How many times have you gone onto LinkedIn to see more and more people within your extended network finally taking fingers to keyboards and typing about their lives? More than you’d like to admit probably, because, same…

Now, we can sit here and talk ourselves out of actually taking our LinkedIn seriously, but it’s one of the best ways to position yourself in the rising age of social media without having to do ridiculous dancing or showing up on TikTok, because let’s be honest…it’s not for everyone.

But, if you’re anything like me, you know you could be doing more but just aren’t…so I’m here to give you a quick LinkedIn profile guide that’s not going to overwhelm you or make you curse the world of social media.

Your profile page is the foundation to your personal brand.

Yes, you may be working for somebody else, and you might think why should you even bother? But the thing is, whilst you may be working for someone else, your brain, mind and writing is yours, which means you should be utilising it, and building a brand that is yours and yours alone.

Plus…it actually benefits the business you work for when people within their company actually take their personal brand seriously.

So let’s get into it.

First up:

Profile Picture

The most simple place to start.

1. Your profile picture needs to look like you now and not you 10 years ago, even if your jawline was doing you wonders back then.
2. LinkedIn doesn’t like digitalised images that are of your NFT or cartoon pictures, and they’ll remove them at some point sooner or later.
3. Make sure it’s not a long distance shot, closer the better but not so close I can see up your nostrils.
4. This one is probably the most important…be appropriate, no nakedness please.

LinkedIn Banner

The big image at the top of your LinkedIn profile? Yep, that’s your banner.

Don’t leave it empty.

You can set the scene with your banner, put your own offer statement, a call to action, or even the logo of the company you work for.

If you can make it relatable to you, your role or your brand…do it.

Here are some examples.

Your Headline

That line underneath your banner and profile picture is your headline. You’ll more often than not see peoples job titles placed there, but you can actually more than that!

In fact, go wild.

Bring your personality into the mix here, place your job title AND some. For example, you can add in your offer statement:

I do X so that Y can do Z.

You can add what lights you up, why you do what you do, or even a hobby into it.

The world is your oyster, plus we want to draw people further down to click your ‘about’.

Your LinkedIn About

Now, I don’t want to see your CV copied and pasted here, in fact I want to get to know you.

I want to know more about your story, what brought you to the role you’re at now and how you solve world problems (joking), more like how you solve the pain points that are presented in the business you work in or run.

You can be witty, have character and bring a piece of you to the social scene.

Try not to write in first person, but more in third, because this isn’t an ‘about’ that’s being sent to press or sitting on a website, this is your perspective and your moment.

P.s. You do not, let me repeat that…you do not, need to mention the company you work for necessarily in your ‘about’ because your experience will cover this! So, unless it’s mentioned in company policy, this is your about, not theirs (unless you really like them, then feel free!)

Experience Section

This is pretty much your most up to date digitalised CV.

Place the jobs that are most relevant to your industry and how you would like to be perceived.

This doesn’t mean adding in the paper round you once did when you were 14.

With each section, highlight the pain points that you provided solutions for and the role that you played within that company or the company you still work for now.

Now what?

Now you’ve set your profile up, you can start seeking endorsements, taking LinkedIn skills assessments, highlighting the services you offer AND start posting.

Posting

Okay, posting can feel a little intimidating, but see it as setting up the foundations for you and your personal brand.

You might think to yourself that you have no brand.

But let me ask you some questions:

• Do you work in a job or run a business?
• Are you a human being?
• Do you have a set of specific skills?
• Do you follow other humans that post?

Okay, if you answered yes to them…you have a personal brand, congratulations!

Plus, when you start posting you can add ‘featured’ posts to your profile which then make your profile SO MUCH BETTER.

Why?

Well the featured posts will be the ones that pretty much give a full overview of you and what you do in easy to find written content.

Dreamy.

But how do I grow?

I could write a whole other piece on this, but the easiest and simplest format is this:

1. Start engaging, go and like, comment & make friends online for a week before posting.
2. Start connecting — like what they post? Connect or follow. Like their writing style? Connect or follow.
3. Start posting. Get writing, click post.
4. Continue the engagement & continue the writing.

Of course, there are more ways, tricks and tips, but this is an overview.

Plus, if you’re all working in one business together, get together and start your own engagement group!

Want to know more about aligning your profile and building your brand?

Shoot me a message.