Contrary to popular belief, LinkedIn personal branding isn’t just about showing off what you do. 👀
It’s also: the art of telling your story, highlighting your identity and values, bringing value to your network as well as showing how and why you do it. ✅ With the aim of becoming a reference, attracting opportunities and strengthening your professional influence.
💥 Discover how to build a LinkedIn personal branding that reflects the unique professional you are (free and easy to learn). ➡️ On the program:
- Why create your LinkedIn personal branding.
- 7 tips for building and developing your personal branding on LinkedIn.
- Content marketing for your LinkedIn personal branding strategy.
- 3 examples of profiles with strong LinkedIn personal branding.
Ready to go? Let’s get started. 🚀
Why create your own LinkedIn personal branding?
LinkedIn is not only the world’s largest professional social network, but also the world’s largest free data platform. 🤩
The platform boasts over a billion members. LinkedIn users trust the platform for the quality of its content, as a digital media outlet, to develop brand awareness, find prospects, etc.
🤷🏻♀️ Of course, this depends on your business, but overall, using LinkedIn to build your LinkedIn personal branding allows you to :
- Appeal to the LinkedIn publication algorithm and benefit from high visibility.
- Create a genuine professional network.
- Attract thousands of views to your profile and posts.
- Build trust and connect with your audience.
- Generate more qualified leads and more easily convert them into customers.
- Demonstrate your expertise and stand out from your competitors.
👉🏼 If your target audience is in the B2B sector(content creator, web designer, developer, event organizer, marketing consultant, community manager…) then LinkedIn is 277% more effective than other social media platform.
👉🏼 And, even if your target is B2C, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon LinkedIn, in favor of other social networks (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram). LinkedIn can also be used for B2C. So leave no stone unturned in your search for prospects.
For example, one of our customers looking for registrants for his yoga classes, sent free automated messages on LinkedIn with Waalaxy and found 80% of his new customers this way. 😍 It also works for clothing stores, florists, bike repairers, music teachers....
7 tips for building your personal branding on LinkedIn
Many underestimate the power of LinkedIn personal branding to establish strong credibility with your network and beyond. 🌏
Yet it really is something that works like a charm, if it’s well built and worked on. ⚡️ This includes :
- An optimized LinkedIn profile, based on your targets and competitors.
- Being an active member, by interacting (reactions, comments, shares) and regularly publishing relevant content (LinkedIn pulse articles, posts, videos…) on LinkedIn, related to your field. Publish 3 times a week, following the TOFU-MOFU-BOFU marketing strategy.
- Be authentic: show who you are, your projects, your successes, your failures, your humanity, your testimony and your uniqueness.
- New means of communication via LinkedIn (webinars, audio, videos…).
- The creation of solid links and partnerships, in particular by participating in LinkedIn groups.
- Tools to generate ideas, schedule your publications, boost engagement and contact your audience automatically (visits, invitations, messages, e-mails, etc.).
We’ll get right down to the nitty-gritty and show you how to use your LinkedIn personal branding to win over your network and get as many new customers as possible. 💅🏼
1. Optimize your LinkedIn profile
Your LinkedIn profile is: the showcase for your expertise, an open door to show who you are, your only chance to make a good first impression, your digital business card (that speaks for you, even in your absence). 🌟
To recap what we’ve seen so far, here’s some info on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and what to find there 👇🏼 :
Of course, the answers to these questions must be found in the various sections of your profile. But also, and above all, in your content (to reinforce consistency, authenticity and trust).
If this isn’t the case, you can update your profile and make changes that will make a difference 👀
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Profile photo (if required) | High definition, eyes visible and turned towards the camera, be smiling, neutral background (or colored for more visibility), neat and appropriate outfit (avoid selfies, vacation photos, cropped party or family photos…). |
| LinkedIn banner (if required) | Should be personalized and represent you, this is where you’ll be able to bring your LinkedIn Personal Branding to life visually and express your creativity. |
| LinkedIn Headline to personalize | What you do, value proposition, CTA (this is the basics). To help you write the perfect LinkedIn Headline, we’ve launched a free LinkedIn Headline Generator that gives you several headlines to choose from (based on your current headline). |
| Info section (or biography) | Use this section to tell your story, describe yourself in more detail, explain why you love what you do, why you do it well and why people should want to work with you. |
| Selection | Use the selection to showcase your expertise to people who visit your profile by highlighting your publications and achievements, your blog, your newsletter, an article about you or your business, your events… |
| Experience and training | The aim is for visitors to understand your background and what makes you an expert in your field (there’s no need to include them all, just select the most relevant and rewarding, then describe them concisely). |
| Translate (optional) | Translate your LinkedIn profile (if you want to find international customers). |
Finally, make your profile easy to read and that your LinkedIn personal branding stands out. And, have fun. 🥳
2. Publish quality content regularly
The secret? 🤫 Be regular, follow your editorial content plan and include your LinkedIn personal branding everywhere, to be seen and recognized.
