LinkedIn 101: Everything You Should Be Doing on LinkedIn to Grow Your Personal Brand
First things first…
If you do not know what LinkedIn is, or you do know what LinkedIn is, but have not set up your account, I highly recommend you do that before finishing this email. On every single application I have ever filled out, the employer has asked me to supply a link to my LinkedIn or use my LinkedIn profile in place of an application. So, let me say that again, you NEED a LinkedIn profile in today's world. What is great about that, is this platform gives you the ability to stand out from others.
At first, LinkedIn might just seem like a website to apply for jobs and have an online resume, but that is old news, my friends. People that still think this way are behind, and the ones that realize it are already ahead of you. So, it is time to catch up and join the fun!
Let’s Get to Work!
So, your LinkedIn is created. You might be asking, ‘Now what?’ It is time to grow your personal brand. What I mean by this is, post on LinkedIn the way you would post on your personal Instagram or Twitter account, but focus on developing a professional voice. On this platform you should be posting, sharing, connecting, and everything else in between like you would on any other social media platform. The only key difference here is this is the platform that will help grow your professional brand, not your social brand. In the rest of this email, I am going to cover a bunch of different topics about what you can be doing on LinkedIn to always be growing your professional brand. Don’t worry, you can do this at any age. You do not need a college degree to start posting on LinkedIn.
Some Tweaks to Make to Your Profile
Header & Summary
You probably have very basic details placed in each category of your personal LinkedIn page, and it is now time to upgrade. Copying people on LinkedIn might seem like a good idea when it comes to headlines or summaries, but therein lies the problem. If you copy the generic headers and summaries, you will blend into the crowd, when standing out is the goal. For example, if you are a college student and your header says, “Washington State University Student,” you will look like every other boring student on LinkedIn. You should change it to something awesome that says more about you like, “Psychology Major @ Washington State University | Seeking Summer Internship 2021.” Do you see how much better that looks to recruiters and potential connections looking to add people to their network? They will see that and click on your profile over the boring profile that does not give them an incentive to click.
About Section
Another thing you can clean up is making your About section have the same feel as a cover letter. This is the first section people will scroll through on your page and if you can give a great description of who you are and what you can do, then people will continue to scroll through your page. Write about things like what you bring to the table in general. Obviously, in actual cover letters, you want to be specific to the company you are applying for. Specifically, in this About section, you can write about general things all businesses want.
Examples: project experience, analysis of data, proficient in Adobe products, etc.
Featured Section
The last tweak I would make would be to add a Featured section. This section is designed to show your best performing posts and/or your personal favorite posts you have written. The bummer part about LinkedIn is that it is not the best software for reviewing what someone has posted, so this Featured section is crucial. For most of you, this section will start to develop once you start posting more, but if you already have some great posts you like, you might as well throw it in that section. For example, on my Featured section, I have added posts that talk about certifications I have gotten on the side, great business books I have read, and about my college graduation. Details like this are great because people looking at your account will not have to dig for that extra info.
Now Let’s Start Posting!
This is the number one way to start growing your personal brand on LinkedIn. Posting meaningful content that gains traction online will get you noticed and build your voice. This is where you can have fun, too! Posting on Instagram and Twitter is usually funny or social things, but for LinkedIn, you can talk about your favorite business topics and people will join in.
Latest Trends
Think about your college major, what your hobbies are, or what you think you want your career to be and start posting about those topics! There are tons of examples, but for this let’s make it easy. If you are an advertising major or you like big brands like Nike, you should be posting about the latest trends you see in Nike's advertising space. Something as simple as a graphic, or your thoughts on an article is perfect!
Certifications
Build your brand by going out and getting extra certifications on topics you are interested in. Then, post about it! You can see through my page that I just recently posted about how I got another Google certification. The post only got 12 likes, but it got 1,000 views. This means 1,000 people know I earned this extra certification and am always growing my knowledge on a subject. This is a great way to grow your brand and grow your skills! Brag about yourself, it’s okay.
Tips & Tricks
Do you know some cool tips & tricks that your network could benefit from? If so, post about it. This can show your creative thinking and it can benefit a wide audience. This is the best way to naturally grow your following and connect with people. People will comment and ask more about your genius thinking, and it will lead to great conversations.
Your School or Job
If you currently attend any form of schooling or work any type of job, that is another great thing to post about. Brag about your company and/or your school if they present a new initiative or if they are celebrating a 50th anniversary of serving the community, or even just being open. This is a great way to show your loyalty to an organization and show that you not only work or go to these organizations, but that you care.
Comment & Join in
Throughout your feed, you will find posts from people that you want to comment on, even if you don't know them well. LinkedIn is a great place to join in on a post and talk about the topic at hand. I do not mean you should be debating everyone, but by adding a nice comment or your positive thoughts on a post can always help grow your personal brand and even find new connections. This could be on a post about someone getting a new job or a big industry update. Like all of the examples above, commenting on other people with similar posting behavior and joining in on the conversation will only benefit you.
Reflection
This is a very broad subject and yields a lot of room for a creative post. After work, if you noticed something interesting or even after a class you just finished, sharing your ideas on what happened, and reflecting can be a great LinkedIn post and gain a lot of traction. Reflection does not always have to be a bad thing, but instead can be a way for you to metaphorically share your notes with your classmates after a lecture. If you noticed something you learned in your job, talk about how it helped you grow as an employee, and improved the company. If you are in a class and a teacher says something that expanded your thinking on a subject, post about it, and how it impacted your outlook. Things like this can be very creative and show your processing of situations to connections on LinkedIn.
To Conclude…
LinkedIn has so much more potential than just a job board site. Half of my subscribers to this newsletter are from my LinkedIn network. You can be creative and drive personal success through this platform, and I believe it is one of the most undervalued contributors to peoples’ success. So have fun with it, be bold, adapt, and do not be afraid to put yourself out there and talk about your interests and grow your network. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to LinkedIn, hence the title of this newsletter, “LinkedIn 101.” I will be going over more technical aspects as time goes on, but for now I am starting with the basics. As I said before, you do not need a college degree to post on LinkedIn!
Great information Griffin!