Built to Communicate. Driven to Perform.
Built to Communicate. Driven to Perform.
I'm a communications strategist with expertise in social media, content management, and digital storytelling. I build brands, grow audiences, and connect communications work to real business outcomes.
Belema Derefaka
Skills That Don't Fit in a Box
Good communications work rarely lives in one lane. Over the course of my career, I've built expertise across strategy, operations, analytics, and creative execution — the kind of range that lets me move from a data dashboard to a design brief to a cross-functional stakeholder meeting without missing a beat.
-
I served as project manager for a full-scale website redesign involving 230+ project pages, building tracking systems in Airtable from scratch and coordinating across teams with minimal oversight. I bring structure to complex, high-visibility projects.
-
I manage editorial calendars, develop posting cadences, and build content systems that keep communications consistent and intentional at scale — including publishing 289 posts in a single year across LinkedIn and owned media channels.
-
I translate platform data into strategy. From quarterly LinkedIn analytics reports to bounce rate analysis and engagement benchmarking, I don't just track numbers — I use them to make smarter decisions and communicate impact to leadership.
-
I developed documentation that actually gets used. My SOPs on webinar hosting and image licensing/copyright are used firmwide, and the latter generated enough interest to spawn dedicated staff training sessions.
-
I write for LinkedIn, websites, newsletters, internal communications, and executive bios — adapting tone and format for every audience while maintaining a consistent brand voice. My manager now makes fewer and fewer edits to my work, which I consider one of my strongest professional milestones.
-
I've played a key role in events from conception to execution, managing logistics, communications, and coordination.
-
I shoot professional headshots and portraits that help individuals show up with confidence — delivering polished, approachable imagery that reflects their personal brand. It's the same storytelling instinct I bring to communications, just expressed visually.
-
After auditing the firm's publication and subscription landscape, I identified significant redundancy across individual partner accounts and took the initiative to consolidate all logins into a centralized inbox. The result: eliminated duplicate plans, cut subscriptions we didn't need, and saved the company upwards of $5,000. It's the kind of operational detail that rarely gets celebrated — but always gets felt.
-
Not every team has a designer on call — and I've learned to bridge that gap. Using branded templates and shared design systems, I update and produce graphics for social media, internal communications, and digital campaigns. I work within established brand guidelines to maintain visual consistency, move quickly, and keep the team from hitting a bottleneck waiting on creative support.
What People Have My Collegaues Have Said about me
*
What People Have My Collegaues Have Said about me *
“Belema is one of the most talented and promising Comms Coordinators I've ever worked with.”
— Sam Moeller, Director of Communications, Manager
“She seems to punch above our weight — our presence reflects the work of a much larger firm.”
— Stan Wall, Managing Partner
"Her collaboration resulted in some very unique and engaging pieces of recruitment collateral."
— Tara Fay-Reilly, Former Recruitment Manager
Good Comms Leaves a Paper Trail.
387K+ Impressions
Every post has a purpose. In 2025, a consistent, strategic LinkedIn presence generated over 387,000 impressions — turning owned media into a genuine business development tool.
36.3% Homepage Bounce Rate
The industry average is 50–60%. Ours is 36.3% — meaning the content strategy behind our website doesn't just attract visitors, it makes them stay.
289 LinkedIn Posts Published in 2025
That's roughly one post per day, every day — planned, written, and executed with intention. Volume without quality is noise. This was both.
Data That Tells a Story
When I joined HR&A Advisors in March 2023, the company's LinkedIn page had roughly 4,000 followers. Today, that number sits at 21,493 — a 437% increase driven not by ads or algorithmic shortcuts, but by consistent, intentional content published every single day.
The graph tells the story clearly: steady, compounding growth year over year. Each January marker represents another year of showing up, refining the strategy, and letting the data guide what came next. That's not luck. That's a system.
Proof of Concept
-
Project Milestones & Awards
Celebrating completed work, contract wins, industry recognition, and project announcements — the posts that showcase what HR&A actually does in the world.
-
Thought Leadership & Events
Conference presentations, panel appearances, webinars, and published insights — positioning HR&A's experts as voices worth following in the urban planning and policy space.
-
People & Culture
Team spotlights, Fellow Friday features, ERG celebrations, affinity month content, and hiring announcements — the posts that show who HR&A is, not just what they do.
-
Research & Impact
Data sharecards, scrollytelling posts, policy updates, and project outcomes — translating complex work into digestible, shareable content that demonstrates real-world impact.
Photography
