Rock Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
Your personal brand is no longer optional. Whether you're an intrapreneur, subject matter expert, freelancer, job seeker, or business leader -- LinkedIn is one of the first places people go to learn more about you.
LinkedIn has become the foundation for 99.8% of the personal brands online today. Unless you're part of the .2% of outliers who built an audience of millions somewhere else, your LinkedIn presence matters... A LOT.
We've all heard the term "personal branding," but what does it actually mean? What goes into a great personal brand? Does it take months of hand-holding with a branding expert to develop one?
In this next Mondays with Mindi episode, we discuss some of the most important elements to include in your personal brand, how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to put your best professional self forward -- so that you can grow your business, scale your impact and attract more business opportunities.
Your Personal Brand is No Longer Optional
A few years ago, having a cohesive personal brand was optional. Only personal brand-based business leaders needed one, and those famous industry experts who gave keynotes.
These days, it doesn’t matter whether you're an intrapreneur, subject matter expert, freelancer, job seeker, or business leader -- LinkedIn is one of the first places people go to learn more about you.
How we used to craft a “personal brand” was to make a list of all places where we needed to have a profile and then try to tie all of them together.
When you think of the term “personal brand” what immediately comes to mind for you?
Is it a personal website?
Maybe your bio?
A list of accomplishments somewhere?
Your podcast or YouTube channel?
Or a constellation of online “places” where you have a profile?
What pulls up in a Google search when your name is typed into search?
Most of us have this very unclear perception of what our personal brand actually is.
We cannot download our personal brand. We cannot just send a link of our personal brand to someone.
It’s hard to sum up all the components and speak the same language when everyone has a different definition of… personal brand.
So, a good number of branding experts will talk about ‘building your personal brand’ and the importance of doing so.
We all nod our heads in agreement. We know it’s important.
But what is IT actually? Is there a place where we can actually START to build our personal brand? Or are we supposed to just start building out our profiles all over the internet and hope it ties together into a neat and tidy package called “our personal brand.”
Imagine for a moment if ALL you needed to do was to first focus on your LinkedIn profile as the start of your personal brand? That’s it.
Am I downplaying the experts who specialize in helping individuals build a comprehensive personal branding strategy? Not at all.
I have some good friends who are rockstars at helping people think through all of the elements of their personal branding plan, which I think is incredibly important.
Thing is, you’ve got to start somewhere. There is no better place to start than on LinkedIn.
Let’s talk about the most important elements to include in your personal brand on LinkedIn, how to avoid many of the common pitfalls, and how to put your best professional self forward -- so that you can grow your business, scale your impact and attract more business opportunities.
More on that in a minute.
When to Update Your LinkedIn Profile
Many experts I know who are truly specialists in their field believe that to build their personal brand, they need to “figure out their personal brand” before taking any action online.
They spend months going it alone by attending free workshops, reading personal branding books, following experts, working on their messaging, deliberating over their brand colors, trying to figure out if they need a log, and designing a personal website.
How many people do YOU know who say they’ll launch, write that book, start that business… as soon as they have a website! Or a following! Or a podcast! Or a YouTube channel!
Thing is, there’s ONE overlooked place that is absolutely FREE for you to start building your personal brand.
AND walks you step-by-step through all of the nitty-gritty details that should be included in your personal brand.
It’s LinkedIn.
That channel staring you right in the face.
According to Intelligence Insider’s US Digital Trust Survey, LinkedIn is the most trusted social media site for the fifth consecutive year.
Is it trendy? Nope.
Can you go viral here? Probably not.
Will your professional audience look you up here? For sure.
When you mention LinkedIn to most experts and entrepreneurs, they often say that they know it needs to be updated, they’re too busy now and will get it done someday after… they dial in their website, once they figure out Instagram, when they have a huge email list, or when they need a new job.
I have heard ALL of the excuses.
I have worked personally with 100+ clients and students who didn’t have a website or online portfolio, but they did not let that stop them from starting their business, landing their next opportunity, or getting their dream job.
They put a stake in the ground and decided that NOW was the time to update their profile.
When you know how to “work” your LinkedIn profile, your personal brand can START on LinkedIn - and for many professionals, that’s the ONLY channel they really need.
LinkedIn Is Not Another Social Channel
Instead of looking at LinkedIn as something on your to-do list to take care of when you need a new job, decide you need to fill your sales pipeline with new clients, or want to grow a massive audience, so you can get a book deal.
What if you decided to build your LinkedIn profile as the foundation for your personal brand?
Your LinkedIn profile has ALL the sections you need to build out your brand and get clear on your experience, your story, to showcase your portfolio of work, to link people elsewhere, to share content that engages, and to attract the right people when they’re in the mindset to talk about business.
