LinkedIn for Personal Branding: mini-guide to optimize your LinkedIn profile and improve your personal branding
There are literally hundreds of ways to handle personal branding online. The web provides us with a wide range of platforms, activities, social networks and tools they can be used in order to make oneself known, find new customers and grow your businesses. But is it really possible to spend every day using hundreds of different tools? Can we use only some? And if so, which should we or can we choose? How much time and energy should you put into it? With these questions I do not wish to scare you, but rather to reassure you by explaining that for most of what is useful and necessary for your personal branding, you can concentrate on one powerful tool: LinkedIn.
So if you are going to select only one personal branding tool in which to invest time, LinkedIn is the best choice. With a well-maintained profile and well-planned strategy, LinkedIn can be the best platform through which to develop the right network for your business. I recognize that other social media such as Facebook or YouTube are often more “liked” for their entertainment value, but LinkedIn should definitely be part of your daily activity on the web because it is the most suitable to show the value of your professional skills as well as your personality. To help you understand its potential and how to use it well, over the next four articles of this blog I will guide you through the “best practices” to develop your personal branding, showing you the many opportunities offered by the network.
Personal branding is a central factor in the LinkedIn environment. In fact, this social network offers a way to showcase yourself as a professional, to show what you can do and prove it: it’s like having a large canvas on which to paint a picture of yourself. Put in all your effort, and use your knowledge and your creativity to turn your profile into a masterpiece that does not go unnoticed!
Let’s start with the first part: creating a profile that is intrigues and does not go unnoticed is the first rule to follow because your profile will then come to be visited and read by people who can make a difference for you. From here, we will try to fill out your profile together step by step (for each field, I will give you some advice based on my experience, which will help you to make a difference), following my mini guide “LinkedIn for Personal branding”:
- Full name– it seems basic, but let me remind you that you are working with a social network based on business and professionalism, so it is necessary that you indicate your real first and last name, rather than making profiles with made up names or nicknames. Tip: remember that your LinkedIn profile will appear in the top results on Google search for those who are looking for you. It is therefore important that this lead back immediately to your brand and is consistent with your image.
- Headline– just below your name you have up to 120 characters to describe your “professional capacity.” I recommend you start with a motto to make a first impression (for example, “my mission is …”, followed by a healthy dose of keywords that relate to your areas of expertise, so they can be found through relevant searches. Tip: show your strengths, but be careful not to be pretentious.
- Photos– Your profile is much more likely to be seen if it includes a photo. Choose a photo that is a close-up on a light background, preferably in high definition. Tip: When shooting the photos, keep in mind the goal of making eye contact and giving a nice smile. Take a simple and professional photo. Creativity and oddities are not well received on this social network.
- Background– LinkedIn allows you to upload a background image. Tip: choose an image that reflects your brand well to reinforce the message that you want to share and remember to pay attention to the image size suggested by Linkedin when you upload it – images that are grainy or decentralized are signs of carelessness and a lack of professionalism.
- Contacts– This is the section in which you include your email, phone number and the link to your site. It is very important because this is how people will come to you. Tip: enter the email address you use for work and avoid putting phone numbers or email addresses that you do not consult frequently or that are not related to you personally.
- URL– LinkedIn provides you a URL that is incredibly long and anonymous but it is easy to customize. Tip: Customize the URL with your name or the name of your brand so it is much easier to remember and share.
- Summary– The summary section serves to summarize and tell who you are in a discursive way. Tip: Include keywords related to your work to be found in searches and write a summary of your experience as if it were a story, with a style that is well paced and engaging and that aims to answer basic questions about your skills, show the utility or benefit that can be gained from using your services and encourage visitors to read through to the end.
- Upload Material– with LinkedIn you can show your work through its integration with SlideShare, uploading media and documents you’ve written. Tip: Upload presentations, resources or research that are relevant to your goal and that document your professionalism by highlighting the your best qualities.
- Experience– LinkedIn asks you to fill in a section with your work experience as you would in a resume. Tip: carefully fill out the required fields, bringing out the tasks performed and skills learned in every experience. Be clear and concise, expanding only if required for the job description covered.
- Add media– in both the experience and training sections you can add documents, photos, links, presentations or videos. Tip: adding video and visual elements help distinguish your profile and make it even more personal.
- Skills and specializations– This section allows your contacts to confirm your skills and specializations. Tip: do not be stingy in affirming the skills of others, as this will give them prompt to go on your profile and do the same with you.
- Recommendations– in this section LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to publish recommendations from some of your colleagues, professors or employers. Tip: do not hesitate to ask people with whom you have worked and who have a good network of contacts if they can write a recommendation on your profile, explaining why it is so important for you. If the work you’ve done for them was of value, they will not have trouble writing a recommendation on your profile, and this will help strengthen your credibility and your brand reputation.
For now, we have gone through an overview on how to compile and write a good profile together. Next week in the second part we’re going to learn how to develop relationships on LinkedIn, so do not miss it!
Social media is only a small part in the development of personal branding and although we talk about it regularly, I want to remind you that Stand Out is successful at what we do because we are able to take care of your image from a full 360 degrees. It will never be enough to only use LinkedIn; it will be important, and you will need to learn to do it better, but the reality is that if you do not rely on a full-service team like ours, the time it takes to reach your goals will be very long! Stand Out has developed an integrated strategy with highly experienced professionals from different disciplines that when used together will help you achieve notoriety, authority and results in only 10 months!
If you want to know more, if you want to see firsthand our strategies and their results, if you want to be supported by a whole team dedicated to you that will help you bring out the best in you and really express your talent as you deserve, make an appointment with us for a free consultation and soon you’ll have the tools to soar. Fill out the Contact form on the home page, follow us on our Facebook Page Stand Out Communication and on our Twitter profile StandOutAgency to become part of our community dedicated to Personal Branding.
AUTHOR: Veronica Penzo – ( Twitter: LadyBitterHoney )
From a young age, used to playing with foreign children, with the desire to become friends with them, I thought: “the mind is not made to communicate in only one language! ” That’s why I chose to travel, to study 5 foreign languages, and to examine communication in all its forms, from PNL to verbal and non-verbal language! I decided to grow these passions for language and for people, first in international TV journalism working with NBC News, then in a communication field even more current: the web and mobile. I have therefore become an expert on all the major social networks, and am up-to-date on all topics of webmarketing, social ads, lead generation, neuromarketing and personal branding.
A social media influencer on Twitter and Instagram, I am now leading the social media management for Stand Out and HRD Training Group and I write and coordinate the Stand Out blog.