Algorithm, content, network: how to use LinkedIn for successful personal branding
"All human beings are entrepreneurs."-that's how Reid Hoffman, current executive chairman, co-founder and controlling shareholder of Linkedin, 150th on the Forbes list of the 400 richest men on the planet and even 52nd in the technology sector, put it. If he says so, I'd say we can trust him. Let's see together why, and why this phrase, rather than counting it among aphorisms, would be good for us to make it a mantra and frame it on our desks. With LinkedIn open on our pc screen.
LinkedIn and personal branding
LinkedIn is the most popular social network in business, "primarily employed in developing professional contacts and disseminating specific content related to the job market." Worldwide, it is the most widely used platform among Fortune 500 companies, and more than 45 percent of its users belong to the top management of their companies. More than 60 million are considered senior-level influencers, and 40 million are in apex and decision-making positions. Almost all users use Linkedin to search for content relevant to their business, and 91% of Executives consider it their first choice.
It is, therefore, the best place to establish our online presence with a focus on our professional skills and experiences, grow our notoriety, and enhance our professional reputation. In a nutshell, it is the best digital environment to practice our personal branding, understanding personal branding as "the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact" (source personalbrand.com).
Being there, however, is not enough. To achieve real results, it is necessary to curate and manage the profile over time, carefully and consistently. We will see later how a presence on LinkedIn cannot be reduced to a mere list of titles and skills, but requires, in addition to the correct filling out of all profile sections, the production of quality content and the building of a network of contacts in target. In this sea magnum of information and relationships, then, it is essential to accredit oneself as a professional, and not as someone who is desperately seeking employment.
Being our own entrepreneurs, this is already our first job.
Getting cute and showing professionalism
An absolutely essential condition for starting good communication on LinkedIn is to work on the profile, starting with its basic elements: profile photo and cover image. The two images represent the first information that reaches users, and they are the first, excellent, opportunity to tell something about yourself. Both images should be of good quality and resolution. The profile picture should be formal. No bikini, beach, cocktail. Not necessarily institutional, but able to give back to the user the idea of seriousness, sobriety and professionalism. The cover image is equally important to contextualize the profile photo and offer additional insight.
The profile must be complete in all other sections and correctly report all in the information. In particular, the 120-character summary is the real business card, the text that "introduces" us everywhere, both to those who read it directly on the profile and to those who search for our name through the search engine. Necessary, also, to effectively write the sections Information, Work Experience, Training, which must be able to enhance our skills and achievements over the years.
We pay much attention, then, to that section where other users confirm our skills. The opinion others have of us online is crucial, both to test others' perceptions and to offer our audience the more objective "version" of an outsider. LinkedIn also allows us to send "endorsement" requests to people who have come to appreciate our skills and expertise over the years. A positive evaluation from a great manager or a colleague who is particularly valued in our industry is worth far more than any self-praise.
The more complete and detailed the profile sections are presented, the more effective it will be. Who would ever seek advice or interview a professional/candidate about whom there is partial and out-of-date information on the Web?
Position yourself well and network, that's the secret!
In order for our LinkedIn profile to stand out from others, we need to optimize it to improve its search engine ranking. This optimization can be considered as true on-page SEO.
First of all, it is essential to identify keywords referable to the sector in which we operate: strategically inserting them in all sections of the profile will allow us to facilitate user search. For SEO purposes, it is advisable, then, to rename images, (including the profile photo), use hashtags appropriately, receive confirmations for skills, and produce interesting content that will increase the reader's dwell time on our profile (dwell time - this is the term for dwell time in English - is a very important SEO metric for LinkedIn!).
Finally, it is important to widen our network of contacts as much as possible and build meaningful relationships. How do we build relationships and keep them alive? Do we believe that sending an invitation or accepting it is enough? Absolutely not.
