LinkedIn is a great tool for building your network but also for building your brand. Ultimately, your brand is an extension of you. If people get to know your brand, then they’re more likely to connect and do business with you. It can be a difficult balance to achieve between building your persona and building your brand on social media. So, here are some tips to build your LinkedIn brand more successfully.
Be Generous
You can build rapport with your connections by giving without expecting anything back. LinkedIn offers a number of ways to do this through endorsements, skills boosting and recommendations. Be generous simply by engaging. Leaving a reaction and an insightful comment on the posts that catch your attention is a great way to build relationships and be seen.
Share The Spotlight
They say that you should treat others how you wish to be treated. This tip can tie into the previous of engaging often with your connections. Whilst you do want to portray yourself in a good light, it’s good to highlight others too. The business world can be competitive but that’s not to say we can’t delight in each other’s successes.
If someone has written a post that really resonates with you, why not share it with your audience? Perhaps you’ve recently attended a great webinar, attended an informative course or bought a great product.
Don’t be afraid to write about your experience in a post and tag the people and companies involved. This makes people a lot more likely to reciprocate and remember the nice thing you did for them.
Be Inclusive
Chances are, your sector uses some jargon.
There is a theory that if you truly, fully understand what you’re selling then you’ll be able to explain it in layman’s terms too. When communicating you want to be as clear as possible whilst being inclusive to everybody so as not to exclude a potential buyer.
Allow people to immerse themselves in what you’re saying. That can be difficult to do when they’re Googling to figure out what you’re talking about. Write like you’re talking to a friend. Leave the jargon in-house.
Entice With A Story
Who doesn’t love a good story? We’re social creatures and have bonded over a good retelling of something that happened to us for centuries. If the story can somehow relate to what you’re selling – even better! Sharing these personal moments can help people better relate to you and bring in some context.
But – don’t get caught up in the thick of it. Stick to short, simple sentences and don’t make anything too complex. It just takes one simple idea to ignite a spark.
Pace Yourself: Building a LinkedIn Brand Isn’t a Race
It can be easy to get carried away when you’re writing or sharing content online. It’s been proven that getting a lot of engagement (and fast) releases happy chemicals in our brains that makes posting a little addictive.
Take it slow. Entice people to want to read more from you instead of bombarding them with all of your best material right off the bat. This also helps to keep the conversation much more focused and prevents confusion. Remember how much I stressed the importance of clarity earlier?
The most important thing to remember when building your LinkedIn Brand…enjoy the process! Create the content that you want to create. You come across as both more knowledgeable and passionate when you’re talking about what you love – and it shows. If writing isn’t for you, why not post a short video of you discussing it instead? Have a hard time conveying something through words? Draw it.
The possibilities are there and so is your audience.
Let me summarise those tips again so that you’re ready to build your LinkedIn brand:
- Be Generous: Engage, endorse, recommend, share.
- Share The Spotlight: Write about your experiences with other products or services.
- Be Inclusive: Don’t use complex jargon.
- Storytime: Share personal stories and keep them short and sweet.
- Pace Yourself: Stick to one idea at a time.
- Enjoy Creating!
