9 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

You don’t need to have your own business to build your brand on social media. Every day, millions of people are searching LinkedIn, visiting profiles, looking for people to solve business issues and network. LinkedIn is the space to start meaningful discussions, create a stage for your professional opinions and bring out a strategy to launch your career development.

Here are 9 ways to boost your personal brand on LinkedIn:

Your title, expertise and summary should be the first in the list to create your personal brand. One glimpse should be enough for a person to recognize what you do and stand for. Come up with a creative headline, captivating summary (LinkedIn only shows 70 symbols, make others want to press that “See more” button), and expand on how you help your clients solve their issues.

Create your visual

We all know that an attractive profile photo raises your chances to be noticed. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to make professional shots, however, a picture from your recent trip to the mountains / beach / Eiffel Tower will not do the trick. Ask a friend / use the portrait mode on your phone to get a clean looking shot:

it should include your face and/or shoulders – don’t use any extreme closeup of your face
it should be clear and unpixelated
no hats or shades
smile
have great lighting
don’t use a selfie (if you can clearly tell it’s a selfie)
don’t take a picture with anyone else
dress appropriately

You can also add a cover photo on LinkedIn – it’s a great way to add a specialty to your profile and showcase the company you are working for by adding their logo/name.

Change your page URL

In the section “Edit public profile & URL” you can personalize your page and get rid of random numbers assigned by the website. Keep it unique!

Examples of a good URL:

– https://www.linkedin.com/in/[yourname]

– https://www.linkedin.com/in/[yourservice]

Prove your expertise

In the experience section, you should emphasize what impact you made on the companies/clients that you worked with. Measuring your success in numbers will make it easier to understand how you influenced the field.

Add your certificates! No matter if it’s a LinkedIn course on building resilience, Google digital marketing workshop or a Photoshop course you recently accomplished, add it to your profile and make it easy for other professionals to discover you.

Create original content

Content creation is not a task for bloggers, opinion leaders and influencers only. You can also be the one to write articles on topics in your professional field, publish your thoughts on pressing issues, initiate webinars, and co-host streams. Your inner critic might try to convince you that nobody’s interested in your opinion, and maybe, at first, your posts will not go viral, but stability and creativity will get you where you want to be.

Don’t forget to link all the articles and blog posts you have written before to your LinkedIn profile – this way you’ll be able to connect with those who are already excited about your stories.

Ask for recommendations

Something you always wanted to do but never actually did! Ask your colleague, senior executive or manager to write a recommendation for you. To prevent it from being too generic, mention a few points you would like them to cover.

Choose your network mindfully

LinkedIn isn’t a platform for just your posts. Spend 5 minutes every day to go through your newsfeed and find opportunities to share, like and comment. This way, you will build foundation for a meaningful connection in the future!

Set a goal to make 10 professional connections with people from your field. Your newsfeed will change drastically and be filled with topical news and opportunities to broaden your horizons.

Engage in groups and discussions

LinkedIn is not a social network to absent-mindedly scroll through it when you get bored (I mean it’s not supposed to be!). If you care to spend 5 minutes on reading an article and writing a meaningful comment, you will gain an opportunity to network, network, and network! Is it not exactly what we need during the WFH times?

Personalize invitations to connect

Writing a short message to your future connection – 2 minutes. Boosting your chance of acceptance and creating an opportunity for further communication with that person – priceless.