5 Ways to Successfully Build Your Brand on LinkedIn

September 6, 2016

LinkedIn is the launching pad to start building your professional brand; telling businesses who you are and the professional you hope to become.

According to AdWeek, 87 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to find potential employees. This number is nearly 30 percent higher than Facebook. Maintaining a professional and engaging LinkedIn profile is vital to ensuring current and future business opportunities.

LinkedIn makes connecting and maintaining relationships between industry professionals and building a valuable network simple. Here are five ways to ensure you are successfully building your brand on LinkedIn:

Keywords Matter

Just like with SEO, keyword usage matters when it comes to being found in LinkedIn’s search results. Determining keywords you want to appear for when potential employers and contacts will make your profile much easier to find.

If you are in digital marketing, like myself, making sure that you use words such as:

digital marketing
social media
analytics
SEO

and other terms relating to your industry will help users more easily find your profile if they are searching for a digital marketer.

Your professional headline, summary, and job descriptions are excellent places to make sure these keywords appear.

Become an All-Star

According to The Muse, complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive employment and other opportunities through LinkedIn than profiles that aren’t complete. Your LinkedIn profile should be as complete as possible. LinkedIn gives your profile a rating depending on the completion of your profile. The Profile Strength meter will show you your current ranking. The levels you can obtain are:

Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Expert
All-Star

Reaching this all-star ranking should be one of your first priorities when reinvigorating or creating your LinkedIn profile. Achieving this top ranking ensures that your professional profile is well-rounded. To obtain this ranking, you need:

Your industry and location
A current position and description
Two past positions
Your education
Minimum of three skills
A profile photo
And finally, at least 50 connections

Once you have completed these aspects, you can start to shape your profile in other ways by completing sections showcasing your awards, projects, organizations, etc. Connect with me, an All-Star profile, to see how I completed my LinkedIn profile!

Be An Expert

Use LinkedIn in the same way that you would use Facebook and post about things that interest you. Just because LinkedIn is a professional networking platform, doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun with it and share engaging content.

Use LinkedIn to share interesting articles about the industry you work in or want to be a part of in the future. If you are an accountant and have an interest in the luxury good market, share an article about the recent boom in the Chinese luxury good market. Immersing yourself in an industry shows that you are engaged and ready to bring your skills to a company.

According to a study done by Fortune, intellectual curiosity is one of the biggest skills that employers want to see that you won’t find in a job listing. So, go, be curious and share your favorites on LinkedIn!

Join & Engage With Groups

Another part of being an expert is interacting with other experts. Joining groups on LinkedIn that relate to your industry and interests is a great way of meeting other professionals that can offer advice and potential employment.

Starting or participating in a group conversation helps to create an engaging environment and helps you learn more about the industry. First, make sure that the question hasn’t already been asked in a previous conversation so that you don’t appear to be grasping for attention.

There is a group for everything, all you have to do is search for it! And if it doesn’t exist, create the next big LinkedIn group.

Pick Your Connections Wisely

Similar to Facebook, who you connect with on LinkedIn says a lot about you as a person. Employers will infer that you are similar to your connections and make assumptions based on those connections.

Connecting with other LinkedIn users because they post fascinating articles, informative blog posts, industry trends, job posting, or because you know them are all good reasons to add someone as a connection.

It is also important to meet and add connections in the industry that you want to become a part of because it shows employers you are taking the initiative. These contacts may help you land a job. After all, LinkedIn is all about networking with other professionals!

Picking the perfect keywords, making sure your profile is complete, showcasing your expertise, joining groups and engaging with appropriate connections will set you on the right course towards a perfect LinkedIn profile.

Let us know in the comments if there is anything we missed that has worked for your LinkedIn profile!