Personal Brand and LinkedIn

YOUR LINKEDIN QUESTIONS ANSWERED! 

Do you have questions about your LinkedIn profile or how to use LinkedIn? Send your questions to our LinkedIn Expert Debbie McCormick and she’ll answer them in the magazine! Use info@LinkedInBossLady.com with subject Dear Debbie. 

Dear Debbie: 

What is “personal branding,” and what does it have to do with LinkedIn? ~Bill H. 

This is such a good question, thank you Bill. 

Oxford dictionary defines branding as: the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising and distinctive design 

I think the easiest way to understand personal branding is to compare entrepreneurs to Procter & Gamble. 

P&G manufactures several different products, each with their own audience and advertising meant to capture that audience. You don’t think of a specific person behind or connected to Cascade dishwashing detergent, for instance. 

But as an entrepreneur, YOU are your brand. So, Personal Branding means knowing who you are, who you serve and how you consistently present your business to the world. 

Social media has given us a true gift, in that we entrepreneurs don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising for our ideal clients to see who we are like P&G did in the old days, right? Television ads, print advertising, billboards, bus stops … they had to spend huge amounts of money to get our attention. 

We don’t have to do that. 

The secret to personal branding is consistency and authenticity. Everything you do in your business needs to reflect who you are. 

Many find that a challenge. But your story and how you came to do your business makes you a unique expert … no one has lived your story … your business history … but you. 

LinkedIn can play a unique role in your personal branding. There is no other social media platform that allows you to tell your story in as much detail. 

Your profile, once it’s written well and completely optimized so your ideal clients can easily find you, is your story, and it stands as your base, fairly unchanged (unless you change your business, of course), like your own Wikipedia page. 

While your profile serves as your base on LinkedIn, where people can come and read about who you, are, you can share your knowledge and expertise with your ideal clients through posting and videos. 

The banner on your profile, the rectangle above your profile photo, is also great real estate for promoting your brand. I always advise my clients to customize that space using a graphic artist, so that your logo, keywords and visuals about your business are one of the eye-catching, first things a reader looks at. 

Through your LinkedIn Company Page, you can update your products and services as you introduce them. 

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I’m happy to answer your LinkedIn questions every week in the YES I CAN Living Magazine. 

For further help or support from me, feel free to schedule a one-on-one consultation at www.BookWithDebbie.com. 

I’d love your support on these platforms: 

 LinkedIn.com/in/DebbieMcCormick 

@LinkedInBossLady 

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