Building your personal brand on LinkedIn: a business owner's guide

The marketing potential of LinkedIn is far too great for most companies to ignore. At 20 years old, it precedes Facebook and, while it doesn’t quite have as many users, its 930 million worldwide members are there for purely work-related reasons. That makes it a fantastic place to do business.

LinkedIn is used for professional purposes but it remains a very personal space, which is why more and more business owners are using the platform to share their ideas, knowledge and experience. However, getting the most out of LinkedIn takes time and energy, which company directors and deadline-driven freelancers don’t always have in large supply. So, is it worth it?

In this article we argue that, in most cases, it certainly is. The time spent on it is not wasted; it’s an investment. Using it smartly will reinforce your personal brand and by extension your corporate image and credibility. Use it well, and you shall sell.

Read on for the why and how.

First, you have to make the decision to sign up and that isn’t always easy for everybody. There are several reasons why business owners back away from putting themselves and their companies on social media:

• some might suffer from writer’s block or ‘blank page syndrome’ - publishing thoughts and dreaming up great content ideas is not everyone’s forte.
• others might feel they have nothing new or original to share - surely it’s all been said before, right?
• sometimes, there’s a worry that posts will go unseen or unnoticed in the ocean of social media chatter.

The reasons above relate to confidence. To help you get over this first hurdle, here are three reassuring facts worth considering:

Even if there are hundreds of millions of users on LinkedIn, the number of those users who are active there remains relatively low. There is still ample chance to set yourself apart and grab your target audience’s attention.

Unlike some other social networks, LinkedIn’s less complex algorithm generally focuses on quality content and regular participation. Meaning that pertinent, engaging posts should still be enough to grow your visibility and reach a wider audience.

LinkedIn is a space dedicated to professionals and, as a result, the interactions there remain generally positive and respectful. Of course, there’s still room for different opinions and perspectives. But this gives you a chance to reinforce your arguments and expertise - without falling into pointless arguments with faceless trolls hell-bent on ruining your day. 

Always remember why you’re publishing on LinkedIn as a business owner or freelancer. Here are just 8 of the many good reasons to be active on the platform.

1- Legitimacy

Your posts on LinkedIn will demonstrate to your network that you know what you’re talking about - that you have expertise. The thoughts you share will allow you to reinforce your credibility as an authority in your domain.

2- Competitive advantage

You can use your posts to spotlight the quality of your business’ goods or services. This can bolster the public perception of your company as a competitive driver of innovation.

3- Building trust

LinkedIn is founded on trust. By sharing content that has real value and by fostering genuine relationships throughout your network, you can show your audience - your customers, but also your prospects and leads - that you’re worthy of their trust.

4- Lead nurturing

Regular content that’s relevant to your field of expertise and that shows how you resolve the problems you come up against will multiply your points of contact with prospective customers. In this way, LinkedIn can complement an email campaign or SEO strategy.

5- The ‘social proof’ effect

The ‘effect of social proof’ plays an important role on LinkedIn. It’s the idea that “if others are doing it, then probably so should I”: the more active you are on LinkedIn, the more likely it is that your audience will perceive what you do as more valuable than other, less visible competitors.

6- Creating familiarity bias

Similarly, familiarity bias is the notion that people generally stick to what they know. By remaining visible more often, you become more familiar to your audience and you increase the chance they will stick to you, and not your competitors who only surface once in while.

7- Employer branding

LinkedIn can put you in contact with talented people who might want to work for you. In fact, 8 people are hired every minute via LinkedIn. Share your vision, your values and your company culture with such an enormous talent pool and you will inevitably attract the interest of like-minded talents who might be perfect for your team.

Once you’ve decided to hop on the LinkedIn bandwagon, you need to think about how best to do it. It’s not a question of ‘anything goes’; there are plenty of best practices you ought to follow.

Use the ‘About’ section to show what makes you, your background and your work special. Avoid jargon and, instead, use language that’s clear and straight-to-the-point. This part of your profile should not just say what you’ve done, but also make people want you to do it for them, too. Be positive, show enthusiasm and give potential clients good reason to contact you before they try one of your competitors.

