Once you have established your profile on LinkedIn, an important next step is to start engaging more broadly within the platform. There are a number of ways to do this. However, simply jumping into the platform is not often the best way. Instead, you’ll tend to get more out of it if you take a more strategic approach. How do you do this? Let’s take a look at how to build your personal brand on LinkedIn.

Create a Plan

The first step of the process is to create a plan. After all, there is a reason why you signed up for LinkedIn, right? To come up with your plan, explore what we like to call “your why.” Your why is essentially what you want to gain from your involvement on LinkedIn.

When exploring your why, it is often helpful to ask yourself a few different questions, each of which has to do with a specific area.

• Purpose. Why are you on LinkedIn?
• Goal. What do you want to achieve?
• Timeline. When do you want to achieve your goal?
• Audience. Who are you speaking to in your profile?
• Time. How much time do you want to devote to it?

For example, you may determine that you are on LinkedIn in order to grow your professional network and share industry knowledge. You may want to write a weekly article to help with outreach. Perhaps you want to be considered for a promotion and you are open to contact from recruiters with the goal of getting an interview within the next three months. There are a variety of answers.

Bring Value

Simply having a presence on LinkedIn is not enough to truly excel on the platform. You also have to contribute value to it. Have you ever heard the saying “you get out of something what you put in?” This is similar with LinkedIn. As a social network, engaging with others is important.

How do you plan to engage? There are a number of ways where you can contribute value on LinkedIn. One way is to provide recommendations and endorsements to others, which is an effective way to stay connected with others and help them out. They will potentially return the favour as well.

Another way that you can bring value to LinkedIn is as a content creator. Many professionals create posts regularly on LinkedIn. Sharing your knowledge and experiences is a great way to quickly grow your network. When someone comments on your posts, be sure to respond.

Additionally, you can follow companies and leaders in your field. Be sure to read their content and comment when you have something to share. This will help you to facilitate and further the conversations in these posts. Finding your own niche on LinkedIn will help you further the value you bring.

Build Relationships

The most important aspect of being on LinkedIn is building relationships. After all, the goal is to grow your network. This will help you become aware of more professional opportunities and resources. This can be done by engaging on posts and having discussions. Be sure to provide meaningful comments that go beyond ‘thanks for sharing’ or ‘great insight’.

Another important way to build relationships is to continue to add people to your network. As you meet more people in your professional sphere, feel free to send them a request. You can send messages with these requests. Feel free to say it was nice to meet them and that you’d like to add them to your network.

Be Consistent

Getting value out of LinkedIn requires being consistent with the platform. You can’t simply engage every now and then and still get a lot of value out of it. Remember your plan from the first step? Achieving it means engaging.

This is especially true if you are hoping to find career or business opportunities through LinkedIn. After all, if you log in and participate regularly, you are much more likely to pop up in searches from recruiters. This is how the algorithms work. Additionally, engaging in dialogues creates more organic ways to make connections that may lead to your next opportunity.

Conclusion

Leveraging LinkedIn to build your personal brand as a professional or business owner will enable you to increase visibility and create top-of-mind awareness. For more tips on how to build your personal brand on LinkedIn, download our free E-Book – Taking Your LinkedIn to the Next Level.

Looking for a professional to write your LinkedIn Profile? Learn how to get started here.