But, before you publish, you’ll need to take the time to answer these questions precisely ⏳ :
- Why am I publishing on LinkedIn?
| To show that I’m an expert to whom? | Marketing experts, sales managers… |
| To create a community with whom? | Beginners, customers, enthusiasts, freelancers… |
- Who is my target audience (normally defined before optimizing your profile)?
| Who do you want to speak to on a large scale? | Large (Top) audience |
| Who lies just between the general public and the target audience? | Middle audience |
| Who is most likely to follow you and buy your services? | Bottom audience |
- What do I want to bring to this audience to help them? Advice, tutorials, definitions, training, expectations, needs, concerns…
✅ Once that’s done, select the topics and content formats you’ll publish (we’ll explain later in the article, how to know what to post on LinkedIn).
Then, choose a posting frequency. To tell you the truth, there’s no ideal frequency or time to post on LinkedIn (it depends on your audience). 😬
On the other hand, we recommend you do it at least twice/week for :
- Expand your network and gain visibility with your readers.
- Get LinkedIn’s algorithm to highlight your posts in the news feed.
- Show your legitimacy in your field (the more you publish, the more you show your knowledge, and therefore, the more people trust you).
If you want to post every day, there’s nothing stopping you from doing so. ⏰ But you’ll need to keep up the pace… The secret to getting results is regularity.
And above all, keep in mind that you need to make relevant content, if what you write doesn’t interest your audience, you risk seeing your reach drop drastically. 📉 The network can hide your publications if you’re too present or if what you’re saying doesn’t interest anyone.
Find out more, with 12 mistakes to avoid when publishing on LinkedIn.
3. Develop your personal brand on LinkedIn
💎 With killer LinkedIn personal branding, through an optimized LinkedIn profile and regular publication of value-packed content… you’ll show up in other people’s feeds.
And, you’ll be able to build your network on LinkedIn through several actions. 📲
4. Get and publish comments
To really impose your LinkedIn personal branding, you need to succeed in creating engagement, notably by getting reactions (likes and comments) to your LinkedIn posts. 👍🏼
These enable your posts and profile to gain visibility and notoriety, and therefore to appear in more people’s news feeds for longer. 🔥
Here’s the method for attracting comments under your own posts:
- Publish high-value content to attract relevant profiles (ideally people with a large network and strong LinkedIn personal branding).
- Encourage interaction in your posts (for example, with a call to action or an open-ended question at the end of a post that prompts people to post a comment).
- Comment on other people’s posts:
- With long comments: LinkedIn’s algorithm thinks you’ve spent time reading and writing, and that it should be constructive. 🏗️
- With certain people (always the same people): in this case, the algorithm categorizes you as a friend. 👯♂️
In short, you can benefit from visibility, the reach of their post and the audience of relevant profiles (to perhaps conquer or share a part of them), if you manage to :
- 🧲 Attract comments from relevant profiles on your posts.
- 🏆 Be displayed as the most relevant comment (1ᵉʳ comment displayed).
Tip: Scroll through your feed every day for 5-10 minutes and comment on at least 10 posts related to your personal brand, products or services. Repeat this operation 5 times/week.
Beyond the visibility you’ll bring to your LinkedIn personal branding, we’ll explain right away why you absolutely must offer exclusive, high added value content and publish comments under other people’s posts.
5. The principle of reciprocity
On LinkedIn, offering exclusive, high-value content, as well as thoughtfully commenting on others’ posts, is based on a powerful psychological principle: reciprocity. 🧠
It’s a universal dynamic, based on a sense of obligation: when someone receives something or value proposition, they feel encouraged (even obliged) to reciprocate.
