How to brand yourself on LinkedIn?
In my previous article, I discussed the topic “How to grow on LinkedIn?”. If you didn’t read it yet, click here to know how to grow on LinkedIn.
In this article, I would like to tell you How to brand yourself on LinkedIn.
Most people invest their time and effort in building brands. But, how often invest their time and effort to build their own personal brand?
Most people don’t get around to it because they’re busy, and because it can sometimes feel selfish or egotistical to invest time in marketing themselves. Sometimes they think about what others will think about them or others will think that they are trying to show off. However, when we neglect personal branding, we don’t just sell ourselves, we also miss a big opportunity from us.
Mainly, the LinkedIn profile page is the best place for your personal branding. They often add more features to increase LinkedIn’s capabilities as a personal branding platform and give us new ways to show our skills. If you have to go through with your profile recently, you might find new ways to build your own personal brand.
Here in this article, I’m going to discuss 20 different tips you should check and update for 2022 to start your personal branding on LinkedIn.
Some of them are very small tasks, and some of them may take a little bit of time. But all of them are very worthy. They will help you to brand your LinkedIn profile and the personal brand that you deserve.
1. Choose the right profile picture.
Your profile picture is your calling card on LinkedIn. It might be your first impression of someone else on LinkedIn.
Here are some quick tips:
- Make sure the picture is recent and looks like you.
- Make sure your face takes up around 70% of the profile picture space.
- Wear what you would like to wear to work. Finally, smile with your eyes!
2. Add a suitable background photo.
Your background photo is the second visual element at the top of your profile page. It takes people’s attention. So, show a little more about what matters to you and what you care about.
The right background photo helps your profile to stand out, engage attention and stay memorable.
3. Make your headline more than just the job title.
There’s no rule that says a headline at the top of your profile page has to be just a job title.
So, use the headline field to say more about how you see your role.
Ask yourself these questions.
Why do you do what you do? And what makes you tick?
These questions will help you to make a headline for your profile.
Take a quick look at others' profile page headlines for inspiration. They will almost certainly have more than their job titles in their headlines. And make your LinkedIn profile headline unique and more suitable.
4. Write your story.
The first thing to say about your LinkedIn summary is to make sure you have one!😂 It’s amazing how many people still leave this field blank when creating their LinkedIn profile.
Your summary is your chance to tell your own story. So, don’t just use it to tell about your skills or the job titles you’ve had. Try to bring to life why those skills matter.
Don’t be afraid to invest some time and effort. This is your most personal piece of content marketing and it’s worth the effort.
Please declare war on buzzwords. Buzzwords are adjectives that are used so often in LinkedIn headlines and summaries that they become almost completely meaningless.
The most over-used buzzwords include terms like:
‘specialised’, ‘leadership’, ‘focused’, ‘strategic’, ‘experienced’, ‘passionate’, ‘expert’, ‘creative’, ‘innovative’ and ‘certified’.
Just using these words won’t convince people that you have these qualities. You need to demonstrate them as well, both in the way you describe yourself and in the way you use LinkedIn profile features to show what you’re about.
5. Grow your network.
One of the easiest and yet most relevant ways to grow your LinkedIn network is to sync your profile with your email address book or contacts. This enables LinkedIn to suggest people you could connect with. It’s amazing how effective this can be at surfacing relevant people for you to reach out to, and no connection requests are sent without your permission, so you can take care of all of the potential connections.
Beyond this, getting into the habit of following company pages, meetings, events and conversations with LinkedIn connection requests is a great way of keeping your network vibrant and up to date.
6. List relevant skills.
It’s one of the quickest of quick wins on LinkedIn. Scroll through the list of skills and identify those that are relevant to you. Doing so helps you to substantiate the description in your Headline and Summary, and provides a platform for others to endorse/recommend you.
A long list of skills that aren’t really core to who you are and what you do, can start to feel unwieldy and doubtful. Take time to update your skills list frequently.
7. Spotlight the services you offer.
Services is a new LinkedIn feature that helps consultants, freelancers and those working for smaller businesses to showcase the range of services that they offer. Filling out the Services section of your profile can boost your visibility in search results.
8. Spread the endorsement love.
Endorsements from others substantiate your skills and increase your credibility.
How do you get endorsed on LinkedIn?
For starters, go through your network and identify connections who you feel genuinely deserve an endorsement from you. That’s often the trigger for people to return the favour. Don’t be afraid to reach out with a polite message asking for endorsement for a few key skills as well.
