The Uncharted Freelancer| Self-Promotion - Website, CV, linktr.ee and Business Cards| Issue 4| April 2024 Edition

Hello everyone and welcome back to Issue 4 of The Uncharted Freelancer. Would you believe we are at the end of April already? Wow! That was quick!

If you read Issue 3 - The Search For Work - this article focused on where to find courses/training schemes, networking events, asking to shadow industry practitioners, links to TV job sites and where to find work on Social Media sites such as Facebook TV groups.

This month, I have been busy with; revising my CV, applying to a mix of television and marketing jobs, attending interviews for potential job roles, picking up some logging/transcribing days for companies, making new connections on LinkedIn and updating some of my portfolio.

CV/Cover Emails

Top Tips I was told by employers for your CV and my own which has gained me TV and non-TV interviews and employment.

1. Make your CV one-page.
2. Don't include a profile photo of yourself.
3. Include a statement pertaining to GDPR that you give permission for your CV to remain on file in their system and to be distributed for employment purposes.
4. State on your CV your job title.
5. Have a short personal statement of your experience and a little about your skills, recent job role and objective.
6. Put key skills between your personal statement and experience.
7. Mention your location and bases you have in different locations.
8. If you have a Full UK Driver's Licence, put this down at the top of your skills or under your name.
9. Also include at the top of your CV under your name that you can work: remote/hybrid/on-site (if you can).
10. Don't include your date of birth, address or national insurance number.
11. Put 'References Upon Request' at the bottom of your CV.
12. Ask someone to proofread your CV before sending off to employers.
13. For cover emails, if you can get a name of the person that is brilliant, if not address your cover email with: Good morning/afternoon xxxx team. Introduce yourself after this and your job role. Also mention, If you have seen this advertised on a website, word of mouth or on a Social Media group.
14. Mention your availability in the cover email.
15. Don't forget to attach your CV to the cover email.
16. Make your CV a pdf document as if it is a word file, it may look different on other computers and come across lop-sided or un-accessible.

Where to also find other CV tips:

Facebook Group - People in TV: Runners

https://www.facebook.com/groups/tv.runners/

Talent Manager

https://www.thetalentmanager.com/blog/152/your-tv-cv-the-basics#:~:text=Your%20TV%20CV%3A%20The%20Basics%201%201.%20Get,5%205.%20Allow%20employers%20to%20skim%20read%20

The TV Watercooler

https://tvwatercooler.org/latest/cv-writing-tips

LinkedIn - Your Digital CV

I tell everyone that I meet at networking events, courses and jobs - create yourself a FREE LinkedIn account. LinkedIn has been very beneficial for me career wise and I'd be lost without it. I have gained incredible advice from industry practitioners, connected with potential employers and gained employment and you can also do courses in your career field when you upgrade your account to premium. I usually do this once or twice a year. You can also find jobs on LinkedIn and contact hiring/recruitment staff as well to introduce yourself and find out a bit more about the company and required job role.

Business Cards

Business Cards are a great marketing tool to advertise your services to potential employers and clients - especially at networking events. Also, very handy for someone to keep your business card in their purse/wallet if they need to contact a freelancer last minute for a project. I'm working on designing a business card for myself also at the moment working with Adobe Photoshop and going to use VistaPrint.

Where to design a business card

Here are five websites to design your business card. Some of them allow you to upload your own design if created on Adobe software or other creative software. I usually create my own designs with my Adobe CC software using Photoshop and exporting my design and uploading to VistaPrint. You can also design your business card on the websites I have provided links to below;

123PRINT - https://www.123print.co.uk/business-cards

Bizay - https://www.bizay.co.uk/business-cards/

PixarPrinting - https://www.pixartprinting.co.uk/business-cards/

Trade Print - https://www.tradeprint.co.uk/business-card-printing

VistaPrint - https://www.vistaprint.co.uk/business-cards/

Business Card Design Tips

1. Proofread before getting your business card printed. You don't want to re-do this and spend more money.
2. Less is more. Don't overcrowd text and graphics.
3. Add your logo on your card also.
4. If you have created a QR code, add that on also.
5. Print on both sides - logo one side (back) and contact details on the front side.
6. Add a gloss or matte for a nice feel to your business cards.
7. Don't put Social Media sites relating to your personal ones. If you have a separate one to promote your talent and skills use that as a link, if not create a Facebook or Instagram page showcasing your creative work.
8. Stick to CYMK to get the best colours (not RBG).
9. Ensure your name, email address, phone number and website are on display.

TIP: Use can use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator if you're an Adobe CC member.

There are other business card websites out there also. My preference is Vista Print due to being able to upload my design and I find them quite reasonable price wise. Also as well, I sometimes like having my business card double-sided with a nice matte finish added.

Website/Portfolio

For me, I have a website with my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription where I am allowed up to five sites. If you're an Adobe CC member, you can create a website through their portfolio feature: https://portfolio.adobe.com/

Alternatively, if you're not an Adobe CC member, you can create a FREE website on Wix or Wordpress to promote your services and creative skillset.

Wix - https://www.wix.com/

Wordpress - https://wordpress.com/

Whichever your preference is, be sure to create a professional website to showcase your talent, skillset and upload videos/stills of your creative work. You can also pop back in anytime to your website to make adjustments E.G background colour, add a new landing page, upload a new video or photographs or make changes to contact details without any cost. Also as well, you can add social media pages such as Facebook or Instagram to any photo album collections you may have of prop making or art/graph design work etc. Like the business card, make your website stand out with colour choice, background, text fonts, including photographs and uploading videos.

TIP: DON'T forget to include SEO (search engine optimisation) features on your website to enable search listings in Google to increase traffic to your site.

linktr.ee

This is a great marketing tool where you can make a FREE account to advertise and promote your services as a freelancer working in the creative industries. I have links to my LinkedIn and email accounts as well as links to my website, Film Bang, IMDB and newsletter - The Uncharted Freelancer.

You can sign up here for a FREE account - https://linktr.ee/

Additional Promotional Material

For sharing your work whether it's editing, camera, sound, photography, prop making or art, there are great sites out there to show your creative skills to potential employers.

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/accounts/emailsignup/

Facebook - https://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/create/?ref_type=hc

LinkedIn - Sign Up | LinkedIn

Vimeo - https://vimeo.com/join

Film Bang - https://www.filmbang.com/sign-up

IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/

Downloadable Documents

SWOT Analysis

I have started doing a SWOT analysis to identify four key areas; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I remember doing these as a child through my school years as well as working with one during my HND course at college. I haven't completed one for a long time. Here you can find out more information here and download their FREE template:

https://nova-live-content.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/public/content-downloadable/SWOTAnalysisWorksheet_2.pdf

Professional Profiles

Do feel free to check out my portfolio if you have time: https://lauramasters.myportfolio.com/

You can also check me out on Film Bang: https://www.filmbang.com/listings/masters-laura

Click here to see my IMDB profile - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11158228/

You can now find all my professional profiles of; my website, email, newsletter, Film Bang and IMDB listings here on:

https://linktr.ee/theunchartedfreelancer

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this fourth edition of The Uncharted Freelancer. I hope you tune back in for the fifth edition which I'm still deciding on what the newsletter will be focusing on.

If you would like to find out more, don't hesitate to contact me directly on here and REMEMBER to subscribe to my monthly newsletter if you haven't already and share with your connections.