Building A Brand On LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. It’s beneficial for those seeking to build a personal brand and for B2B and B2C brands looking to find new customers. Making connections, sharing relevant industry content and growing a community of engaged, like-minded people is what it’s all about!

When you look at building a brand on LinkedIn, the important thing to remember is that the primary focus of the platform is networking and building relationships. You will do best if you take the time to engage thoughtfully with others who share your values and similar interests.

Using LinkedIn to create a personal brand is the original intent of the platform. LinkedIn allows you to publish your own content, as well as encouraging shared content with your own thoughts included. By sharing your unique perspective on issues that challenge your industry or about the solutions you offer, you get the chance to position yourself as a thought leader and align yourself with those who think similarly.

Another great way to grow a personal brand on LinkedIn is to weigh in on trending posts in your industry and of other connections you have. Certain people are “conversation starters” with a large base of connections and enough influence that people stop to comment on their posts. Interacting constructively with comments and discussions can introduce you to new people and encourage them to connect with you to continue a great conversation or thought on a topic.

Growing a personal brand on LinkedIn is about more than just amassing a ton of followers though. It’s about finding those you can meaningfully engage with and those that will need the solutions you offer. Many people who set out to use LinkedIn to grow new connections and find their target customer can get sidetracked in discussing the topics of the day within their own echo chambers and forget they are there to establish their expertise, share with others and find their key customers so their great ideas and soilutions can be utilized. Be sure to use your time on the platform wisely and you’ll watch your connections quickly grow into something fruitful!.

It’s very common for a key leader in a company, especially entrepreneurs, to have created a strong profile for themselves that “represents” their business. LinkedIn is set up to favour personal connections and individual accounts, as that was it’s original purpose. But as a company grows, and the business profiles become more relevant within the platform itself, there’s a need to begin bridging the gap between the well honed following the main leadership has over to the company’s page.

For the sake of branding, advertising, recruiting and even legitimizing individual profiles, you need to set up a company page if you don’t have one yet. Once the business profile is created, you’ll want to shift your mindset to company first. This means publishing content on your accounts, but being sure to share it on your corporate page as well. Or posting original content (videos, images, articles, etc) on your business page first and then sharing it with personal audiences second. The great thing about this is that by sharing content this way, your connections begin to associate you with your company name as well. You can share the ideas of other team members and more openly promote your own business. LinkedIn allows you to invite your personal connections to follow your company profile as well so this is a perfect way to take the conversation with qualified prospects from your personal page to the business page. It also helps to humanize your brand and creates natural trust.

As your page gathers a following, you should continue posting at least weekly to remain top of mind. You can also use LinkedIn to build your email list. Essentially any way that allows you to cultivate connections and relationships on the platform will help you to boost your brand and add to the number of ways a potential customer can interact with your company.

If you offer a product or service that creates a lot of discussion or is something a community can develop around, consider setting up a group on LinkedIn as well. You can manage and moderate the group, even use it as a tool to connect with your customers on an ongoing basis or connect them with each other to provide more support.

Be sure to create a winning company page for your business and leverage your own credibility to grow the business brand as well. Keep your page up to date, engage your team and keep active within your communities to stay top of mind and find new connections all the time!