What I quickly realised, though, was that readers don’t separate you from the brand you work for. How you show up matters. At that time, that felt straightforward. I was behind the scenes, making sure the publication took centre stage.
So, when Instagram began to shift the landscape, the idea of building a personal presence felt uncomfortable. Like many others, I clung to the safety of ‘all opinions are my own’ in my bio – a millennial’s reflex shaped by informal media training and a lingering fear of saying the wrong thing, or worse, losing my job.
But the industry has changed. Increasingly, brands expect the people behind them to be visible, recognisable, and engaged. At a recent British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) event, ‘How to build your profile (while doing your day job)’, one message came through clearly: your individuality and social presence are no longer optional extras – they are part of your value.
At the BSME talk, the excellent panel, which included Glamour’s Deborah Joseph and Big Issue’s Paul McNamee, discussed the value of finding your niche and owning your expertise in a market saturated with media wannabes.
You can see this shift in the brands that are thriving. Those building communities around trusted, recognisable voices are the ones that are cutting through. The success of ZOE Science and Nutrition with Dr Tim Spector and Davina McCall, Good Food’s continued relevance, and Waitrose Dish’s dominance in the food podcast space all rely on personal authority as much as editorial quality.
This creates an uncomfortable truth. Increasingly, opportunities are not awarded on experience alone. In some cases, the writer with the strongest digital presence will edge ahead. It is a tension that comes up frequently in commissioning, where visibility can carry as much (sometimes more) weight as expertise.
There is also a practical reality: if you are not visible online, you are harder to find, harder to trust, and easier to overlook. It is about showing up consistently for the areas you care about, participating in talks, attending press launches and industry events, supporting your peers and taking the mic when you’ve got something worth bringing to the table. It’s doing the graft that’s going to feed your authority and finding the platform you feel most comfortable (and are good at) sharing it on.
There was a time when your byline borrowed authority from the brand or publication you worked for. Today that isn’t enough.