5 Steps to Build a Personal Brand on LinkedIn (from a non-LinkedIn guru)

LinkedIn has almost 900 million users, many of which joined in the last few years.

• 90% of users on LinkedIn are lurkers who only consume content
• Another 9% of users are contributors who like and comment on posts
• And only 1% of users are creators who write and post their own content

Engaging and posting on LinkedIn allows you to build a personal brand and stand out as a business professional.I’ve only been doing it for 3 months, but here are a few benefits I’ve already experienced:

1. Inbound requests from internal recruiters at companies who are hiring (in my case, it’s a Head of Marketing)
2. Inbound requests from potential clients (who need a part-time CMO or are interested in my B2B Growth consulting services)
3. Inbound requests from podcast hosts for interviews (which have helped me get more exposure)
4. Adding hundreds of meaningful connections to my network (I’ve had intro coffee chats with many of them, a few even referred me to potential clients)
5. Hearing from old connections who see my comments or posts in their feed (which has also led to new opportunities)

It takes time to build a personal brand, but it’s easy if you follow these steps. This is the guide I wish I had when I started, it would’ve saved me a lot of time…

Step 1: Determine your goals

You can do this by answering these questions:

• Why are you building a personal brand on LinkedIn?
• Who are you trying to reach or engage with on LinkedIn?
• What would success look like for you in 3, 6 or 12 months?

For example, here are my goals:

• Why I’m building a personal brand
  • Get consulting clients (in short term)
  • Find a full-time role (in medium to long term)
• Who I’m trying to reach and engage with
  • Startup Founders & CEOs
  • Marketing professionals working at startups
  • Other professionals working at startups
• What success looks like for me:
  • 3 months: Finding 1-2 stable consulting clients
  • 6 months: Having 3-5 stable consulting clients, interviewing for 3-5 full-time jobs
  • 12 months: Have a pipeline of additional potential consulting clients, getting 2-3 full-time job offers

Step 2: Have the right mindset

Your journey on LinkedIn will be smoother if you have the right mindset:

• Building a personal brand takes time, think long term
• This is a new process, approach it with a beginner’s mindset
• Do not compare yourself to those who’ve been active on LinkedIn for years

Step 3: Update and optimize your LinkedIn profile

Follow these steps to optimize your profile:

• Add a high-quality photo with a solid background color
• Design a custom profile background banner
  • Canva has free templates you can use for this
• Write a strong, keyword-rich headline
  • Here’s an example headline of a job seeker. Notice how they include job title keywords in their headline, this makes their profile more discoverable by recruiters sourcing candidates for those roles.
    • “Senior Digital Marketing Manager | Senior Growth Marketing Manager | Senior Campaign Manager – 10+ Yrs Exp Successfully Leading 360 Marketing / Branding Plans & Initiatives to Grow Revenue and Client Engagement”
  • Here are example headlines from profiles of service providers on LinkedIn:
    • “I save busy 7-figure agency founders time + attract more ideal clients with my LinkedIn Ghostwriting.”
    • “I help consultants get clients on LinkedIn, using sales and content”
  • As you browse LinkedIn profiles, you’ll find other examples of headlines to help you write your own
• Turn creator mode on for your profile
  • Here’s how to do this
• Write a strong About section
  • If you’re looking for a full-time job, I’ve found bullet points of career highlights or achievements work well (see my profile)
  • If you’re a service provider looking for clients, I’ve found that stating your services, the problems you solve and the impact for clients work well (basically a concise version of what you’d see on a website’s landing page)
• Update your Experience section for current and past jobs
  • Add a concise summary with bullet point highlights (see my profile)
  • Attach or link work samples if they’re available (see my profile)
• Use the Featured section of your profile to highlight your best work or service offerings

Step 4: Create your LinkedIn engagement and connection strategy

• Create a list of 10-20 mid-sized creators (who have 3,000 to 10,000 followers on LinkedIn) and regularly post about topics in your niche or industry
  • For me, these are creators who post about #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #saasmarketing etc.
  • You can find these creators by searching LinkedIn using comment hashtags like #marketing #sales etc.
  • On a daily basis, Like and comment on their posts
    • This will help you get noticed by them and their followers
    • Many will look at your profile, follow you, engage with your posts
    • I recommend blocking 30 mins on your calendar to do this daily
• Connect with 10-20 new people daily on LinkedIn
  • These should be people you’re trying to reach or engage with (from goals you set in Step 1), you can find them by using LinkedIn’s search
  • These can also be people connected with those you’re trying to reach or engage with (i.e. mid-level people connected with leadership roles)
  • Personalize your LinkedIn connection request to increase the likelihood of them accepting it. You can do this by:
    • Complimenting a recent post they wrote
    • Complimenting their professional experience
    • Highlighting commonalities (work function, industry etc.)

Step 5: Create your LinkedIn content strategy

Posting on LinkedIn can feel odd at first. If you’re not ready to post, you can start collecting post ideas by saving others’ posts that you come across and like.

After you save enough of these posts, you’ll start having your own ideas and post templates you can model.

Here are some common post types that do well on LinkedIn:

• Storytelling: sharing personal or professional stories
• Unpopular opinions about issues you believe in
• Practical insights or advice others can apply
• Educational or inspirational content
• Photos from everyday life
• Short video clips

To start, I recommend posting 3 times per week on LinkedIn (during the week). Once you’re comfortable posting, I recommend posting daily on weekdays.

Here are some tips to make posting easier:

• Keep your posts short, simple and concise
  • If you need examples, see my posts
• Block 1-2 hours every week to write your posts in batch
  • This makes writing them a lot easier
• After you’ve published 15-20 posts, go back to review your old posts. You can rewrite, reformat and repost them in the future
  • Most of the top LinkedIn creators do this
• Get in the habit of posting at the same time every day
  • Ideally, it should be when most of your connections are online
  • For me, early AM works best because I have a mix of North American & European connections
• Make sure to like and reply to any and all comments you get on your posts
  • For those who like or comment on your posts
    • If you’re not connected, send them a connection request
    • Engage with their posts as well
  • This will help you build a small community of other LinkedIn creators who’ll regularly comment and engage with your future posts

These are the 5 steps to building a personal brand on LinkedIn.

I’ll leave you with these final thoughts:

• You do not have to do all of these steps at once. I recommend you save this guide and come back to it in the future.
• If you’re not comfortable posting on LinkedIn at the beginning, that’s okay. Just like and comment on others’ posts. It’ll help you build connections as well.
• If you have questions, feel free to ping me in Pavilion slack or on LinkedIn, I’m happy to help or direct you to the right resources.