Professionals – particularly salespeople – invest a lot of time and resource on building their brands. However, LinkedIn has given us a different dimension, as it is not just about building a brand for your business, this is about building our own personal brand.

Sometimes, as recruitment professionals, we neglect our personal branding, we sell ourselves short and miss a big opportunity from a sales perspective. The impact of employees who share content is huge. And the most effective employee sharers are those who’ve built their personal brand on LinkedIn. The LinkedIn profile page is the foundation for your personal branding, it is a personal marketing platform and gives you new ways to signal your skills and motivations. However, the use of LinkedIn in the wrong way can have a detrimental effect, and this can be instantaneous! Don’t forget, this is a professional forum, it is NOT your normal personal social media platform, and the two things are very different. Here are some hints and tips about how to build a professional, engaging and interesting profile.

Your profile picture is your calling card on LinkedIn – it’s how people are introduced to you, it shapes their impressions from the start. Make sure that this is a personal picture, it doesn’t need to be a stuffy head shot, but a selfie in the mirror is not promoting the right look. Wear what you would like to wear to work, and smile with your eyes!

Add a background banner

Your background photo is the second visual element at the top of your profile page. It grabs people’s attention, sets the context and shows a little more about your company branding. This showcases your employer and how you can help clients, demonstrating your commitment to the business.

Make your headline more than just a job title

There’s no rule that says the description at the top of your profile page has to be just a job title. Use the headline field to say a bit more about how you see your role, why you do what you do, and what makes you tick.

Turn your summary into your story

The first thing to say about your LinkedIn summary is – make sure you have one! It’s amazing how many people still leave this field blank when creating their LinkedIn profile. Your summary is your chance to tell your own story – so don’t just use it to list your skills or the job titles you’ve had. Try to bring to life because those skills matter – and the difference they can make to the people you work with. Feel free to get someone to read over it before you post it.

Grow your network

One of the easiest and yet most relevant ways to grow your LinkedIn network is to synchronise your profile with your email address book. This enables LinkedIn to suggest people you could connect with. It’s amazing how effective this can be at surfacing relevant people for you to reach out to – and no connection requests are sent without your permission, so you can vet all the potential connections. Beyond this, get into the habit of following up meetings and conversations with LinkedIn connection requests – it’s a great way of keeping your network vibrant and up to date.

What you post

What you post is VITAL this needs to showcase you, your personality and the work you do. Try to keep your posts work related, and remember, this is NOT your personal Instagram, so selfies when drunk/smoking/partying don’t create a professional perception, however, a tasteful picture saying ‘cheers to a great weekend’ gives a slightly different connotation. The wording of your posts needs to be thought out, how can this be perceived by others, not just colleagues, but clients, candidates, prospects, competitors. REMEMBER: YOU ARE REPRESENTING YOUR EMPLOYER AS WELL AS YOURSELF.

List your relevant skills

It’s one of the quickest of quick wins on LinkedIn – scroll through the list of skills and identify those that are relevant to you. Doing so helps to substantiate the description in your Headline and Summary and provides a platform for others to endorse you. However, the key here is staying relevant. A long list of skills that aren’t really core to who you are and what you do, can start to feel unwieldy. Take time for a spring clean of your skills list every now and then.

Spread endorsements

Endorsements from other members substantiate your skills and increase your credibility. How do you get endorsed on LinkedIn? Go through your network and identify connections who you feel genuinely deserve an endorsement from you – that’s often the trigger for people to return the favour. Don’t be afraid to reach out with a polite message asking for endorsement for a few key skills as well.

Request recommendations

Recommendations give people viewing your profile a quick, visual sense of what you’re valued for. They are personal testimonials written to illustrate the experience of working with you.

Share media and marketing collateral

The marketing collateral that you produce for your business can add an extra dimension to your own profile as well. Sharing industry related stories with help with the algorithm and will in turn start to produce more information related to your chosen field.

Share relevant content from your LinkedIn feed

It’s one thing to have a network of connections on LinkedIn – it’s far better to have an active role in that network, appearing in your connections’ LinkedIn feeds in a way that adds value for them. Sharing relevant content with your network is one of the most accessible ways of doing this.

Add comments

Sharing is great – but it’s just the starting point. When you add comments to your shares, you give yourself greater prominence within the feed and start to express why you think a particular piece of content matters. Well-expressed comments also enable you to share a broader range of content. It might be that you don’t agree with a point of view but still find it interesting.

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