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Business branding and personal branding are now closely intertwined, especially for companies led by knowledgeable and charismatic founders. So it’s understandable that so many entrepreneurs and C-suite-bound professionals develop their own online personas and audiences. It is no longer enough to simply offer your talents to recruiters; you ideally want to pack into a built-in trailer.
By far the best social platform for nurturing a personal brand is LinkedIn.
Related: Avoid These 8 Mistakes Leaders Make Every Day on LinkedIn
After years of working as a social media consultant, I’ve seen firsthand how LinkedIn has become a powerful tool for executives to expand their brand’s reach and digital following.
Here are some reasons why business leaders should be active on LinkedIn:
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Build credibility and trust
LinkedIn is a professional social network and is the top place people go to learn more about your professional experience and skills. By creating a strong LinkedIn profile and sharing valuable content, you can build credibility and establish yourself as an expert in your industry. This can help build trust with your audience, which is vital to building your personal branding and a successful business.
Start by enabling Creator Mode on your LinkedIn account. Enabling this will give your account a follow button instead of a connect button, allowing others to see your posted content without you having to approve each connection request.
Creator Mode can help you grow your personal brand by expanding your connections and allowing your content to reach a much larger professional audience on LinkedIn.
Expand your network
With over 700 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is a great platform to expand your network. By connecting with other professionals in your industry, you can build relationships that can lead to new business opportunities, partnerships and collaborations. The site also allows you to join groups and discuss with like-minded professionals, which can help you learn and grow in your industry.
Be bold and add people you don’t know on LinkedIn but have mutual connections with, because to increase your reach you need to add users who are connected to your field of work and who you may not know personally.
Adding your LinkedIn URL to your email signature will also direct professionals you interact with to your Page, helping you make more consistent connections.
Related: 5 tips for creating LinkedIn posts that drive valuable engagement
Increase brand visibility
LinkedIn is a powerful platform to increase your brand’s visibility. Sharing content can help you reach a wider audience and increase your brand’s reach. You can also use the popular social media network to promote your business and share updates about your business. By being active on the platform, you ensure that your brand is top of mind with your audience.
As with other social media platforms, hashtags can be a crucial way to increase awareness of your personal brand. Hashtags work the same way they do on platforms like Instagram and Twitter, ultimately increasing your engagement and reach with every post.
There are also a handful of tricks you can use when using hashtags to make your posts more discoverable. Avoid spaces in your hashtags; for example, if you want to use the hashtag “LinkedIn Executives”, type it as “#LinkedInExecutives”.
Don’t be fooled by the number of hashtags in a simple post; one or two per post should suffice. Keep them short and simple, as shorter hashtags tend to be more popular. You can also follow specific hashtags to ensure specific content makes its way to your feed. You can do this by searching for a specific hashtag and tapping the “follow” button.
Capturing your personal brand and business tone is also an extremely effective way to grow your personal brand, expand your company’s reach, and create loyal customers. The tone of voice can demonstrate personality and bring visuals to life. Done properly, it can be a valuable bulwark against negative situations and build personality. Even if your products or services are particularly unique or different from what the market has to offer, that doesn’t mean your approach has to be a dime a dozen.
When thinking about what your tone of voice should be for your personal or corporate brand, it is essential to consider exactly how you want to come across to partners and customers, both verbally and in writing, which style guides to follow and how all this will come to life in action.
Using hashtags and finding the right tone of voice can be the difference between growing your personal brand and getting stuck in the mud.
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Attract top talent
LinkedIn is also a great platform for attracting top talent to your company. By sharing updates about your company and culture, you can showcase what makes your company unique and attract candidates who are a good fit for your organization. You can also use LinkedIn to post jobs and connect with potential candidates.
In addition to these benefits, LinkedIn is also the ideal platform to build a personal brand. Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn is focused on professional development and career advancement. By sharing content and engaging with your audience on the site, you can position yourself as an opinion leader in your industry and build a brand that is synonymous with your company.
So if you’re a business leader and want to expand your brand’s reach, don’t overlook the power of LinkedIn. By being active on the platform, you can build credibility, expand your network, increase brand visibility and attract top talent. And by building a strong personal brand on LinkedIn, you can help ensure the long-term success of your business.
