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

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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