Leveraging the networking power of LinkedIn is the best way to get your personal brand out there in front of the world. If you’re looking to be found in a professional sense, you have to create a personal brand on LinkedIn, but it can be a little scary at first if you’re not familiar with that particular social networking site. It’s not like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. 

Unlike Facebook, where people share every aspect of their lives, Instagram, where pictures of food abound, or even Twitter, where you have to get your point across in 280 characters or less, LinkedIn’s atmosphere is far more professional than its counterparts. 

So how exactly can you go about using LinkedIn to optimize your personal brand? Well, we’re glad you asked because we’ve got some tips on just how to do that.

Seven Tips To Create Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

• Complete Your Profile: This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many people there are on LinkedIn with incomplete profiles or profiles that have very little information. Just as with all social media websites, the main goal of LinkedIn is engaging and interacting with other members. It makes it very difficult for others to want to interact with you or get to know you in a professional capacity if your profile is all but empty. Some ways in which you can create a profile that’s more likely to get views and interactions include:

1. 1. 1. Choosing the right profile picture. The picture should be a professional-looking headshot that’s not blurry, too close, too far away, and that your head and shoulders are properly positioned. Make sure you’re dressed professionally in the picture, and don’t make it a group shot.
      2. Choosing the right cover photo. This is your chance to get creative and set your personal brand apart from the rest. So, you should choose something that tells your audience what your brand is all about or something you’ve accomplished that you’re really proud of.
      3. Using SEO when writing your profile. Choose your words carefully so that you can be found much easier, and ensure to use those exact words in your headline, summary, job title, and job description.
      4. Personalize your URL. Yes, you can get rid of that long, annoying URL that LinkedIn assigned you when you first joined. 
      5. Write a powerful description. We know that describing yourself is especially difficult, but it’s also essential when it comes to strengthening your personal brand on LinkedIn. So sit with it for a while rather than just banging out whatever first comes to mind.
      6. Add your skills. Highlighting your skills will allow those who look at your profile to see exactly what you can do and if you’d be the right fit for them. LinkedIn allows you to add up to 50 skills. Make sure you choose the most relevant ones to your personal brand.
      7. Add media to your education section to jazz it up. Documents, links, pictures, videos, and presentations are all good things to add.

• Write! Unlike other social media sites, one of the coolest things about LinkedIn is that you can write and publish articles directly on the site. Whether it’s a “how-to,” a listicle, or even a new trend happening in your industry, articles allow you to showcase your expertise on any given subject. And once you publish your article, all of your connections on LinkedIn will get a notification about it.

• Join Groups: LinkedIn Groups are a fantastic resource for engaging with other users and networking with them. You’ll be able to meet and interact with other people in your industry as long as you participate in these groups. That’s the biggest thing, though, if you just sit on the sidelines and watch as everyone else participates, you’ll get nowhere. So make sure that you interact with the groups you join. Ask questions, answer questions, comment on posts, etc.

• Post Content: This is different from writing articles. Once you’ve spent some time surfing around LinkedIn, learning how the site works, engaging with other people, and sharing their content, it’s time to start posting your own. If you or your company has a blog, you can share links to blog posts you’ve made, post videos, and create text-only posts that will get others to engage with you. Don’t forget the hashtags. They’re just as important on LinkedIn as on other social media sites.

• Accept Those Connection Requests: Unlike other social media sites, it’s perfectly normal to accept connection requests from people you don’t know on LinkedIn. In fact, it’s encouraged because the more connections you have, the higher you’ll rank on LinkedIn. This means that your profile will end up showing up to others far more often than if you only had a few connections that you knew personally.

• Use LinkedIn’s Analytics Tools: All LinkedIn users have access to the platform’s basic analytics tools. They aren’t overly detailed, but they provide insight into your progress on the website. Some of the things that LinkedIn analytics tools allow you to do are keep track of the number of people who’ve viewed your profile, as well as some basic demographic info. Make a list of goals and track your progress toward them with these analytics tools. Keep an eye on which strategies are most productive and those that produce little to no outcomes.

• Stay Active! Once you’ve joined LinkedIn and have started engaging, you must stay active on the site. If you want your personal brand to get out into the world, you need to be in the world to get it out there. No one else will promote you, so you need to put in the work to promote yourself and your personal brand.

LinkedIn is probably the most important social networking website for your personal brand. If you’re just starting to build your brand, anxious about being employed later in life, or establishing a new venture, we recommend giving much of your attention to LinkedIn.

It is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal, whether your personal brand is young or has been evolving for a while. We hope that these tips for strengthening your personal brand on LinkedIn will help you on your journey.