With 810 million members around the globe, LinkedIn is a powerful social platform for business professionals. Be it to connect with prospects, or to understand the industry pulse, or to drive social traffic to business websites it is used extensively. For an aspiring professional, LinkedIn is an extremely powerful tool to get noticed by potential employers in a crowded talent market — thereby building a personal brand. It can expand your network and unlock professional connections to add value and enrich your career.
Let’s see how you can start building your professional brand on LinkedIn.
define yourself authentically.
Your presence and voice on LinkedIn is critical to building your personal brand. Make sure that when people go through your profile, they are left with a positive impression and impact that makes them
want to connect with you.
The summary section is your space to define yourself — as you see yourself, in your words, without the need to use titles. Look at it as creative elevator pitch for your personal brand. Make your
headline count with what you stand for. Pack this section authentically with the strengths and value you bring to the table. If you are in the creative business, a well-designed LinkedIn banner can work wonders. Be succinct, and showcase your expertise and persona professionally.
And personalize your URL (LinkedIn allows you to!). This adds to your branding by making it easier
to remember and share.
optimize your LinkedIn page for search.
Across your profile, intelligently use keywords that are specific to your industry or function. Your profile will then show up frequently in searches that you want to be noticed. Also, update your content with industry-led words and phrases that represent your knowledge and experience.
Very important to visibility is to set your LinkedIn profile to public under privacy settings. This will enable those interested in you to see your profile, content and full skill set.
create high-quality and meaningful content.
Regular, relevant and well-articulated posts add force to your well-created profile. Publish content that demonstrates your multi-faceted capabilities — and positions you as a valuable expert in your field.
Adopt a good content strategy with a versatile mix of posts (including carousel posts), blogs articles, etc. If you repost an interesting article, do so with your perspective on the article — it shows your initiative to keep with developments and share your views.
engage and interact.
Comment on other members’ posts and engage in conversations with them. Join discussion groups, and answer questions in LinkedIn Answers. It will give you good exposure and lead to valuable professional and social connections, When you engage in discussions, you learn immensely, and show that you are a professional who is invested in your domain. Interacting in this manner will tremendously improve your personal brand.
Engage with LinkedIn influencers in your field — follow them and share their content (chances are they will follow you, given that you have a good profile). Their insights and knowledge can improve yours and also increase your visibility and social engagement.
build your social network.
Be yourself and don’t hold back – you get out what you put in, just like any networking.
get the right recommendations.
Word of mouth is powerful. Your brand gets a great boost as the number of people who recommend you increases. Ensure you have a versatile mix of colleagues, managers, leaders, clients and professionals outside your immediate employer circle. Ensure that their recommendations touch upon the skills, capabilities and traits that you would like to be known by — request for such recommendations from people who can honestly and authentically provide them.
leverage LinkedIn’s analytics features.
What does not get measured cannot be valued. Use LinkedIn’s analytics features to track the professionals who are viewing you, with basic demographic information. This will lead you to the next
steps that you can adopt to build your brand further.
Without a doubt, LinkedIn is one of the most important platforms for personal branding. By creating powerful personal brand on this platform, you can flip the narrative from looking for a job to inviting
jobs to you. In the process, you also build your audience’s trust — and this is a great combination to land your dream job!
So go for it, and here’s wishing you the very best!
Don’t wait. Get working on building your brand today because the more time and attention you give, the more you will receive.