When you share rare information, strategic insights or valuable resources, you’re offering something free of charge that enriches your network. This gesture creates a sense of gratitude, and therefore of being indebted to you, in those who benefit. 🙏
This encourages them to reciprocate, whether by interacting with your posts, recommending you or offering you opportunities.
It’s the same thing when you’re given an extraordinary gift for your birthday: you instantly feel that you’ll have to do better, or at least match it. And, this feeling appears as soon as you think of the birthday (of the person who gave you a gift) approaching. 🎁
Likewise, actively commenting under the posts of users who show your interest in and support for their content, enhances their work while boosting their visibility
But also yours! 🤝 Since, in return, they feel indebted and more inclined to engage with your publications or mention you in their discussions. These actions reinforce the visibility of your LinkedIn personal branding, and build strong, mutually beneficial relationships.
6. Talk to your community
Engaging your community on LinkedIn is much more than publishing LinkedIn posts or liking content. It’s an ongoing dialogue, where every interaction counts: your comments, your replies, even your private messages. 💬
These exchanges create a sense of proximity and reinforce your credibility with your network (we recommend launching formats such as videos, newsletters or podcasts).
🗣️ Dare to go further by contacting influencers or experts in your sector. Introduce them to an inspiring story or a powerful idea that could enrich their projects. A collaboration, a webinar or a mention in their content can become a tremendous visibility opportunity.
But remember: to be invited to these discussions, you have to prove your worth. To do this, you need 👇🏼 :
- An optimized profile.
- LinkedIn personal branding and/or a clear brand identity.
- Regular activity on LinkedIn is essential to capture the attention and gain the trust of these leaders.
Every interaction is a building block in your professional reputation 😉
7. Contact your new connections on LinkedIn
Every new connection can become an active member of your community and open doors to new opportunities. 🤑
By sending a message (or email) to all your new connections, you greatly increase your chances that this will happen and that there will be future interactions.🍀
Personalized private interactions enrich your LinkedIn personal branding. And, to :
- Promote knowledge sharing and professional development.
- Draw attention to your profile, your LinkedIn personal branding, your content, etc.
- Create a community around common interests.
- Immediately establish a human link and make yourself memorable.
Here are two examples of messages to send to reinforce your LinkedIn personal branding, when your connection requests are accepted. Of course, adapt the tone and language to the target. 🎯
1. Repost and share content
Hello {{first name}},
I’m writing an article (or post, newsletter, infographic …) on {{topic}} and I’m looking to incorporate some expert advice. As {{title}}, what advice would you have for {{question}}? The link to the content: {{link}}.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Psychology hack 🧠: Sending a LinkedIn podcast or newsletter by message will so “heat” up the people they receive them, that they’ll come to you or take an action on their own (without needing to prompt them). It also works with a post or video link.
It’s also possible to ask questions to help you find the type of content they’d like to read on LinkedIn. 📖
2. Offer your services
Hi, thanks for accepting me into your {{first name}} network,
I work for {{company name}}, I don’t know if this speaks to you, but we’re developing {{product}}.
Is this something that might interest people in your company? If you ever want to know more, I’ll give you the link: {{website link}}.
Psychology hacks 🧠 : Ending a prospecting message with “Do you know anyone it can help?”, works well to get the person interested for themselves. Why? You lower the level of skepticism, and the person will feel less like you’re trying to sell them something.
🎬 That’s it, we’ve delivered all the essential tips to build a personal brand and for building your LinkedIn personal branding. Now we’ll help you develop your content strategy.
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LinkedIn personal branding and content strategy
There’s a method that works more than well for creating LinkedIn personal branding content, and we’re going to share it with you:
- 🔻 Use inbound marketing and funnel marketing to define your content and topic ideas, in order to reach your target audience.
- ⚙️ Adopt tools to organize ideas, write your content, schedule your publications, and automate your actions on LinkedIn.
What to post on LinkedIn
🧱 To know what to post on LinkedIn, you need to build a LinkedIn content strategy consistent with your LinkedIn personal branding in order to :
- Have a guideline for producing coherent content on LinkedIn, aligned with your professional goals and your audience’s expectations.
- Optimize engagement, reinforce credibility, guarantee an effective and regular LinkedIn presence (and therefore visibility).
