Enhance Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

Whether you're aiming to transition or advance your career, your personal brand can make or break your ability to snag new opportunities.

As Jeff Besoz, the founder of Amazon, said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you aren’t in the room.” Let's add to this description by recognizing that you are in control of developing your brand and influencing the way others perceive you - so you have the opportunity to provide them with the words to say when you aren't in the room.

Think about it this way: If you were applying for your ideal job and your future boss was doing reference checks, how would you want your reference to describe you?

Take a peek at the process I use to empower my clients to align their personal brand with their ideal job, as well as some quick tips on how to strengthen your personal brand using LinkedIn.

The 3 P's of Personal Branding

1. Prep - Do a deep dive into researching your ideal position, company and industry to gather intel about the skills, qualities and accomplishments you should showcase in your professional marketing materials (resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile).

2. Problem Solve - Identify the primary problems you will solve in your ideal role. Will you make or save money for your organization? Will you improve the lives of your clients? Pinpoint how you will use your unique strengths to solve that problem and build your brand around this.

3. Portray - Finally, communicate your brand through your professional marketing materials and networking conversations. Convey a clear and consistent message that demonstrates you are the perfect fit for your ideal position.

Strengthen Your Personal Brand Using LinkedIn

• Jazz up your headline beyond simply indicating your title and company by demonstrating something unique about you, the value you you add, or the results you've shown.

• Strengthen your summary section by differentiating yourself and clearly articulating your brand. Write your summary in the first person and incorporate industry-relevant keywords (but avoid overused buzzwords).

• Post!! Seriously. If you're a bit nervous about sharing original content, start by sharing relevant articles, mentioning what you learned at a recent conference, or congratulating a colleague on a great project. You can also get involved in relevant LinkedIn groups and post thoughtful questions and respond to others' posts.

• Be consistent. Unfortunately, most people only use LI when job searching, but I want to challenge you to begin spending at least 10 minutes 2x per week on the platform. (Come on, how much time do you spend on IG, FB or Twitter?! You can make the time to check LinkedIn!)

• Be genuinely you! The best way to build your brand is allow your personality to shine through. Yes, LI is a professional platform - but don't let that intimidate you. You are still encouraged to be authentically you in your profile, posts and networking conversations.

Need some customized support in defining and portraying your personal brand? Reach out!