What Is Personal Branding On LinkedIn And Why Is It Important?

What is your personal brand on LinkedIn and why should you invest in it? 

“Brand” is a triggering word for some people - even in marketing circles. 

Why? Because most people have no firm concept of what it means.

So, gimme a second to catch you up:

Just think of your “brand” as the sum-total of who you are, in the minds of other people - both the positive and the negative.

It’s all the things people have come to feel about you. Or say about you.

It’s every visual a person can recall. Every memorable quote. Everything that makes them say “that’s you!”

In marketing jargon, it’s your “look-and-feel”

On Linkedin, your brand boils down to this:

1. Your profile picture
2. Your tagline and bio
3. And what you say in ALL your content - as one total package

Why does it matter?

In business, for better or for worse:

PB is also the level of intelligence, credibility and trust people attribute to you - just based on who they believe you to be.

We say: Visibility + Credibility = Profitability.

Your visibility is boosted by a great personal brand.

Personal brand content gets 24x more views, 8x more engagement than company page content.

LinkedIn is a social network where professionals connect with each other.

Versus with companies.

Your credibility and sales conversions are improved by your personal brand.

We educate ourselves on LinkedIn and making buying decisions based on industry trends and recommendations from peers. Versus trusting a company trying to sell to us.

92% of people trust recommendations from individuals over brands.

Leads from personal brand convert 7x more frequently than any other channel.

Sales reps who use social media as part of their sales technique outsell 78% of their peers.

That's why you must invest in your personal brand on LinkedIn as part of your marketing and sales.

It can drive huge revenue for your business.

So what does “GOOD” personal branding look like?

Here's an example of REALLY good personal branding from Belinda Agnew that went viral👇🏼

Being authentic and vulnerable wins the game!

We see that fact reinforced, again and again, in the numbers.

So I speak that truth, again and again, on all my socials: 

“OK, Mel: So what is authentic vulnerability?”

Check out these posts and you’ll IMMEDIATELY grasp the concept.

Here's one from me:

Who wouldn’t trust this loveable guy? 👇

And here, by contrast are some examples of really BAD personal branding:

This CEO posted about letting go of employees and was lambasted all over the internet for making the post about himself. Versus his employees who'd lost their jobs. 

This profile has no picture. We're visual creatures. Who are you? How do I connect with you?

The above profile has no "Featured" section to direct a viewer to their best content.

Want to learn more about personal branding? Listen to my podcast deep dive with Belinda Agnew - the personal branding IT-WOMAN 👑.

I mean this Queen REALLY gets it!

Her “PB” oozes aspirational appeal and virality - in EVERY post.

PLUS REMEMBER THIS

**You’re not the ONLY face of your business**

If you help your EMPLOYEES to develop their own PB, they’ll each become an ambassador for your brand - via their Linkedin profiles.

When brand messages are shared by employees on social media - they get 561% more reach than the same messages shared by brand's social media channels. They're reshared 24x more frequently.

If you get five senior staff to  post regularly, you can 5x your visibility, credibility and authenticity.

Good for their personal branding and careers.

Good for you!

So how do you achieve this?

Personally, I like to get all my employees on a Friday Zoom call - where we all create content together.

It's a chance to unwind and reflect on the week and get creative.

It’s fascinating: I get to see each employee’s talent, creativity and authentic personality really come ALIVE.

Here’s some of my team’s content.

Our video editor, Raf designed this cool graphic:

And our analytics expert was inspired to create this awesome carousel on how to create more luck:

Our head of sales posted this cool video about CEO Influencers:

As you can see, personal branding needs to be something you embed into yourself - and then into your culture.

Peace, love and BRANDING ✌️