer this brand is, the easier and more recognizable you and your work will become. Equating yourself to your work is one way to situate your brand, which allows consumers to recognize you and your films, curating a relationship between your work and a community of people. The most relevant aspect of building a brand as a filmmaker is through the industry’s community-based nature. 

Creating Your Filmmaking Brand

You do not need to start from scratch when attempting to curate a filmmaking brand through previous work. Most filmmakers begin this curation process much more naturally as they build up a personal style. All of us have preferred genres, lighting styles, and set atmospheres that we gravitate towards. Even if you have not yet begun the process of actively refining a personal brand, elements of personal preference and style are incredible places to start. Tim Burton, for example, has an incredibly distinctive filmmaking style. Audience members might gravitate towards other Burton films after watching and enjoying one – his brand, shown through his distinctive artistic style, helps attract audiences towards his work. 

The second step to curating your brand would be to tailor your experiences towards what you want to do or what you excel in. Having an understanding of what your focus is makes it simpler to market yourself. This could be as simple as revising your resume when applying for jobs, focusing only on producing work and experience when you apply to those types of positions. Using your professional experience to create a story surrounding your career path is another way to brand your career. For example, let’s say you started in graphic design, and then started working with motion graphics, and from there you discovered your passion for post-production and sound design. Here, you can highlight multiple different disciplines and build off of them to situate yourself and your career journey. Both approaches to tailoring your own experiences can help with making your brand easy to interpret and recognize for both consumers and other filmmakers, especially if you are looking to be represented by an agent or hoping to stand out to other industry professionals. 

Once you have taken stock of your style as a filmmaker, as well as what filmmaking areas you want to focus on, you can begin curating a way to present this brand externally. In your field of expertise, you should present yourself as a confident professional. Rather than necessarily being a jack of all trades, focusing on building a strong and reliable skill set in one field will make you present as a more reliable and knowledgeable person on set. Proving that you have what it takes to produce good work is a crucial step towards curating a strong brand. 

Social Networking Platforms – Using a Brand to Your Advantage

Social Networking Platforms are where you are able to take active steps towards building off of your experiences to create a strong brand. Whether it’s Linkedin, Auteurnet, Indeed, or a personal portfolio website, creating online profiles that market your professional experience are an active step towards curating a filmmaking brand. The makeup of social networking websites often allow you to highlight your experiences, but how can you take full advantage of these platforms?

Most professional social networking platforms will give you an “About” section that allows you to describe yourself quickly. Taking advantage of these few sentences will allow your profile to appear stronger in a large applicant pool. Employers appreciate seeing a catchy and simple logline that tells them exactly what they need to know about who you are and what you do. Different platforms will require different information to be shared in this section as well. Linkedin, for example, is a profile that should be tailored towards employers. Auteurnet is a good space to focus on advertising your personal career goals in order to network with peers, search for employment, and find a crew. Personal portfolios are better spaces to showcase your work and include contact information for potential clients, collaborators, or consumers. Each website will have its own benefits for certain types of networking, and being aware of how to best take advantage of these websites means acknowledging these differences and tailoring your profile accordingly. 

Additionally, some websites have specific features or algorithms that allow employers to search through profiles quickly and efficiently. Autuernet, for example, allows users to enter the database for their Crew Allocation Tool, which allows people looking for a crew to tailor their search based on genre, skillset, and strengths in order to create matches, which is something that you can consider when building your Auteurnet profile. Linkedin’s algorithm emphasizes key words as a way to increase your profile’s visibility, so that is something you would want to keep in mind when creating a Linkedin profile. In general, being aware of what platforms you are using and how to tailor your profile towards their algorithms and purposes is a good way to take advantage of digital marketing of yourself and your professional brand. 

Learn more about Auteurnet and how we can help you build your creative community.