With your profile complete, it’s time to start thinking about publishing your first post. But what are you going to post about? What kind of thing are you supposed to say on LinkedIn?

To get inspired, start by commenting on others’ posts before publishing your own. See what content your network is sharing, find something relevant to your expertise or interests and reply in the comments below the post. Think of it as the digital equivalent of joining a group discussion instead of walking into a room and demanding everyone’s attention. This more passive start to life on LinkedIn might help you make connections and grow your own network before stepping up a gear and posting actively.

As a business owner, time is precious and you have other things to do than spend hours feeding your LinkedIn profile. You need to make the most of what little time you have by recycling content that already exists in other formats.

That might mean re-using or re-jigging PowerPoint or Keynote presentations, promotional videos, press releases and blog articles or sharing insightful and constructive customer feedback. Variety will help keep your audience engaged with your content in the long term.

Catchy hooks that inspire emotion will make your audience more likely to click through and read, watch or hear more. Grab their attention with short, snappy phrases that stand out from the usual crowd of generic posts. Surprise or intrigue them. Make them want to know the rest of the story you’re about to tell.

It’s perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, but taking a strong, outspoken position on a topic does generate engagement among your audience. It can feed debate. That doesn’t mean alienating whole groups of LinkedInners, but often the bolder your convictions, the more memorable the message.

Discipline and regularity will be important to your success on LinkedIn. To stay visible, you’ll need to post regularly. At least twice a week is a good place to start.

But how do you keep that rhythm up in the long term? Where can you keep finding ideas for fresh content? Let’s take a look.

If you find yourself at a loss for what to post about, here are some ideas to inspire your LinkedIn editorial strategy:

• Talk about the major needs and problems your customers and prospects face on a daily basis.
• Describe the sticking points you have faced yourself and explain how you overcame them.
• Ask your audience’s opinion on issues relevant to your business activity.
• Share a recent success (or even a recent failure).
• Invite your audience behind the scenes with a photo or video of your life as an entrepreneur.
• Shine a light on the achievements of someone else in your network.
• Discuss the pros and cons of a tool you use regularly (it could even be LinkedIn itself).
• Share a new or surprising statistic.
• Break some news with an update on a recent development in your field.

The posts you publish will be more effective over time if they form part of a coherent LinkedIn strategy. If you invest your time into the platform, you naturally expect a return on that investment. By following the principles of a content-led, outbound marketing strategy, there’s no reason you won’t see those returns.

They may sound like items on a vegan restaurant menu but TOFU, MOFU and BOFU (Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel, Bottom of Funnel) refer to the stages of the buyer journey. The same marketing approach works for LinkedIn: you cultivate your relationship with the target and then convert that lead into a paying customer.

The TOFU stage (you introduce yourself to your audience): here’s where you grab your target audience’s attention. You create a bond by playing the familiarity card. It could mean creating quality content and actively engaging your audience. This step is often associated with so-called “inspirational” posts, where you talk about yourself or others on a human level, person-to-person, rather than a pushy sales rep. Mention your passions, your life story, what makes you tick. The objective of a TOFU post is to reach the widest audience possible.

The MOFU stage (your audience is still listening but is not yet convinced your solution is the best): here, you hammer home your expertise and authority on the subject in hand. Now that your audience knows you, you can narrow down the scope of the content you post with a more targeted approach. A MOFU post seeks to inform the audience about a specific problem of theirs and build trust that you’re the best solution to that problem.

The BOFU stage (your audience is becoming convinced by your solution and is almost ready to act on that conviction): at this step you inject a little more reassurance and urgency, providing an extra incentive. This could involve proposing a demo, personalized advice or a special offer. A BOFU post should focus on your product or service, what makes it unique and why they should snap it up quickly.

So, we’ve seen why LinkedIn is such a powerful tool for company directors and freelancers, and we’ve looked at how you can use it to build your personal brand to drive your business objectives. Now it’s over to you!

Create your personal profile and start building your very own network of valuable connections. Before you know it, you could find yourself with thousands of followers keen to hear what you think about the issues that matter to you. And connect with Qonto to stay up to date with everything we’re doing to energize European businesses.

We look forward to seeing you there!