Strengthening a Personal Brand with LinkedIn

Lisa Namm
Jun 21, 2022
8 min read

How to build a rock star LinkedIn profile that raises your visibility

When it comes to marketing in 2021, it is more important than ever for companies to distinguish themselves by the expertise they bring to clients. Communicating that expertise is the first step in building a relationship with potential clients that can lead them to engage with your firm as valued business advisors and partners.

A personal brand allows you to build trust between your colleagues and clients alike. It also boosts your reputation and motivates others to want to do business with you. As such, it is likely we will see CEOs not only enhancing their own personal brand in 2021, but also requiring brand enhancements for their company’s experts across the firm.

One of the best places to start raising visibility and strengthening a personal brand is building your online social presence with LinkedIn. LinkedIn has quickly transformed into a rich, customizable, multi-faceted personal branding platform. According to CMI’s 2020 Content Marketing Survey1, LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform used by B2B marketers, with 96 percent using it to distribute content. With almost 700 million active users in 20202, LinkedIn is a valuable business development tool and a key recruiting tool if you are searching for a career change or looking for talent.

So, if you want a more visible personal brand presence on LinkedIn, we are here to get you started with 10 key steps to help you build a rock star profile.

Keys to a Strong LinkedIn Profile

The first place to start is understanding the WHY. A stronger profile will appear higher in LinkedIn search results. Search ranks profiles based on the following criteria: Profile Completeness (100 percent), Connections in Common (shared), Connections by Degree (first, second and third degree), Groups in Common (shared). So, it is important to start with a complete profile that adequately represents who you are and how you can help those prospects problem solve.

A complete LinkedIn Profile Checklist will include a headline with keywords, profile summary, professional headshot, background image, contact information, public profile URL, skills and endorsements, experience and education, recommendations and endorsements, and network connections.

1. Headline with Keywords

Your intro section is most important, as it is the primary section people will see in search results. When it comes to your headline, highlight what you do rather than just your title. Write it from the lens of your prospects and ask whether your focus is clearly highlighted. Make sure you explain what you do and who you help in 120 characters or less. Use keywords or phrases that a prospective customer might search to find you.

Your headline is a perfect opportunity to really differentiate you from everyone else, including your competitors. For example, a headline that just highlights your title as a Staff and CPA is limiting. Adding additional insight such as Auditor with a Healthcare industry focus takes your headline to the next level in search optimization - your keywords being Auditor and Healthcare.

*Do you want to notify your network of changes to your profile? It defaults to “On." If you wish to change the default, simply click on the toggle to flip it to “Off.” On your profile, if you are editing your experience, for example, at the bottom it will have a Share with Network box.

2. Profile Summary

Your summary sets the tone for how people will understand your experience. LinkedIn gives you 2,000 characters to express yourself. It should be 2-3 small paragraphs about how you fill a particular niche in your industry. Remember to speak to your target audience and explain what you do and who you help. List your key areas of expertise and some achievements that might resonate with your prospects. If you can add in featured media, even better, as those recent media spots/videos/articles elevate your personal brand. The best summaries have personable tones and are not merely copied and pasted from a resume. Your summary should be about your career and not simply about your current role or company.

3. Professional Headshot

Visual storytelling is an important element of your LinkedIn profile, and this starts with a professional headshot. Your photo should be 400x400 pixels and not larger than 8MB. Make sure you dress professionally, have an approachable smile, and are centered in a photo that includes head and shoulders. Be sure there’s good lighting and a solid color background. The photo should feature you alone; don’t include pets, family pictures or selfies.

4. Background Image

A background image is optional, but it can add value to your personal brand in an easy visual. Make sure that it is 1584 (w) x 396 (h) pixels. The photo should visually communicate something about your personal brand. For example, you could include a city skyline to show where you are located, share a product or service photo of something you sell, or use a textured background with your company’s logo to connect to your company’s brand.

5. Contact Information

You can manage the contact and personal information that is displayed in the introduction card on your profile by editing the Contact Information. Some of this information can be visible to people on your public profile, so make sure that you review your security settings. Your company’s website address and your company’s LinkedIn profile can be included in this section.

