BUILDING YOUR Personal Brand
Your personal brand is essentially your online reputation, and it plays a pivotal role in how you are perceived by colleagues, employers, and potential clients. In this blog post, we’ll explore why personal branding is essential, how it can benefit you, and provide a step-by-step guide on how to build and maintain your personal brand on LinkedIn.
Why Is Personal Branding Important?
It Builds Credibility
A strong personal brand establishes your expertise and credibility in your field, making you a go-to source for information and collaboration. A professional-looking profile with endorsements and recommendations can boost your credibility and authority in your industry. Lead with your profile. Would you consider hiring Joe Bloggs with 5 followers, no profile picture, and a one-line summary, or would you hire someone with this profile below?
Career Advancement
Employers and clients are more likely to trust and hire individuals with a reputable personal brand, leading to better job opportunities and higher income potential. If you want to be a sought-after candidate, you have to look like one. Engage, maintain a consistent voice on your profile, and ask previous colleagues or managers to endorse your skills.
Networking
Long-term Success
Personal branding is an investment in your future. It helps you maintain relevance and adapt to changing career landscapes. Future you is depending on you!
How Does Personal Branding Benefits You on LinkedIn?
Visibility ✅
A well-optimized LinkedIn profile is more likely to appear in search results, increasing your visibility to potential employers, clients, and collaborators. Make sure your profile contains keywords for SEO to boost your visibility.
Thought Leadership ✅
Sharing valuable content, insights, and opinions on LinkedIn positions you as a thought leader, drawing attention to your expertise. As an Irish person, tooting your own horn doesn’t come naturally to us, but for the sake of your career – toot your horn.
Job Opportunities ✅
Recruiters and hiring managers often use LinkedIn to source candidates. A strong personal brand can attract job offers and career opportunities over others. Imagine losing out on an amazing opportunity because you didn’t take thirty minutes out of your day to update your LinkedIn profile.
Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn: A Step-by-Step Guide
Here are some practical steps to build and enhance your personal brand on LinkedIn.
Let’s take a look at one of our colleagues as an example:
1. Optimize Your Profile
Start by optimizing your LinkedIn profile. Use a professional, up-to-date photo, and craft a compelling headline that highlights your expertise. Tip: To use different fonts or italics, type your headline in Word and paste it into LI.
2. Keyword Optimization
Incorporate relevant keywords throughout your profile, especially in your “about” and experience sections. This helps you appear in search results. Tip: Try to incorporate keywords relevant to you in the style of how they would be written in a job description, rather than in your own words, e.g., instead of “Repeated success in increasing figures for website actions” use an SEO-friendly alternative such as “Proficient in website analysis and WordPress optimization, consistently driving increased user engagement”
3. Create an Engaging Summary
Write a concise yet engaging summary that describes your professional journey, skills, and passions. Highlight what sets you apart. Make sure that your summary is authentic and doesn’t sound like it came out of ChatGPT. You can express this by talking about your work passions, projects you enjoy, areas you want to work in, and the trajectory you’d like to head towards in your career.
4. Tell Your Story
Use the banner image to tell us a bit about your career visually. This could include your company brand and a CTA button containing text such as your department or area of expertise.
5. Share Valuable Content
Regularly share content related to your industry, including articles, insights, and updates. Use relevant hashtags to increase visibility. If you don’t have time or the confidence to create your own content, try starting with commenting on other people’s posts or reposting articles.
6. Engage Actively
Interact with your network by commenting on posts, sharing insights, and joining industry-related discussions. Show empathy and authenticity in your interactions. Treat others how you wish to be treated. If you comment on a few people’s posts, chances are they’ll comment on yours too.
7. Connect with Strategic Partners
Connect with influencers and professionals in your industry. Engage with their content and contribute to relevant discussions. By engaging with LinkedIn users with large engagement or following, you increase your visibility to a larger group, and the algorithm will reward you for being an active and engaged user.
8. Join LinkedIn Groups
Participate in LinkedIn groups related to your field. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and connect with like-minded professionals. You will benefit from the shared knowledge and insider information within your industry.
9. Seek Recommendations and Endorsements
Ask colleagues, clients, and mentors for recommendations and endorsements to build trust and credibility.
10. Regularly Update Your Profile
Keep your LinkedIn profile up-to-date with your latest achievements, skills, and experiences. Set a reminder on your calendar to update your profile every month or so.
Personal branding is no longer an optional endeavor.
It’s a necessity for career growth and success. LinkedIn offers a powerful platform to develop and showcase your personal brand to a global audience. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can establish yourself as an industry expert, network with like-minded professionals, and unlock exciting career opportunities. So, start building your personal brand on LinkedIn today and watch your professional journey flourish. We hope that our tips and tricks help in making your personal brand shine!
Feel free to contact us to discuss any of your hiring needs.
