3 ways to establish a strong personal brand on LinkedIn

What comes into your head when you hear the word “personal brand”?

If your mind immediately goes to logos and website colours, I want to slow you right down and take you back to some fundamentals.

Your personal brand isn’t about logos and colours, neither is it about having “catchy” headlines or anything external.

That’s not to say that these things don’t matter – they do – but they are not the starting point of a personal brand.

What exactly is a personal brand?

You can find many definitions online of what a personal brand actually is, but the simplest one I’ve come across is this:

Your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re NOT in the room!

What do people say about you when you’re not in the room?

What do you want them to say?

Your personal brand matters because it is what people remember about you and, if you’re in business, it’s why they decide to work with you (or not).

The truth is, if you want to build a visible and profitable business on LinkedIn, you’re going to need a strong personal brand.

This is especially important if you are a coach or you have some other kind of service-based business, because people don’t just buy into what you do (newsflash – you’re not the only one doing it!), they buy into who you are and how you do what you do.

This is why establishing your personal brand on LinkedIn is important.

If you don’t know where to start with this, here are my three suggestions:

3 ways to establish a strong personal brand

1) Be known for something

If I asked you right now to sum up your brand message in five words or less, what would you say?

Mine is wrapped up in three words - “start being visible”.

The word “visible” is key to my brand.

Start being visible is my message to all women – it’s my mission to liberate women to be visible and showcase their skills, expertise and personality to truly make an impact in the world.

It’s what I want to be known for on LinkedIn and beyond.

What do you want to be known for on LinkedIn?

Being known for something is key to having a strong personal brand and here’s the real closer – what you want to be known for needs to be in line with your beliefs, values, passion and mission.

The more authentic your message is, the stronger your brand.

If you haven’t yet figured out what you want to be known for, take some time and work on this first before you do anything else.

Once this is sorted, you can start incorporating that brand message everywhere you go and in everything you do.

2) Have an opinion

Having an opinion is crucial to building a personal brand on LinkedIn. Better still, sharing that opinion is where the money’s at.

Your opinion is what separates you from other people in your field. Your unique take on things is your unique selling point (USP) – please stop trying to hide it!

It’s so easy to play it safe on LinkedIn by sharing ‘middle of the road’ content, or leaving safe, middle of the road comments on other people’s content, but here’s what you need to know – middle of the road doesn’t build a brand!

If you want to build a strong personal brand on LinkedIn, you need to be hot or cold, not lukewarm. Hot tea works as a beverage; iced tea also works. But lukewarm tea? No. No one likes lukewarm tea.

Don’t be lukewarm.

Have an opinion and share your opinion.

And by the way, not everyone is going to like your opinion or agree with you. That’s absolutely fine. Sharing your opinion will attract “your people” and repel those who are not.

3) Be consistently visible

If you want to establish a really strong personal brand on LinkedIn, it can’t just be a one-time effort on your part – you need to be consistent with your visibility and you need to be in it for the long run.

Don’t just show up once or twice with a post and a comment here and there, show up and show up again, and then show up some more after that.

Being consistently visible is how you’re going to effectively communicate and embed your brand message to your target audience.

It’s how you establish a personal brand that lasts.

Don’t leave it to chance – plan your LinkedIn visibility and have a strategy in place to help you build a strong personal brand on LinkedIn and beyond.

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Which one of the three actions are you going to do more of to establish your personal brand on LinkedIn?

Let me know in the comments…

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FREE LinkedIn masterclass!

If you’d like to learn more about how to build your personal brand on LinkedIn – and attract your ideal clients in the process – I’m running a free 4-hour LinkedIn masterclass on Wednesday 1st December, from 11am to 3pm GMT.

The Visible and Profitable Masterclass is for you if you’re a female coach, or you have a service-based B2C business, and you want to learn how to use LinkedIn to build a visible and profitable business – without advertising or outdated cold outreach methods.

Find out more and register for your free place here

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