What is Personal Branding?
Your personality, talents, skills, interests, experiences, network, and more are woven together to create the tapestry of you!
Together, they are your unique value proposition – what you bring to the world as only you can.
After all, there is only one of you!
Building your brand is the art of authentically sharing your masterpiece. The goal is to attract the right people who will benefit from your artistry and are willing to pay for it.
Investing time and resources into building your brand can open doors to new opportunities, increase your visibility, and establish you as an authority in your field.
Be Authentic
People are clamoring for authenticity in a world of AI-generated content, trumped-up marketing (no pun intended), and fake news.
Being honest about who you are, what you believe, the value you provide, and what you want or need will be refreshing to many.
If you are being respectful and communicating tactfully, don’t worry about offending other people. You have a right to your opinions and beliefs. Of course, some things are better left unsaid. Use wisdom and emotional intelligence to guide when to speak and stay quiet.
There is no faster way to turn off another person than for them to find out you were creating a persona just to build a network or increase sales.
Focus on LinkedIn for Your Professional Network
While multiple social media platforms can help you build your brand, LinkedIn is the best for establishing professional business relationships.
Why?
- It is currently the preferred digital business networking platform.
- The platform boasts almost a billion users, with over 200 million in the United States.
- Employers and job seekers turn to LinkedIn to find and research candidates.
- Buyers and sellers research companies and people they are interested in doing business with.
- Professionals frequently reach out to people they recently met at conferences, networking events, or were referred to by friends or colleagues
X (Twitter) is my second choice for building professional networks and getting industry information.
In fact, I was featured in this NPR article based on this post.
Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn profile should contain the following elements:
- Headshot
- Cover Photo
- About
- Skills
- Contact Information
- Experience (Job History)
- Awards
Invest time in ensuring this information accurately reflects who you are, your experience, skills, interests, and the problems you can help people solve.
Content: Don’t Be Boring
Consistently sharing authentic, high-quality content is the catalyst for building your network on LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
I recommend blocking off 15 to 30 minutes each business day to invest in creating content and building relationships on LinkedIn.
What kind of content should you post?
The most compelling content from people happens when they share their experiences or genuinely try to help people solve problems.
Don’t waste your time aggressively selling or trying to market a product or service.
Investing your time in building your network by helping people.
If you add value to people through your content on LinkedIn or any other social media platform, like-minded people will want to connect with you.
Building Relationships
Your network is your most valuable asset. Building and nurturing relationships is crucial for career success.
While nothing beats in-person networking with the right people, LinkedIn makes connecting with people around the world fairly easy.
The easiest place to start is to identify people you want to connect with and start by following them.
Over time, engage with their content by liking, commenting on, or resharing it with your network.
After a reasonable amount of time, consider contacting this person and asking them to connect on LinkedIn.
Be careful not to sell or pitch! Few things turn people off more on LinkedIn than nauseating InMail messages or connection requests that are veiled (or blatant) sales pitches.
Should You Go Through the LinkedIn Verification Process?
Yes! It is a simple process that validates your identity and lets people know you are a real huma
Should You Pay for Premium LinkedIn Features
No, but if you want to make the most out of the platform, I highly recommend it.
I pay for LinkedIn Sales Navigator. I am by no means a power user or leverage all the features and benefits the subscription offers me; however, it is worth it to me.
LinkedIn Premium is less expensive than Sales Navigator and has many benefits.
Free trials for most LinkedIn subscriptions are available.
By the way, these are not affiliate links to the LinkedIn premium products, I don’t even know if they exist. I am just sharing information.
Be Consistent
Building your personal brand on LinkedIn takes time. It takes consistent effort over time to build and maintain your network.
If you are just getting started, be patient and keep grinding.
You will learn what content resonates with your target audience and how to best approach people you want to connect with.
Just remember to give first.
I am happy to connect with you if you want to add another person to your growing network. Check out my LinkedIn profile and send me a connection request. Let me know if you saw this article and contacted me because of it.