Building your brand on LinkedIn is the long game with many trials and errors, but we’re here to help you get started!
The worldwide pandemic has transformed people’s habits, forcing them to spend more time at home and subsequently, more time browsing the web. Through the internet, they seek out new ways to entertain and find human interactions. More and more professionals are taking advantage of their LinkedIn personal branding to assert brand authority, connect with people, and search for jobs. This presents new opportunities for your company’s lead generation, content marketing, ad campaigns, and many more.
There has never been a better time to join the world’s largest network of professionals and build your online presence. Here are our 8 tips to hack your LinkedIn personal branding and establish an online presence.
- SEO-optimized your profile with relevant keywords on your headline, experience, and all of your content (but also win over the humans by bringing a personal touch and story-telling in your about section!).
- Add projects, testimonials, or recommendations from your former colleagues, employers, and clients to increase your credibility. You can make their lives easier by drafting up what you think is correct for your skills and contribution to the work/projects, and acceptable to the referrers. This also increases your chance of them saying yes to giving the testimonials, because you basically did all the writing.
- Find people within the professional circle that you want to be in and connect with them. If you have access to LinkedIn Premium, connect with those who visit your profile, and make use of your free InMail credits. Also, remember to reach out to your former classmates or colleagues!
- People who share content on LinkedIn at least once per week are 10x more likely to be approached for new opportunities than those who don’t. The best way to nurture your audience relationship is by bringing authenticity into your content. Pick a topic that you are interested in and have experience in. It is better to go niche than trying to appeal to everyone with broad topics. You want to attract a certain type of connection that is part of the professional circle that you want to be in. If you are not the go-to person for a certain type of topic, your brand is not very strong yet.
- Join industry groups where your connections gather. Don’t look for groups with the largest size, but those with the highest level of activity. Engage with group members by connecting, asking for advice, commenting on a topic, or offering something of value for free (industry trends, whitepapers, consultations, even inspirations and words of encouragement). Here are some things that you should consider:
- Join with your individual account, not your company page. Joining with your company account might give the impression that you’re only there to sell. Besides, a face on a profile is always easier to approach.
- Speaking of selling, never start a conversation with a sales pitch, not only in LinkedIn groups, but on LinkedIn in general. Provide value, build trust and connection, then maybe people might be willing to listen to your pitch.
- Establish your expertise and group presence by frequently answering questions, posting relevant content, and initiate discussions. It is also a perfect place to conduct market research.
- The safest conversation starters include industry trends, educational or operational issues that people can relate to within their work lives.
- Engage, engage, and engage: react, comment, reach out to other people, tag other people, and let yourself be tagged. When reaching out for help, be nice and be very specific about what you want help with (don’t just say, can we hop on a 15-minute call!)
- It is especially important that you take actions on key dates that are essential to your company and the companies of your connections. For example, product launches, upcoming events or webinars, celebrations of meaningful milestones, etc.
- Advocate LinkedIn to your entire company. Imagine the number of leads and opportunities it will bring if the whole company takes part in brand building on LinkedIn.
- Consistency is key: share your content and engage as much as you can. The more you engage, the more your profile will stay visible to LinkedIn users.
- Turn off the “People also viewed” section on your profile to keep the focus on you! (Settings & Privacy – Site Preferences – Viewers of this profile also view)
As you hone your skills, expand your network, or move up the career ladder, remember to constantly update and optimize your profile so that it presents your latest development. Don’t get discouraged if your content only gets a couple of likes at first. As you connect and engage, the results will get better and become worthwhile. You’ll find yourself with more profile visits, connection invitations, post engagement, job advancements, and many amazing opportunities. May the LinkedIn game be ever in your favor!
While you work on your LinkedIn personal branding, check out our top 10 LinkedIn statistics for your 2021 strategies.
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