Personal branding for Linkedin

Having your own Linkedin account is very important alongside having it set up correctly. Linkedin is a very powerful tool if you use it correctly. Here are a few key things we would always recommend our candidates to do.

Employment history

The most important thing to remember about making your Linkedin profile is that it should be a reflection of who you are while also showing your personal branding. Personal branding is how you conduct yourself in your downtime, this is best illustrated through content you put on your Linkedin profile.  We’ve listed the most important things to keep in mind when building your personal branding through Linkedin:

• Use Key Words: When writing out the duties of your past positions, search on Linkedin for people from that industry, whoever comes up uses specific key words to appear first in the search, by reading their job experience and analysing the words used, you’ll gain an idea of what key words Linkedin prefers. Use these key words as they apply to your employment history, use the key word in your own way.
• Explain about the company: Give a short description of what your company does, this will build a clearer image of what you would have been doing. Try to explain it in an unbiased way, purely in terms of what the company did relevant to your job role.
• Education: If you haven’t spent much time in work yet, then you can list out your education instead, as this adds to personal branding too, if you were an organizer or attended extra curricular activities, those can all be used too.
• Keep it simple: Your employment history doesn’t need to list every duty you performed. Just list the important stuff that relates to your personal brand, like how you got to use your unique skills or how the company stayed relevant in its industry

Picture

Using a professional head shot is a way to show your professionally oriented, this is important for building personal branding as you want to come across as an aware and present in your industry professional. A simple front facing picture, showing a smile in smart casual wear sells you in an undeniably professional light.

Consider the industry you work in and what professional is for that industry, think what you would wear to an interview. That is the outfit to wear in a Linkedin profile picture.

Add a background photo, it’s the second visual element to your profile and it grabs peoples attention by being used effectively to add context to your profile. Choose something relevant to your work, like a photo of a project you were on, or a picture of a proud moment like an award.

Tag lines and about

Try to keep your about page simple, what you put up reflects who you are as a professional in your industry, it doesn’t have to be anything too personal, just who you are as a professional. Personal brand can be established fastest through the about page, so be sure to keep yours short and informative while using keywords that can get you seen, this will encourage your profile to come up when people search linkedin.

Use a header that is a short description of who you are professionally. Build a uniquely branded professional headline, think of a few words that describe what you do and what makes you unique or talented then align them with your current position, if it’s consistent with the rest of your profile it should help create an image of consistency and self awareness.

One thing many people forego is hashtags, Linkedin has quite a powerful utilisation of hashtags, by putting about three relevant words into hashtags, when people search these words, you have a higher chance of showing up in the search results. You may also find it worthwhile to observe what industry leaders in your field have in their About page as when you’re new to a service like Linkedin, it pays to be observant of what others do for good personal branding.

Promotion

If you were ever promoted at one of your workplaces, definitely put that into your about page or Job History. It is effective at building personal branding, as you are showing what matters to you and what achievements you want to be associated with.

Even small things are worth putting up if it’s relevant to your personal branding like if you had to cover for a supervisor and perform supervisory duties, this would make for a great thing to put on your Linkedin profile.

Follow pages

One of Linkedins biggest services is the readily available pages, many businesses utilise Linkedin, this can be an asset to any inquisitive minded professional, By following leading businesses within the industry, you can stay up to date with both news and engagements that are happening within your sector. Always follow a diverse set of pages. Use a ratio of one to three, for every  three pages you follow, drop one, you should only unfollow if the content provided does not fit what you’re interested in. This is how you curate a healthy Linkedin feed, you don’t want to follow any and every page, just the ones relevant to you and your personal brand, others can see what you follow, so by following companies or professionals you too come across as professional through your personal branding.

Like/share

Be mindful of what you like and share, Linkedin occupies a more professional user base and so sharing click bait articles or tabloid drama is generally discouraged. Instead consider content that is useful to you and your industry, like a big news development or a company statement, there’s many things on Linkedin worth looking at and sharing, so be sure to  share relevant content from your Linkedin feed to our profile.

If you’re a content writer or have your own work online, you can use that as featured content on your Linkedin page which it has it’s own section within the profile builder making it easy to use. This builds on your personal brand because now there’s work associated with you that can be accessed through your Linkedin page, a useful innovation for any freelancer or professional looking to showcase their talent.

Essential: Do ensure your CV, Cover letter & Work portfolio matches your Linkedin profile. It is essential everything is the same regarding dates, titles, skills etc etc. Having a Linkedin profile set up correctly, will help you stand out in the job market. 

HTE Recruitment is a national recruiter and we believe in the power of Linkedin. Please do ask your Consultant for any advise / tips. We do have a add on service for candidates, to help set up your linkedin profile. Please ask for further details and details about the small cost for this add on service.

HtE Recruitment Interview & Career tips

This Interview & Career tips page has been written by Josh our Marketing Coordinator. HtE Recruitment take no responsibility for this post, this is just some thoughts about how to prepare your Linkedin profile. HtE Recruitment is one of the UK Recruitment Agencies recruiting across six sectors.