What is a brand and why should you create one on LinkedIn?
According to Wikipedia: A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller’s good or service from those of other sellers.
It’s not just the colours a company uses in its marketing materials or its logo – it is so much more than that. It comprises the colours, logo, taglines etc. but it also encompasses how the company communicates to the outside world and within the company. A brand is the culture embedded in a company or organisation. A brand is all that a company stands for.
You may have heard of the phrase ‘Know Like Trust’. When people know you, and like you, they’re much more likely to trust you. The next step in this process is purchase.
People only buy from people they trust.
As an employee or an entrepreneur, in order to get people to know, like, trust and hire you, it’s important that you create your own brand on LinkedIn.
As Wikipedia says, your brand is what distinguishes you from your competitors. Your brand is your personality, it’s how you talk, what you talk about, how you interact with others, what you read, what you do at the weekend.
Basically, your brand is all those things that make you YOU!
I am a firm believer that we should live, eat and sleep our brand. The stronger our brand message, the more people will remember it.
For individuals like you, your brand can be shown in so many different ways. Today I’m going to give you 10 places/tips for expressing your brand on LinkedIn.
10 tips for creating and maintaining your own brand on LinkedIn
- Optimise your LinkedIn profile for search
When you write your headline, be really clear about what you want. Think about what your future employers or clients need to know about you and structure your headline around that. Use keywords – i.e. those words which you may get found for on LinkedIn – if you’re in HR for example, use words and phrases like HR, Human Resources, employees, company culture and you’ll get found when people search those words and phrases
2. Show your face and your voice
If people know what you look and sound like they feel they know you much better. Have you ever seen someone in real life after seeing them on TV? It’s like you know them isn’t it? You can create that familiarity in your LinkedIn profile using 3 tools:
- Have an up to date and clear profile photo.
- Record your 30 second profile video – this sits behind your profile photo
- Record your 10 second voice recording
3. Sell yourself in your ‘about’ section
You have 2600 characters in your about section – use them all! This isn’t a CV, this is a chance for you to tell your story, talk about your achievements and how great you are – but in a non-salesy way.
4. Use your banner to add to your story
The biggest visual aid on LinkedIn is your banner. You can add more images of yourself and/or use it to tell something else about you. Have you got an interesting hobby or have you done something unusual for charity which you could showcase here?
5. Previous employment and volunteering
As well as listing your previous jobs and any volunteering opportunities, talk about any change that you made in an organisation, any contributions you made. Also talk about what you learnt while you were there.
6. Showcase yourself as an expert with engaging content
LinkedIn is giving us more and more opportunities to showcase and create content. Use content to show how much you know about your subject area. Use it to show that you read around your subject by posting links to interesting articles you’ve read. There are now many different styles of content on LinkedIn – use them!
7. Join relevant conversations
If you don’t go out on LinkedIn and join conversations with others, how will those people know you are there? Use the search bar to find relevant people and then spend time commenting on their posts, add your opinion, start a conversation (but whatever you do, don’t show off!)
8. Make close connections
Don’t just have a splatter gun approach. What’s important is that you build on the connections and form proper relationships with relevant people. These may be potential employers or clients, or people who can give you access to potential those people.
Don’t be afraid to use Direct Messaging to build on a relationship started in the feed. Don’t be afraid to ask for meetings or calls in order to further your career or grow your business. Don’t be spammy or salesy but asking someone for a meeting can’t hurt, as long as you’ve already started a relationship with them.
9. Join industry groups
Groups are a bit hit and miss on LinkedIn and are only as good as the people running them. Joining a few well-structured and engaged groups can be a fantastic way of bringing your brand to a relevant and engaged group of people. Have a look around for groups in your industry and ask to join one or two and dip your toe in.
10. Be consistent – content – showing up
The most important thing with creating and establishing yourself as a brand is to be consistent! There are two ways to be consistent on LinkedIn:
- Be consistent with your branding. Don’t flit around from one topic to the next. Stick with the same topics and the tone of voice to build more trust and familiarity among your followers and connections.
- Be consistent when you appear on LinkedIn. Seeing someone regularly helps bring them closer to you. People are more likely to remember you if you appear on a regular basis. Pop on to LinkedIn every day – just for a few minutes and comment on a few posts. Try to work out how often you can post on LinkedIn and stick to a pattern. Don’t post 3 times one week and none the next. Be consistent to build that trust.
There you go folks, 10 ways in which you can build and maintain Brand YOU on LinkedIn!
I hope these tips have been helpful – please come and follow me on LinkedIn and ring the bell icon below my banner to make sure you get more of my tips in your feed.
