Master LinkedIn personal branding with this step-by-step guide on profile optimization, content strategy, and audience engagement.
LinkedIn’s 1 billion members provide a ready audience pool for connecting with like-minded people.
However, you must build a strong LinkedIn personal brand and showcase your value to unlock networking opportunities.
This article covers the central tenets of LinkedIn personal branding, including best practices and common pitfalls to avoid.
TL;DR – How to Build a Personal Brand on LinkedIn
Can’t read the whole article right away? The table below summarizes what works and what to avoid when establishing your personal brand on LinkedIn:
| Do’s | Don’ts |
| Optimize your LinkedIn profile. | Making your content overly salesy. |
| Have a content strategy. | Overreliance on AI for content creation. |
| Share value-filled content with your audience. | Failing to engage with your audience. |
| Interact with your followers and connections. | Using unrelatable language. |
| Send Connection requests to your peers and role models. | |
| Implement SEO best practices. |
The above-listed tips should help you grow your LinkedIn personal brand and boost engagement. However, we also recommend creating a personal blog and embedding your LinkedIn profile posts to reach a wider audience.
SociableKIT streamlines the embedding process, letting you place your LinkedIn profile posts anywhere on your personal blog. Even better, we have affordable premium plans (check our pricing page) that let you unlock premium features like customizing the LinkedIn profile embed and curating the feed to your audience’s interests.
Create a SociableKIT widget today and integrate your LinkedIn profile into your personal blog!
What is LinkedIn Personal Branding?
In layperson’s language, LinkedIn personal branding means creating a unique identity on the platform. It is a strategic and deliberate process of communicating your values, expertise, and unique value proposition in a way that differentiates you from other LinkedIn users.
Like any other form of branding, enhancing your presence on LinkedIn is a continuous process. You must share content regularly and actively participate in discussions and forums to grow your following and position yourself as a thought leader.
Benefits of Building a Personal Brand on LinkedIn
Building a personal brand on LinkedIn offers multiple advantages for anyone looking to advance their career or seek collaboration opportunities.
Let’s look at them below:
- Build a Community: Promoting your LinkedIn personal brand helps grow your following and connections.
- Thought Leadership: Sharing insightful content establishes you as an authority in your industry. Over time, LinkedIn users see your profile as the go-to source for reliable industry news.
- Job Opportunities: Showcasing your educational and professional background enhances your visibility to recruiters and potential employers.
- Effective Lead Generation: Displaying your expertise and skills on LinkedIn entices potential clients to inquire about your services.
Key Elements of a Strong LinkedIn Personal Brand
A strong LinkedIn personal brand is essential for networking or creating career growth and business opportunities. But what are the core aspects of an impactful LinkedIn personal brand?
Let’s discuss them below:
- A Complete Profile: An optimized LinkedIn profile encourages interactions. This includes having a professional profile photo, compelling headline, and well-crafted education and experience sections.
- Personal Story: Your personal story makes your profile unique and memorable to other LinkedIn users. It entails sharing personal anecdotes so people connect with your experiences and feel part of your journey.
- Detailed Experience Section: Highlighting your skills, certifications, and licenses helps you establish credibility, encouraging LinkedIn users to trust your insight.
- Consistent Brand Messaging: The best LinkedIn personal brands use a consistent voice in their content to increase memorability.
- Authentic Engagement: Users with a huge LinkedIn following got there by genuinely interacting with their followers, responding to comments, and reaching out to their peers for networking opportunities.
How to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
Wondering how to enhance your personal brand presence on LinkedIn?
Here are some proven methods:
1. Complete Your LinkedIn Profile
Use our checklist to optimize your LinkedIn profile:
- Upload a professional LinkedIn profile photo and banner.
- Include a concise summary of your career and achievements.
- Use the featured section to showcase past projects.
2. Have a Content Strategy
LinkedIn branding experts recommend publishing three to five posts weekly. However, you could post more or fewer posts depending on your LinkedIn branding goals.
For example, initially, you could share new posts daily to maximize visibility and grow your followers and then publish new posts every other day to keep your followers engaged.
3. Share Value-Filled Content
Regularly posting content is only half the job. Ensure it contains expert insight on industry trends and challenges to help position yourself as an authority in your niche.
For example, you could use LinkedIn carousels and articles to share white papers and other research-backed posts.
4. Interact with Your Followers and Connections
It is not enough to only publish new posts and leave. Engage with readers in the comment section.
Also, follow like-minded LinkedIn users and interact with their content, including liking, reposting, and commenting.
5. Send Connection Requests
LinkedIn lets you send connection request messages to users you want to network with.
Connect with your peers for collaboration opportunities, such as working together on future projects.
6. Optimize Your Posts for SEO
Use relevant industry keywords to help your content appear in search results.
