6 smart hacks for personal branding on LinkedIn

In today’s world with a huge number of people online, it’s important to have a great online personal brand for
individuals. People typically look up for individuals they are planning to meet or planning to speak to over a
call. It means your online reputation precedes you and it becomes the basic first impression about
individuals. Hence it is time to focus on personal branding.

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”. If you are serious about first impressions then
it's time for some serious discussion on personal branding.
For Personal branding first port of call is LinkedIn. It is the ideal platform for your professional reputation and
brand. We have listed down some easy to do but important steps for a good professional standing in
LinkedIn.

Here are 6 hacks to build a great personal brand on LinkedIn

1 A picture is worth 1,000 words:
There are two aspects to this

It has to be a good professional headshot (Not a cut out from some group pic you had taken ages ago). Tthe
LinkedIn background also has to be a good professional formal background in case you want to project
yourself as a very decent working professional. In case you are from a creative field you can choose the
LinkedIn background accordingly but I would suggest keeping the headshot professional.

2 The images that are shared in status messages on your profile. Nothing tells a story online like multimedia! LinkedIn gives you several options and features including videos, images, audio, Slide Share presentations, etc. The objective of all these is to provide users a compelling
medium to tell their story in a way that plain text can never deliver to them and provide the correct
information.

Amongst these features, the most exciting feature is of a video because it allows people to get to know you.
When you consider the fact that having a short intro video allows you to tell your story and make a good first
impression with someone you have never met, and that may live on the other side of the country or the other
side of the word. That’s powerful!

2 Content is the key:
It becomes very important for you to deliver the right and correct information. As that is going to gain the
attention of the people. Using content to position yourself as a valuable resource, a thought leader, and
expert is one of the most effective ways to connect with and engage your target market.

But how can we do that on LinkedIn?
Sharing content on regular basis is one of the fastest, effective and easiest ways to be present in front of
your LinkedIn network. The only key is to focus on content that is highly relevant to your exact target group of
audience.LinkedIn publishing, or also known as LinkedIn articles or LinkedIn Pulse posts, it is an incredible tool that allows LinkedIn users to position themselves as thought leaders in their industry by simply writing short but highly targeted content. Unlike most blogs that no one has ever heard of, LinkedIn will automatically notify your connections/followers that a new post is available which leads to instant traffic to our post.

I'd also suggest exploring Quora and Medium put in your post there and share that on LinkedIn. It is not
necessary that you publish all your blog on LinkedIn only

3 Be easy to be found
When we first setup our LinkedIn account we are assigned to a random and not so user-friendly URL for your
profile. That’s why it’s important to claim your custom vanity URL.
The URL which is not custom and is long, clunky and difficult to use. Here you can see my custom URL
which is short and fits into an overall branding strategy.
You should also ensure that you do not use any special characters in your name because if you do, you will
not come up in searches when your network does a search on Google or other platforms.

4 Stop selling and be helpful:
Don’t behave like a car salesman on LinkedIn no one likes it and it will damage your brand. Instead be helpful share some stories from your professional life and what you learned from them. By doing that people connect with you on a more personal level and engage better with your content.
Also when you share thought-provoking stories or examples people start commenting and in some cases, the comments act more like a validation/ testimonial to what you said.

5 Be different, be unique:
Keep your thoughts and contents fresh and unique, it's good to be different and unique but you should ensure that you follow all the professional etiquettes that are followed in a professional word on LinkedIn as well because LinkedIn is like a virtual professional world. One of the most basic things you can do is use a unique custom header on LinkedIn. Most LinkedIn users don’t realize that they have the ability to add a custom header to their profile, and it’s one of the many important features for all LinkedIn users. The custom background allows you to enhance your brand by further telling your story.

6 LinkedIn Recommendations
You should also consider getting LinkedIn recommendations if you’re serious about leveraging LinkedIn to
build your brand as an in~uencer. LinkedIn recommendations are one of the most powerful but underutilized
features on LinkedIn. Give a sincere and honest recommendation for a customer, vendor, employee, thought leader or a new connection you met or recently did business with. If you have provided them value and then given them a
recommendation, they will reciprocate without you ever having to ask. As a part of your follow-up with all
new clients be sure to ask them for a LinkedIn recommendation. The best time to get a recommendation is
just after you deliver value but you can’t be shy about it.
These are simple to implement strategies, which will make a lot of difference when it comes to developing
your personal branding on LinkedIn.