LinkedIn and your personal branding

It’s no secret that LinkedIn has become a major tool for your business, your network, finding opportunities and seeking collaboration; it is also highly valuable in building your personal brand. This makes sense, because LinkedIn serves as a platform that you can use as a virtual CV. You share your experiences, your credentials, and you can even publish articles. 📝💡

Especially now, during the increasingly digitalised world of the pandemic, the importance of your online branding is emphasised. Forbes has a feature on why executives are embracing LinkedIn now more than ever, which you can find here: it’s a worthwhile read. 📚

In this article, we’ll have a closer look at how LinkedIn can therefore be used for your personal branding. If you want to know more about each of these, visit our blogpost on how to make a good LinkedIn profile.

Without further ado, let’s walk through the relevant section on LinkedIn and how to utilise its powerful potential for personal branding. 💃💃💃

Your Profile Picture 📸

Now, the first thing someone is going to see on your profile (alongside your name, that is) is your picture, so you better make it stand out. There’s a thin line, however, between remaining professional and still standing out and a lot on that depends on, you guessed it, your personal brand. If you’re in the creative industries you won’t go for the same picture someone in the financial sector might go for.

So, to get some of the basics on how to take the right LinkedIn picture, check out an overview here.

Your Bio 👤

If people continue to scroll down, the first thing that will give them a true perception of your brand is your bio. The Number 1 Rule: Keep it short, concise, and authentic. ✨ If you’re unsure about what to include and what not to include, check out our take on the BANEC system here.

Your Experience 💼

Much like a regular CV, you should use LinkedIn as the showcase for your personal branding; it’s a sort of virtual portfolio. You can share your experience, placements, jobs, credentials, etc. Like tweaking your CV for every job you apply to, tweak your LinkedIn profile to fit your brand. Although it seems a tad redundant, as your brand is reflected in your experiences and vice versa, my point here is to constantly update the experience section to reflect where you’re currently at. ☝️

I don't want to repeat platitudes like the devil's in the details, but you know, the devil is, in fact, in the details -- If you don't even take the time to put in this sort of work, others will probably look at your profile like Phyllis at this random girl:

👈

(And we don't want that, do we?)

Your Activity 🏃🏿‍♀️

Similarly, the Activity section is also a place where you can showcase work. You can upload articles and people can also see which other posts you react to and comment on. This reflects just as much about your brand‼️

How to use all of this . . .

So, what do I make of all of this, you may ask yourself. There’s an overview on how to make LinkedIn work for you up on Forbes here. One of the most valuable assets is building your network. You can extend your network by joining groups, for instance. 👥 I am aware the number of groups flooding the network can be overwhelming, but don’t worry, here’s a list of the ones worth joining.

Another great way to use LinkedIn to build your personal brand is to build credibility. Check out this piece on our GuidedPR blog to get a heads up on how to do that here. A combination of most of the points I have discussed (i.e. your photo, bio, activity, etc.) is compiled into a list on things to do to boost your personal brand on LinkedIn on the Search Engine Journal, as well, which you can check out here. ✍️

It might even help you reconfigure your own path. Harvard Business Review has an interesting take on how LinkedIn helps power your career transition here.

As you can see, the ways to use LinkedIn to help build, maintain, and adapt your personal brand are multifold! It’s in your hands. 🤲

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About the Author

Sarah is a PR assistant at GuidedPR. She holds a BA hons in English and Comparative Literature and has just moved to London to start her MA in Modern Literature and Culture at King's College London. She's usually busy writing and consuming caffeine. ☕☕☕

Find her on Linkedin here.