Hey Sarah!

We just had the Sprout Professional Services team deliver a presentation on this. Here are some key takeaways:

• The importance of personal branding:
  • It helps YOU stand out from the crowd
  • You become more relatable and authentic in the eyes of others
  • Social is where the people are
• 5 steps to building your personal brand:
  1. Determine your personal brand
  2. Brainstorm ways to provide value
  3. Stay consistent online
  4. Prioritize trust, authenticity & relatability
  5. Remember to avoid brand burnout
• How to build your personal brand on LinkedIn:
  1. Optimize your profile
     • Profile Set-Up
       • Headline, Profile photo and Header image)
         • Add a header image that helps build your personal brand, show off your personality or what problems you help solve
         • Upload a recent, hi-res, professional (but not stiff) headshot
       • Summary Section
         • Largest piece of real estate to power your LinkedIn search visibility
         • Share your passions, what motivates you,
           and an overview of your skills and industry
           experience at a high level
         • Write in first person and tell your story -
           define yourself in your own words
         • Recommended to mix personal with
           professional
       • Fill it all in!
         • LinkedIn gives you a lot of opportunities to
           showcase your personal brand through:
           • Causes
           • Organizations
           • Honors & Awards
           • Skills
           • Courses
           • Volunteering
           • Licenses & Certifications
           • Experience
           • Publications
           • Patents
           • Projects
           • Languages
     • Creator Mode
       • Increased visibility and personal branding
       • Increased engagement rates by highlighting specific types of content
       • Discoverability increases with the “Follow” button and the “Talks about” hashtag section
  2. Share content with your thoughts
     • LinkedIn Publishing Best Practices:
       • Post up to once per day and aim for a new post every weekday
       • The best time to post on LinkedIn is 10am CT on Tuesdays (test it out and compare the analytics)
       • LinkedIn posts with images get a 2x higher comment rate than those without.
     • When creating content:
       • Share your unique perspective
       • Go deep into expertise and knowledge that others may not know
       • Tap into conversations that are trending and of interest to you and your industry.
     • When sharing content with your thoughts:
       • What do you think about someone else’s post? (Reshare or leave a comment)
       • Who are the brands/people you want to align with? (Follow them)
       • What messages do you want to amplify? (Share them)
  3. Engage your community
     • Key stats:
       • 40% of LinkedIn users access the platform daily, clocking 1B interactions every month
       • 71% of LinkedIn posts get ZERO comments. Engage with the community and see your profile presence grow
       • 90% of B2B decision makers find thought leadership content important and 50% spend at least 1 hour per week engaging with it

Hope this helps!

Cheers!
Kelsey

Hi @sarah.rowe!

We hosted an event last year which presents a good baseline on this topic. I hope this helps!

Thanks informative disscussion.