LinkedIn is like a central office for personal branding. There has been no other social media platform ever which is so focused on building professional connections.
Every feature you ever wanted to build your personal audience—LinkedIn has got you. The overall built of the platform is to help you showcase your whereabouts.
You get the big banner behind your profile picture which can be used as a canvas to represent your business. You get the huge “about section” and the “recommendations” feature is remarkable.
If you still aren’t leveraging LinkedIn to its fullest, meaning you are not active on the platform. The following numbers might give you a thrust:
- There are more than 760 million users present on LinkedIn.
- 40% of users check the platform daily.
- 50% of graduates in the US use LinkedIn.
- 38% of LinkedIn users are millennials.
- LinkedIn is also 277% more effective for generating leads. (Source)
These numbers are impressive enough for personal branding. Perhaps LinkedIn must be included in your favorites for the media mix.
Therefore, to help you grow with your personal branding on LinkedIn, we have got 3 killer moves that are easy to follow.
#1 Make a Fancy Profile
Your LinkedIn profile is like your resume but more vivid and interesting. So expect that visitors will read your “about” section and scan through other sections as well.
Therefore, unlike other social apps—take more time to craft your profile to make it more alluring. Remember that your profile is your social persona here. Hence, your profile revolves around the idea of personal branding on LinkedIn.
Start from here:
Profile Picture
Use a professional-looking picture. Consider a head shot with good quality. Try to match the background of your profile picture with the design of your banner image. This appeals to the visitors but most of us ignore it.
Banner Image
The background image which is present behind your profile picture can do wonders for your personal branding. Use it to introduce yourself in creative ways. Mention your services here and be graphical and modern with the design.
Accurate Headline
The headline is to display the occupation just below the name. But it can do so much more than that. You should begin with what exactly you do professionally; you can also go with a tagline.
Many people have different skillsets—you can also mention these skills in the headline but use the vertical bar ( | ) to separate between the titles. Remember to put keywords so that your searchability can be boosted.
About Section
This is where you get to explain your services, expertise and who you are. The character limit here is 2000 characters so tell a story but an interesting one. Include keywords related to your industry, and do include a CTR (call to action). Make sure the about section is warm and welcoming.
Add Experience
Mention the places you have worked. Tag the company or website you need to showcase your work history.
Add education
Similarly, showcase your academic history. This slide is placed just below the experience section.
License and Certificates
Just as it sounds, display all your achievements and make your profile look professional and skilled.
Contact Section
You can add your website, phone, email, IM, and other information. You can and should change the default link of your profile which is generally too long and complicated.
You can put your name or related keyword here. This new link is much easier to remember and can also help with SEO (search engine optimization).
Skills and Endorsements
You can list out your skills here and your connection can endorse you for these. Put the most important skills in the beginning because visitors can only see the first few, so they have to tap the ‘see more’ option.
Recommendations
This is powerful stuff because the person who has worked with you has provided the written testimonials.
Use Featured Section
Your profile section leaves a big space for featured items. You can add your post, articles, publications, or even your portfolio with the CTA (call to action) option.
#2 Connect With People
Your connections play an important role when it comes to personal branding on LinkedIn. They help you to promote your content, find clients & prospects, get a job, and so on.
Therefore connecting with like-minded people brings new opportunities to the table. When you’re in connection with someone, it means that both parties can see the content of each other.
Let’s see how it’s done:
Sending Connection Request
Look for the “my network” option. Here you can find the recommendations of the users who work for similar roles. Hence, it is mentioned under: “people you may know with similar roles”.
Here you will see the big button which reads “connect” on each member’s profile—along with their names and titles of course.
You can directly send the connection request or you can also include “personalize invite”. This acts like a welcome note where you can mention why you wanted to connect or just a warm introduction—people usually appreciate that.
There is a limit on how many requests one can send in a week so be thoughtful about it. You can also search for people you already know and send them an invitation. You can use different filters for searching people out.
More Ways
Professionals have created millions of groups on LinkedIn. These groups are filtered by niches and industries so one can go all specific, making these groups very useful.
Joining a group can also bring in some leads and valuable connections. You can use related keywords to search for the groups you are looking for.
The best way to gain organic traction and followers is to post valuable content on LinkedIn. Original content appeals to the related audience and potential prospects.
Posting content consistently helps to build trust in your industry and you start generating more leads. LinkedIn offers every type of content to be shared on the platform.
You can write up to 150 characters in the post or share 1300 characters for the blog post. LinkedIn offers the option to post all kinds of content. Just know what to posts for the best organic reach.
Relevant Experience
This type of content is much appreciated by fellow members of your industry. Share what have you been working on. Share tips and tricks and a ‘how-to’ post which adds value to the readers.
Just like any other social media site, LinkedIn is also driven by emotional and relatable stories. Write about your journey so far. Write about the struggles you faced when you started your social media journey and so on.
When To Post
There’s no set of rules on that but being consistent will keep you winning in the long run. You can plan to post every day or just 3-4 days a week. Whatever you decide, create quality content and do it regularly.
Conclusion
Personal branding is very personal by nature—you are the logo, name, reputation, and employee of your own company. So you are responsible for your promotion as well.
Whatever you do here, will become part of your personal branding on LinkedIn. Therefore, make a fancy profile and regularly update it, connect to similar people, and post relevant content.
Do just these things and your LinkedIn game will be the strongest among other social platforms. That’s the beauty here—LinkedIn is all organic right now—take the advantage and start building your brand!