To achieve this, you’ll need to use the famous marketing funnel , which will help you select the topics that will make you shine on LinkedIn and reach your targets. ✨
Don’t worry, it’s easier than it looks.
- TOFU (Top of funnel) ⬆️: You want to reach the widest possible audience and as many people as possible (awareness objective). Make sure it’s a subject you enjoy talking about. Otherwise, you’ll never find enough long-term inspiration. For example: well-being at work, launching a start-up, telecommuting, LinkedIn post…
- MOFU ⏺️: Your funnel is narrowing, you want to reach the “middle” audience, so this topic will attract fewer people. Give advice, teach, show your expertise. For example: copywriting, LinkedIn features, cold email, buyer persona, A/B testing…
- BOFU ⬇️: This is the final stage, when you want to speak to your core target and qualified audience (even smaller than the MOFU). Try to convince and show your level of expertise to convert prospects into customers. For example: LinkedIn automation, SEO article optimization, campaign results, product launch errors…
All that’s left is to adapt these themes to your own business, as well as choosing topics you like and know how to talk about (ideally, publish 1 post/week for each segment). ✍
Tools to help you
As you can see, building your LinkedIn personal branding involves many actions. We recommend a few tools to help you manage them efficiently and save time. 💪🏼
Organize ideas
To find an effective way of organizing your ideas, you can use any tool that has a card system (like Trello or Notion) 🃏. On Notion, you can separate them into 3 columns, for TOFU-MOFU-BOFU.
It’s also a way to secure and avoid losing your ideas, writing about something that doesn’t inspire you, or having to prepare everything at the last moment. 💡 Try to always have topic ideas for 2 weeks ahead (so 6 posts).
With time and practice, the ideas will come on their own and you’ll be able to prepare several weeks’ worth of content in advance, consistent with your LinkedIn personal branding.
Writing your posts
To properly structure a LinkedIn post and find the style that matches your LinkedIn personal branding, here are the essential steps ✅ :
1. Choose a relevant or topical subject related to your expertise, or that brings real value to your LinkedIn audience (from your list of ideas).
2. Define the post format according to your objective: text only, with image, with video, with .pdf (carousel), with survey…
3. Use a writing framework: the AIDA method works well for strong storytelling or value-added content. But there are other frameworks too, and you can create your own!
4. Get the hook right 🧲: 120 visible characters before clicking on « see more » to encourage engagement.
5. Formatting: be concise, air out the text, use emojis to structure and humanize the message, and integrate targeted hashtags to bring more visibility (preferably at the end of the post and not in the middle of the text to make it easier to read).
6. Engage in conversation (with a call to action) 🕹️: open-ended question or link to a document, encourage reading or subscribing to get engagement, feedback and interaction (remember, the more comments you get, the more people the algorithm shows your content to).
You can write your content on Notion, based on your ideas already listed on the tool. Then wait 24 hours before re-reading your content to simplify it.
Get a planning tool
When your LinkedIn personal branding content is ready. You can publish them manually, or you can schedule them to save time and have them published automatically. 🤖
Personally, I use Podawaa. It’s a freemium tool that has a built-in function to join engagement and relevant LinkedIn groups (or engagement pods) and boost reactions to your content (which is not the case with LinkedIn’s “schedule a post” function). 🚀
Get an automation tool
To automate your actions and campaigns to strengthen your LinkedIn personal Branding, we recommend using Waalaxy.
The tool presents itself as the simplest, most intuitive and effective digital solution on the market! 🤩 Waalaxy campaigns will help you save time and deliver content automatically.
To launch a marketing campaign on LinkedIn with Waalaxy, simply choose the sequence that suits your needs from the 📚 sequence library (after preparing your list).
They allow you to quickly advance your LinkedIn personal branding, simply by automating the following actions ✅ :
- Retrieve your connections, reactions and comments to your publications, participants in a group or event,
- Automatically visit and follow LinkedIn profiles.
- Send invitations with or without personalized notes.
- Write messages with our AI Waami assistant.
- Send automated LinkedIn messages and emails, highly personalized and tailored to your target audience.
- Find and send emails to your leads with our Email Finder.
- Find similar prospects with our AI Prospect Finder.
- Manage replies to your messages and follow-ups with Waalaxy Inbox.