6. Public Profile URL

You can customize your public profile URL and remove the numbers at the end of your name. These are available on a first come, first served basis, so if you have a common name, you may have to add a middle name, post-nominal letters or a city location to your URL if your first and last name is already taken.3

7. Skills and Endorsements

The skills section is an opportunity to highlight your uniqueness. You should enter at least five skills, but more is better. You can include up to 50 skills that show your hard skills and soft skills. For example, you can include that you know accounting software, and then further specify the different software tools you have used. Make sure to order your skills so the most important ones are at the top.

Do some research on competitors or comparable job postings to your position. Note the skills they are asking for and add those to your profile if they apply. This is where keywords and areas of specialty should be featured.

8. Experience and Education

The experience section is where you list your current position as well as your previous positions. Pay close attention to ensure that each company is correctly linked in each position highlighted. If you don’t see a logo for the company you worked for next to your position, then it may not be linked correctly unless that company page hasn’t been claimed.

This area is where you summarize your job description in a short paragraph. As noted above, the profile summary is a review of your entire career and not your current position. This is the section where you have the opportunity to go beyond just the titles and names of the companies and provide detailed descriptions of your roles and accomplishments, peppering in keywords that prospects will find of value. Don’t simply copy your resume here; rather use a conversational tone and be intentional to ensure each section is impactful.

This is also a good place to include thought leadership and expert visibility achievements, such as speaking engagements, awards, media appearances or key projects accomplished in each role. Again, write this from the lens of what your prospect might be looking for rather than what you want to tell them.

In addition to your experience, don’t forget to include your education. LinkedIn will include notes by prospect companies if you have common education or past experiences with a current employee.

9. Recommendations and Endorsements

The investment in enhancing the recommendation section will pay off, as prospects and clients value these third-party endorsements from current or previous clients and colleagues.

Asking for a recommendation is now a common request, so don’t be shy. An easy way to ask is to offer to give one in return or make the ask even easier by offering to write it, so it requires a simple approval.

Remember to also endorse your colleagues as a way to recognize them in areas they excel. This can help you maintain stronger connections with people in your network. They may return the favor, and it is okay to ask for them to provide feedback.

10. Network Connections

Saving the best for last, connecting with others is the single most important activity on LinkedIn. If you do nothing else, linking to other people is what LinkedIn is all about. If you aren’t linking, then you are using the platform incorrectly. Start by connecting to business associates and everyone you know that has a profile that aligns with your business strategy, as well as to your company’s business development team. If you are not sure what goal to strive for, try some of these tips:

Make a goal to reach 500+ connections or 100 connections for every year of experience.
Connect with fellow employees who might be good resources for cross-selling opportunities, as well as those focused on the same industries as you.
Follow your industry’s experts. You don’t have to connect to them to follow their content.
If you have existing relationships with vendors, clients, previous employers and teammates, thought leaders, professional organizations or board members, connect with them.
Find fellow alumni and connect with them.
Join interest groups where you can find value in content sharing.
Find people who do the job you want to do and follow them.
Every connection made encompasses 100 new prospective company connections.

If you have concerns about connecting to someone at your competition, or if a potential vendor is requesting to connect because they want to sell you something, don’t feel like you have to accept their invitation if you are not comfortable. We often connect with competitors, so don’t immediately dismiss them as valued connections, but know you do have the option to say no to someone that asks to connect.

A complete LinkedIn profile provides the foundation to amplifying your personal brand and taking advantage of business opportunities. Having said that, you should only put on your profile what you are comfortable sharing with others. With LinkedIn, you can keep up with industry trends and research clients, prospects, and competitors. You can use the tool to locate and prepare for networking events by researching speakers and attendees. LinkedIn allows you to push content - whether you develop it yourself, share a post from your company, pull a quote from an article or share a couple sentences about what you thought about the piece. It is also a great platform to search for talent for your own pipeline and post jobs.

As with any social network, in order to get the most out of LinkedIn, you must actively participate on the platform with strong brand awareness, sharing relevant content and smart engagement.

Final Thoughts

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer 20214, consumer trust in the financial services sector reached an all-time high as of May 2020. Their research shows that in the past when industries hit all-time highs, they can fall the following year. An important way to protect those gains for our industry is to maximize your company assets, including building your CEO’s and top executives’ personal brands on LinkedIn and your company profile. Strong amplified personal brands for leading executives and revenue drivers will help your message cut through the noise and boost your brand’s visibility, driving company growth for you and growth for the industry.