The number of users with whom we have established contact is of no value if they do not get involved in our discussions, if we do not interact with them, if we do not exchange opinions or comments. It is not the quantity of relationships that is important, but their quality. So the advice is to participate in groups and discussions, especially if these are attended by experts in the field or influential colleagues. Yes, even LinkedIn has its influencers! Participating in these conversations with our own valuable content is a great move to enhance our online reputation and accredit ourselves as experts in our field.
But what does it mean to "produce valuable content"? Let's look at it together.
Write content that is interesting and able to create interaction
LinkedIn, in addition to valuing those who are well positioned, guarantees visibility to those who are active and are promoters of valuable content that generates quality conversations.
Creating good content does not always mean writing new posts: it may be enough to actively participate in conversations with one's own interesting contributions/comments, that is, taking up solicitations from others to which we add our own personal and original point of view and contribution.
There is no point in writing just to "be there," nor in necessarily expressing ourselves on a topic just because it is trending. If we have nothing interesting to say, we'd better shut up.
If, on the contrary, we think we can offer our contribution on a given topic, this is the right time to play the wild card: we write simply, without frills, but we don't skimp on in-depth information. Let's offer our users relevant and original information, perhaps the result of our own analysis and studies, and let's incentivize participation, with calls to action or simple invitations to join the discussion. The success of the post will be guaranteed. If we then manage to end up in trending topics, our post will achieve maximum visibility.
What about the form of content? What content is most valued by LinkedIn's algorithm?
In general terms, videos (again!) and PDF documents (here's the news!) are the posts that convert best and get the most visibility. This is followed by posts with single photos, multi-photo posts, text-only posts, and, last but not least, links to external articles. As of a few hours ago, LinkedIn also released stories: we don't yet know what kind of results they will get, whether they will be functional to LinkedIn's style and content. We can try it, and test them on our audience.
The real advice I feel like giving you is just this: let's try to create content that is "liked" by the algorithm, but above all, let's strive to create content that is "right" for our network. Even on LinkedIn, there are no one-size-fits-all rules. So let's analyze the posts and topics that work best on our profile and use that data as guidelines to guide the production of future content.
How and when to publish
Among the questions a social media manager hears most often are "How many posts per week? When to publish them? On what day? What time?" The answer is always the same: "There are no precise rules, it depends on your target audience, their habits, their lifestyles."
Again, the only real useful advice is to make attempts, to test your posts, publishing on different days of the week and times of the day. Only after analyzing the data, it will be possible to understand when our audience is active and what their preferences for use are.
Finally, as Francesco Agostinis points out, precisely with reference to the ways and times of publishing, it would be best to avoid using external tools to publish posts. Many studies show how this mode negatively affects the organic reach of posts, risking to invalidate our work, creativity, analysis. If we really need a tool to help us schedule posts," he suggests, "we could get help from those tools that simply remind us that we need to publish our content.
Thus, publication is saved...but so is reach!
Evaluate your own profile
Like any self-respecting job, the final stage is evaluation. LinkedIn provides all users with a tool, which is called the "Social Selling Index" (SSI), which measures, taking into account four action areas, the effectiveness of the profile in using the various areas. Each of us can view our profile results at this address(https://www.linkedin.com/sales/ssi).
LinkedIn, then, assesses how well and whether we are good at building our professional brand, finding the right people, building relationships, and interacting with relevant information. For each of these "skills" it assigns a score ranging from 0 to 25. Our SSI is given by the sum of the scores obtained.
Consulting it on a regular basis allows us to determine what our strengths and weaknesses are, to understand what areas should be strengthened, and what corrections would need to be made to improve our online presence.
If we take these areas into account, considering them as actions to be taken consistently, we could truly accredit ourselves in the LinkedIn universe, make ourselves known for our skills and competencies, and truly become entrepreneurs of ourselves. And, by God, Hoffman would be proud of us!
To learn more about these topics, purchase your ticket to the event by clicking on Digital Innovation Days! See you there!
Annalisa Nastrini
Brand Ambassador Digital Innovation Days20