It’s easy to spend so much time building your business profile on LinkedIn that you forget to pay attention to your personal brand. You represent the business you work for and building your personal brand is a must. LinkedIn can be a very good place to start building your presence.
Why Personal Branding Is Important
Your personal brand is essentially the unique skills and experiences you have, which make you who you are. What makes you unique? What makes you the person you are today? Personal branding can help you stand out from the other professionals in your industry.
Personal branding is a crucial part of building a successful business. Your personal brand is an extension of the brand you work for but, not only that, it can be a business brand altogether. In fact, many entrepreneurs launch businesses in their name.
LinkedIn can be a fantastic tool for building your personal brand. Not only does it allow you to have up to 30,000 connections, but there are an impressive 310 million active monthly users on the platform overall. The reach potential is fantastic. By creating and building a personal brand on LinkedIn, you can show that you’re trustworthy, establish credibility, and carve out your space in the industry as a thought leader. People care about authenticity and will be more likely to take notice of your content if you build a trustworthy reputation.
So, how can you build a personal brand on LinkedIn? Keep reading for five of our top tips.
How To Build Your Brand
1. Complete Your Profile
A complete LinkedIn profile looks professional and shows a level of care and attention. Did you know that you can make your profile seven times more likely to be found in searches by adding a profile photo? Or that you can make your profile twelve times more likely to be found by showing your two most recent employment positions?
2. Make Connections
LinkedIn is a social media platform and, as the name suggests, it’s inherently social. You’re judged by the company you keep and building your LinkedIn network is part of creating your personal brand. People generally think highly of those who surround themselves with good people!
Use LinkedIn to connect with friends, former and current colleagues, classmates, industry leaders and other professionals you admire. Don’t be scared to send a connection request and don’t be shy about asking your contacts for introductions to other people in their networks.
3. Publish Content
LinkedIn is the leading professional publishing platform in the world. Publishing content is a great way to build your personal brand as the more you post, the more credibility you’ll build. By delivering consistently high-quality content, your audience will start to expect this standard from you. You may even become a thought-leader in your field, with your audience turning to you for “what’s next.”
Consistency is critical for all personal branding, whether this be in the form of a regular upload schedule or cohesion in the topics being discussed on your page. Posts which add value in line with your brand can help enforce your status as a thought leader, as well as helping you gain credibility and respect.
4. Treat LinkedIn Like A Resume
Your brand is more than who you are, it’s also what you do. You can further build your personal brand on LinkedIn by talking about your current projects, upcoming events, recent reads and personal opinions. However, it’s important to ensure that all elements of your professional footprint are sending the same messages and keeping in line with your ethics and values.
Think of your LinkedIn profile as a living resume. Update it whenever you make a career move, publish a new article, complete a training course, or speak at an event. At the end of the day, it’s your profile that sells you to anybody who is taking the time to look.
5. Engage, Engage, Engage
It’s good to have a large audience but what’s the point if they aren’t engaged with your content? All of your high-effort posts will be falling on deaf ears. There are a multitude of benefits which come with crafting an engaged audience. For example, they are more likely to react to, comment on, or share your content. This means your posts will be shared to their network, opening you up to a whole new audience.
LinkedIn shouldn’t be treated as a platform just for your own content. Make sure you set aside some time to go through your feed and engage with other people’s content too! Comment on a post and show that you took the time to read and engage with their content. This is key to building relationships over time, as well as strengthening your personal brand.
It’s important to remember that your personal brand and reputation will stay with you no matter where you go or what happens to the business you work for. It’s yours to take with you. By building a personal brand, you’ll be able to be honest and open about your opinions and values, whilst gaining credibility and respect in your field. Not only that, but your personal brand will also benefit the business you work for by helping humanise their brand. People buy from people and showing who’s behind the business can help to gain leads and new business opportunities.
So, if you’re looking for some advice on how to build your branding or are hoping to brainstorm with one of our team on some content ideas for your LinkedIn, get in touch today for a free consultation.