Instead, we tend to complicate the process because we hold a mistake assumption that a website designer or personal branding consultant who has the most gorgeous website and logo is the prerequisite to dialing in our profile.
I’m not saying that creating a personal website, getting a career coach or building out a personal brand strategy is meaningless, as it’s quite the contrary. They are all important components to a healthy personal brand, and if you’re looking for any recommendations here… I know some amazing consultants!
But what I am saying is that you can make a LOT of progress with your business, your brand, your presence online if you get laser-focused on your LinkedIn profile FIRST before worrying about other channels.
If you’ve been looking for a way to simplify your efforts and maximize your return on investment, let’s talk about how rocking your LinkedIn profile can kickstart your personal brand.
You don’t have to wait.
You can start… right now!
If you decide NOT to prioritize your LinkedIn profile, guess what? You’re going to waste weeks, months or years trying to “get it right” when a “messy first draft” using the LinkedIn profile structure can save you ALL that time and be sure that you can actually be found online.
Go ahead, waste time on a pretty brand. Watch how the people starting out at the same time as you skyrocket ahead with their business or land that dream job or get into that board room. How the heck are they doing it? They don’t even have a logo or brand colors?
Well, I’ll tell you a secret. They know the power of their LinkedIn profile, and they’re getting results. They don’t NEED anything else right now.
3 Critical Elements for Your Personal Brand
What are three of the most important elements to consider for your personal brand when it comes to LinkedIn? Even if you’ve heard these before, repetition enhances learning. It’s not always about focusing on the “aha moments” but rather coming back to the fundamentals.
#1 - Your LinkedIn Headline
If you’ve followed any of my videos or content, you have already heard me talk about the headline as your first impression.
You may not get it right the first time, but you can always change this down the road.
For example, I changed up my headline over the weekend because very few people are coming to me for “social selling” with 90% of my inbound traffic coming from the perspective of LinkedIn profiles and coaching to help them make the most of their LinkedIn profile.
Now my headline reads like this!
The LinkedIn Headline Formula: -Who You Are + Whom You Help + How You Help + Results You Generate
Guess what? You can repurpose your LinkedIn headline by tweaking it for all of your other online bios (think Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube) by reworking the text and use the exact same messaging to reinforce your personal brand elsewhere.
#2 - Your LinkedIn Featured Section
From a personal branding perspective, this section is one of the most visually impactful on your profile. Every great LinkedIn profile has a Featured section.
This section can double as your portfolio of work, especially if you are looking to get hired or need a place to visually showcase what you’ve been working on all these years. It’s easy to “mix it up” here and add some LinkedIn posts to showcase your credibility.
If you’re publicly job hunting, you can even upload a PDF of your resume here. If you’re actively seeking new board opportunities, you can also upload your board bio here.
Keep this section fresh, and you’ll be able to highlight these same pieces of content elsewhere. You can link and upload just about anything here!
Once you dial in your Featured section, consider if this Featured content would also be good to put on your website, shared to your YouTube channel, repurposed for an Instagram or TikTok account, posted to a Facebook Page, or shared in other social media channels.
#3 - Your LinkedIn Recommendations Section
Nothing screams “expert” like an awesome recommendation! Getting new recommendations isn’t easy, which is why we trust them so much.
Anyone can add something to their profile, but when it’s backed up with someone else’s legitimate LinkedIn profile and using their own words to describe you? That’s money, both figuratively and literally.
When you have strong recommendations online, people are more likely to trust you. It’s tough to ask for a testimonial via email and try to get people to give one to you, but what if you gave the person a testimonial first on LinkedIn and then encouraged them to reciprocate?
Imagine how many testimonials you could collect here following this formula alone! No need for people to look at a “testimonials” page on a website to get a sense of your work - just scroll through your profile.
Add these testimonials anywhere where you need them! I’ve added them to my personal website, put shortened version in my About section, added screenshots to my testimonials page and used them on my sales pages.
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These are ONLY three of the ways that you can repurpose content from your profile, and there are about another dozen that I teach within The LinkedIn Accelerator program!
The key is to start VALUING your LinkedIn profile as the starting point for your brand versus “getting around to it” later when you feel urgently that you need it.
I challenge you today to start seeing your LinkedIn profile from a different perspective. It’s not “one of the many” that needs to be worked on -- it’s THE ONE to work on first, and let it inform all of the other elements of your personal brand.
Once you get that profile looking rock solid, you’ll be able to start building your network and not be afraid to put yourself out there to attract those opportunities and new connections.
Have any pressing personal branding questions you'd like me to answer? Leave them in the comments below - let's discuss! 👇🏽
If you’re looking for that extra edge to get your started on the right path with your profile, check out my FREE LinkedIn profile guide that will help you dial in the most important sections of your LinkedIn profile to kickstart your personal brand today.