In short, Waalaxy works for you (it’s card-free and it’s free). 🔥
3 examples of profiles with strong LinkedIn personal branding
🔎 Finally, we decided to decipher with you the LinkedIn personal of the following profiles:
- Personal branding & copywriting: Charles Miller.
- Marketing & Sales: Neil Patel.
- Digital marketing & Social Media : Goldie Chan.
Check out their profiles and the content they share to get inspired. 🫶🏼
Personal Branding & Copywriting: Charles Miller
Charles Miller’s LinkedIn profile exemplifies exceptional personal branding in the realms of personal branding and copywriting. ✍🏼
As a writer and personal branding coach, he effectively showcases his expertise by sharing valuable insights and resources to his LinkedIn audience, such as a free personal branding course and viral post templates.
🤯 His profile highlights his achievements, including amassing over 1,000,000 followers for his CEO clients and generating over $10,000,000 in revenue, establishing his credibility in the field.
By consistently providing practical advice and engaging content, Charles fosters a strong connection with his audience, positioning himself as a thought leader in personal branding and copywriting. 💪🏼
Marketing & Sales: Neil Patel
Neil Patel’s LinkedIn profile exemplifies outstanding personal branding in marketing and sales.💥 As the co-founder of Neil Patel Digital, he effectively showcases his expertise in SEO, lead generation and digital marketing.
His profile features a professional headshot and a compelling headline that highlights his role and areas of specialization. 📣
The summary section provides a concise overview of his accomplishments, including his work with major brands and recognition in the industry. 🏆 By sharing valuable content and insights, Neil engages his audience and reinforces his authority in the field.
In short, his profile serves as a model for professionals aiming to build a strong personal brand in marketing and sales. 🚀
Digital Marketing & Social Media : Goldie Chan
Goldie Chan’s LinkedIn profile exemplifies exceptional personal branding in the branding and copywriting sectors. 🎸 Known as the “Oprah of LinkedIn,” she has cultivated a distinctive presence and brand image, through her signature green hair and engaging content.
Her daily video series, the longest-running on LinkedIn, showcases her storytelling prowess and deep understanding of brand narratives. 🎧
As the founder of Warm Robots, a social media strategy agency, and a Forbes contributor on personal branding, she consistently shares valuable insights, reinforcing her authority in the field. 🦾
Her profile seamlessly blends professional achievements with personal flair, offering a compelling example of authentic and effective marketing influence.
Of course, there are plenty of profiles with good LinkedIn personal branding, in all fields. It’s up to you to find them! 😊
Conclusion – LinkedIn Personal Branding
To conclude, with LinkedIn personal branding done right, you’ll be: known, recognized, validated, bought (your products/services, not yourself), even recommended by LinkedIn and your network for your work. 😎
Not only on LinkedIn, but also outside LinkedIn. And, in this article, we’ve given you everything you need to get there. So don’t hesitate any longer.
If you have a question about this method, you can always contact us or read more articles about LinkedIn. 🔥
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
🏁 Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions on this topic.
How do you measure activity and performance on LinkedIn?
To measure and optimize your marketing campaigns on LinkedIn, you need to use indicators that give you a clear view of the impact of your actions on your LinkedIn personal branding. 📊
You can already use the LinkedIn dashboard to track the overall performance of your activity and marketing campaigns on LinkedIn.
But, there’s also an indicator called the Social Selling Index (SSI), which helps you see if you’re active enough on social media. 💯
🧮 It is calculated on LinkedIn Sales Solutions according to 4 criteria:
- Your LinkedIn personal branding,
- Find the right people,
- Exchange information,
- Build relationships.
The result tells you where you need to improve (the average score depends on your sector).
How can I analyze the performance of LinkedIn campaigns in Waalaxy?
If you’ve launched automated action campaigns on LinkedIn, you can associate LinkedIn data with the Waalaxy dashboard. 👽
It offers precise tracking of your prospecting actions, with numerous graphs and performance indicators, as well as the option of exporting all your results.
🗓️ You can also compare the performance of different campaigns individually, with each other and over different periods to :
- Evaluate the impact of your actions on your LinkedIn personal branding.
- Identify the most effective strategies and adjust your approach.
- Perform A/B testing to optimize your results and ROI.
You’re done! Now you know how to develop personal branding and are ready to build your LinkedIn personal branding to get results fast. 😍