Reach out to people whose endorsement you’d really value and really matters.
9. Take skills assessments.
A skills assessment is an online test that enables you to demonstrate the level of your skills, and display a verified skills badge on your profile.
Linkedin Analysis shows that candidates with verified skills are around 30% more likely to be hired for the roles they apply for. And showing proof of your abilities strengthens your personal brand more generally as well. Displaying the results of your skills assessments is entirely voluntary, and you can retake the tests as often as you like before showing that you’ve passed.
10. Request recommendations.
Endorsements give people viewing your profile a quick, visual sense of what you’re valued or skilled for. Recommendations take things a step further. They are personal testimonials written to illustrate the experience of working with you.
There’s a handy drop-down menu in the Recommendations section of your profile that makes it easy to reach out to specific contacts and request recommendations. Take the time to think about who you would most value a recommendation from, and personalize your request. It’s worth the extra effort.
11. Showcase your passion for learning.
When you complete a course on LinkedIn Learning, you’ll have the opportunity to add the course certificate to your LinkedIn profile. You do this from within the Learning History section of your LinkedIn Learning account, where you can also send updates about your learning to your network if you want.
12. Get credit for your thought leadership with Publications.
The Publications section is one of the most under-used elements in LinkedIn profiles. You can really stand out from the crowd when you use this feature to draw attention to existing thought-leadership content.
Have you helped to write an eBook or a White Paper? Or written post on your company’s blog?
The Publications section links your profile to these assets.
13. Share relevant content from your LinkedIn feed.
It’s one thing to have a network of connections on LinkedIn and it’s far better to have an active role in that network, appearing in your connections’ LinkedIn feeds in a way that adds more value to them.
Sharing relevant content with your network is one of the most accessible ways to do this. You can make a start by keeping a close eye on your LinkedIn feed and sharing content that you find genuinely interesting and that aligns with your point of view.
14. Make the profile URL looks more professional.
When you create a LinkedIn account, it automatically generates a profile URL to your account. By default, it looks like this, https://www.linkedin.com/in/your-name-xxxxxxxxx/
(xxxxxxxxx = some digits)
LinkedIn allows you to change or edit your LinkedIn profile URL. So, it’s better to make your LinkedIn profile URL more professional and clear.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/your-name
My LinkedIn profile URL,
https://www.linkedin.com/in/santhusha-janana-mudannayaka/
15. Add comments.
Sharing is great, but it’s just the starting point. When you add comments to your shares, you give yourself greater prominence within the feed and start to express why you think a particular piece of content matters.
Well-expressed comments also enable you to share a broader range of content. It might be that you don’t agree with a point of view but still find it interesting, for example. A comment that can express that viewpoint starts to establish your opinion and thought-leadership. It’s also more likely to draw additional comments, which then raise your profile across LinkedIn.
Bear this in mind when you’re writing your comment and make sure you’re saying something you’re happy for people to associate with you. You will find these tips helpful when commenting:
- Don’t be a salesy douche canoe.
- Write more than a couple of words.
- Make paragraphs 2–3 sentences long.
- Use emojis as list item markers.
- Don’t use external links.
- Tag the person you’re responding to.
- Don’t tag people unnecessarily.
- Keep it on topic.
Read more about commenting…
16. Follow relevant influencers for your industry.
Following relevant influencers on LinkedIn helps you to put a range of interesting content in your feed which you can then share with others when you think it adds more value to others. It also helps to give context to your LinkedIn profile, demonstrating your passion for what you do.
17. Publish long-form content. Use it to start conversations.
The more you share and comment on content, the more you establish your expertise and thought-leadership credentials on LinkedIn.
Publishing long-form posts is the natural next step to take. A great starting point is to monitor the response that you get to your comments and shares. Are there particular subjects and points of view that seem to resonate with your network? Are there comments that you have shared that you feel you could expand on in a post?
Evolving your thought leadership in this way keeps it real and keeps you plugged into the issues your connections are talking about. Be ready for your long-form posts to start new conversations too.
Keep an eye on the comments and be ready to respond.
Getting your LinkedIn profile working harder for you doesn’t have to take up hours of your time. Try working through these ideas, building from one to the other. And you’ll find that you can make progress quickly, even if you’re just able to set aside a few minutes over a lunch break or in the evenings. Once you’re flexing the full advantages of your LinkedIn profile you’ll be amazed at what a difference it can make to you. So, don’t be late.
In my next article, I am going to discuss “10 Ways to earn money for Students”
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