Your Personal Brand: It’s All About You

What do you want people to say about you when you leave the room?

All professionals should be on LinkedIn. You are doing yourself a disservice if you’re not. I’m going to help you improve your LinkedIn profile, give you tips on what not to do, what you should do and then I’ll share a little bit with you about some of the other popular social media channels.

Ok, first and foremost, LinkedIn is not Facebook. Nor is it a place where you should be sharing anything religious or political. A few weeks ago, someone in my network shared a photo of his new baby. Even this, to me, is a borderline, don’t. But it’s your brand, your personal preference.

Keep LinkedIn a professional network. Share content that is of a professional nature and that you think others will find useful, that will be reflective of who you are and/or want to be professionally.

Your Profile Photo
It should be a professional photo. You should be alone. Make sure the background isn’t too busy (if you don’t have a professional photo). And it helps if you’re smiling.

Your Profile
Write a nice keyword-rich summary. Your Summary can be up to 2000 characters, but make it easy to read, not long paragraphs. Your Summary expands on each keyword or phrase in your Headline. Or think about the Summary as answering the question, “Tell me about yourself.”

Make sure you include your current position as well as your previous positions – including titles that are keyword rich.

Add projects, awards, links to appropriate media – including documents, web pages, videos, photos, presentations for each position.

Don’t forget to include your volunteer work, education, organizations you belong to – and even patents you own!

Build out the Skills section (you can have 50 listed). And ask for recommendations.

Get Engaged
Now that you have your profile in order. It’s time to get engaged!
• Make regular status updates, or post photos, or a post (similar to a blog post—become a thought leader).
• Build your network! Connect with people you know.
• Join Groups! LinkedIn Groups are like breakout sessions at a conference. Your level of participation depends on your goals, what you have to contribute and your personality (like conversations, comment, start your own conversation). You can join up to 50 groups (although I don’t recommend it…stick with 5-10) and modify your communication preferences for each (daily, weekly, etc.).
• Like your connections’ updates; make comments, if appropriate.
• Provide recommendations when you’re comfortable – most of the time this is reciprocal. These are like old-school reference letters.
• Follow companies and thought leaders.
• Check to see who’s viewed your profile! (My favorite feature!)
• Set realistic goals to become more engaged!

Go Google Yourself
Yes, if you don’t Google yourself on a regular basis, you really should. See what’s out there about you…manage your online personal brand. Also, Google alerts–set them up for yourself or other topics, can receive them (1) as they happen, (2) once/day, (3) once/week.

Why is this important? This is what people can learn about you – before they have even met you! And warning: The information you may find about yourself could be surprising.

Other Social Media Channels
Use other social media channels, but be cognizant of your privacy settings and what others (who you may not want to have access to your info) may be able to find out about you.
• Your Grandma Rule (Don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want your grandma to see.)
• And there’s always new channels entering the scene, such as our favorite Steemit and SnapChat (which my teens love).
• Some that were popular aren’t as much anymore…Google+ is barely hanging on, Foursquare is pretty much over, and does anyone remember MySpace?
• It’s always changing! Choose the ones you want to focus on…or you will be spending your life on social media instead of living your life.

Only you can decide who you want to be. Decide what you want to be known for. And use LinkedIn and other social media channels to help you build your personal brand.

*Photo/graphic courtesy of Brandwatch