Every individual projects an image, a personality and a certain set of skills to others. Your personal brand is all that and more. It allows you to stand out, gain more visibility and it can even impact your reputation. In recent years, Social Media have gained momentum regarding the image we project of ourselves: there’s talk of digital personal branding on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter…
We can’t talk about personal branding without mentioning its importance in our professional career. Something that seemed so far apart at the beginning, like social media activity and attitude towards a new professional challenge, are now closely related: what was previously based on getting to know a candidate through a resume and a jobinterview, now is complemented with the content he shares on networks like LinkedIn.
The present of employment is already social-digital. And there’s no other network concerned so much about personal branding than LinkedIn.
Is it useful to improve my personal brand on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn, the large professional platform on the Internet
More than 500 million users around the world and 16 years up and running endorse this social network’s potential to enhance your personal brand. New job offers, networking opportunities, readings of interest for your sector… All in all, everything you need to avoid getting stuck and stay updated in the age of Social Media.
Let’s take a closer look to the benefits of looking after your personal brand on LinkedIn:
- Highlight the qualities and professional skills that make you stand out from the crowd.
- You’re your own loudspeaker. Should you choose the right contacts and interact with them, engagement will grow exponentially.
- Makes it easy to get to know you. A proper management of what you publish, share and tell allows your contacts to create a transparent image of yourself.
- Ability to improve. Offering a certain image of yourself also serves as a way to engage in self-criticism, giving you the chance to improve day by day as you make use of the platform.
In short, LinkedIn is capable of creating and generating value around your personal brand. But this capability is a double-edged sword: paying special attention to our digital image is as crucial as doing the complete opposite. Whatever you publish, give your opinion about and share is going to be reflected both on the internet and in the mind of the professionals of the sector.
Tips to make your personal brand stand out on LinkedIn
But, how can we make the best out of our personal brand? Here are some steps you should follow to be 100% professional online:
- Complete your profile. Nobody wants to see blank spaces in a resume. Our profile is just that, a digital resume where all blanks must be filled in. The LinkedIn summary must show your differential value, your professional experience with keywords, recommendations and validated skills. Although the latter case doesn’t depend on you, you’ll see that they will arrive when increasing your activity on LinkedIn.
- Provide and share quality content. Bear in mind that most likely you’ll find people in your sector, work colleagues or people from your professional past on LinkedIn. Having shared experiences, you’ll most definitely know what kind of messages, news and opinions are going to have greater positive repercussion within your community.
- Generate continuous conversation. Publishing the content you consider most interesting is not enough. Commenting and recommending content from “aspirational” accounts —the kind of personal brand or values that you’d like to incorporate into yours— is key to start a conversation, attract attention and build interest. Tip: sometimes is not the giants in your sector, but profiles with a smaller number of followers the most proactive ones when it comes to interacting.
- Risky formats for guaranteed growth of your personal brand. Although sharing links is all right, you can implement further actions. Don’t be afraid to use a more down-to-earth tone, resort to multimedia elements —audiovisual formats are everybody’s favourites— or share a more subjective opinion about a certain topic that particularly concerns you. Remember that those behind the screen are human beings, not robots.