Also, leverage LinkedIn hashtags to enhance your posts’ visibility and reach a wider audience.
LinkedIn Personal Branding Examples
Curious to see how an optimized LinkedIn profile looks?
Below are three examples of users who grew their LinkedIn personal brands to become reputable figures on the platform:
Example #1: Attention-Grabbing Profile
We cannot emphasize enough the significance of an optimized LinkedIn profile, and this example by Gary Pope highlights it:
- A high-quality profile photo with a neutral background keeps the focus on Gary’s appearance.
- The LinkedIn cover photo showcases Gary’s involvement with the kids’ market niche.
Example #2: Give a Brief Summary
Justin Welsh shares how he left a high-paying executive job to become a business coach.
He then narrates his journey in his new-found passion, highlighting some notable achievements.
Example#3: Detailed Experience Section
Your LinkedIn profile’s experience section should summarize your career journey up to your current job position. If you have extensive work experience, only include positions that align with your desired job.
Check out how Margaret Molloy highlights her career journey, including providing relevant media to boost her credibility and professionalism.
If you want to further enhance your personal brand, you can start your own blog page to share industry-related long-form content. You can also embed your LinkedIn profile to provide invaluable social proof and authenticity for your personal blog.
It would influence readers’ perception and reception of your expert insights. Also, readers may be curious to know more about you and explore networking opportunities, hence visiting your LinkedIn profile.
At SociableKIT, we understand that not everyone is a proficient web designer. As such, our widget has a built-in LinkedIn profile embed code generator that provides the script you can paste into your personal blog. We also have a proactive support team to help you troubleshoot integration issues.
Sign up for SociableKIT and join other LinkedIn members using our widget to showcase their profiles on their personal blogs!
LinkedIn Personal Branding Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make
While you’re boosting your LinkedIn branding, avoid these common pitfalls to keep your credibility intact:
- Salesy Content: We understand that the ultimate goal of growing a personal brand on LinkedIn is monetizing it. However, we cannot emphasize enough against being too salesy, as you could turn off your target audience. Instead, focus on offering value to your audience and insert CTAs strategically to introduce the readers to your conversion funnel.
- Overreliance on AI Content Tools: While AI writing tools can be helpful when facing writer’s block, they often result in generic content that lacks a personal touch. In extreme situations, use AI to generate a first draft, then edit the copy to match your tone and make it feel authentic.
- Neglecting Your Audience: Not engaging your audience could hurt your LinkedIn personal brand to the extent of causing you to lose your position as an authority in your industry. Weave community building into your LinkedIn strategy to help cement your position as a thought leader.
- Excess Corporate Speak: Some LinkedIn users misconstrue keeping a professional image to mean overwhelming their audiences with corporate jargon and buzzwords. This could lock out audience members who may not be in your industry. Instead, use clear, relatable language and incorporate storytelling to boost readability and audience engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Below are answers to commonly asked questions about building a personal brand on LinkedIn:
Should I Enable LinkedIn Creator Mode?
Yes. We recommend enabling Creator Mode on your LinkedIn profile to reach your target audience.
For example, the Creator Mode lets you add LinkedIn hashtags to your profile headline, which helps communicate your niche and the type of content you post.
How Do I Position Myself as a Thought Leader on LinkedIn?
The best way to position yourself as a thought leader on LinkedIn is:
- Provide expert commentary on industry trends, challenges, and news.
- Engage with other thought leaders in your niche.
- Showcase past projects, case studies, white papers, and presentations to help you secure your credibility.
What Metrics Should I Track to Measure My LinkedIn Growth?
Track the following metrics to measure your LinkedIn growth:
- Impressions to evaluate your LinkedIn profile’s reach and the content that resonates with your audience.
- Follower count to see when and why people join your community.
- Profile views to determine who visited your profile and whether they match your target audience.
How Often Should I Post on LinkedIn for Maximum Reach?
Your frequency of posting on LinkedIn depends on your engagement goals. For example, LinkedIn users looking to grow their followers and connections quickly can post content daily or even a few times a day. You can then reduce the frequency once you hit your engagement milestones.
However, LinkedIn branding experts recommend posting fresh content thrice to five times weekly to keep your audience engaged.
Conclusion
LinkedIn personal branding requires continuous, deliberate effort to showcase your expertise and value until you establish yourself as a thought leader. The tips we’ve highlighted in this guide should help you grow your LinkedIn following and build a community around your brand.
Remember, a good content strategy is the foundation of a reputable LinkedIn personal brand. However, we recommend promoting your LinkedIn profile on your social media and personal blogs as well.
SociableKIT offers a no-code widget for showcasing your LinkedIn profile and posts on your personal website to drive traffic to your profile. Even better, you can customize the LinkedIn profile embed to blend with your brand colors or blog theme.
Create a SociableKIT widget today and promote your LinkedIn profile to a broader audience!