It’s safe to say you know how much of a fan of LinkedIn I am. My life basically revolves around 3 things, Ari, Marketing, and LinkedIn (and tennis). I’ve been told using LinkedIn is a red flag, so I guess I’m the biggest red flag ever.
Now if you want to be a massive red flag with me, and master personal branding on LinkedIn, boy do I have just the email for you today.
I originally had 23 personal branding tips I wanted to share, but then I doubled back and trimmed up the BS. There’s a big lack of clarity around how to build the foundation of your personal brand. So I decided to lay out the very foundation I used to build a personal brand with over 150,000 followers across LinkedIn and Twitter.
Here are the 16 tips that got me to where I am today:
1️⃣. You don’t need to be great to start, but you need to start to be great
2️⃣. Figure out what you want to be known for. This goes beyond your current job.
3️⃣. Don’t hesitate to bring your whole self to whatever platform you create content on. Show up as the real you (it makes it more fun). ChatGPT prompts and listicles, you see them everywhere, but just because that’s what others are doing, doesn’t mean you have to do it too. FInd your own voice.
4️⃣. What do you stand for? Figure out 2-3 hills you would die on (within your niche). Focus on what you are passionate and enjoy talking about. These will become your content pillars. You can stray from these, but this is the core of what you talk about. Mine are: How to grow on social media, The importance of Media for B2B, and The importance of hyping up other marketers.
5️⃣. The best content creators know how to say the same things in a 100 different ways. Content distribution is the 8th wonder of the world (did I just google “how many wonders of the world are there?” Psh maybe), repurpose your past successful content to increase your content output. Quantity is your friend when you’re just getting started.
6️⃣. Do unscalable things at the start – respond to DMs, respond to comments, respond to emails, go on podcasts. Get yourself out there, and don’t shy away.
7️⃣. Document your ideas. The more you document, the more potential content ideas you have captured. You’ll never run out of material if you make it a habit to document, screenshot, and record.
8️⃣. Consistency beats brilliance, when brilliance isn’t consistent. Don’t half-a** creating content. If you say you’re going to post every day, post every day. If you say you’re going to post 3x a week, post 3x a week. (I recommend being scrappy and posting every single day.)
9️⃣. Play the long game because most people won’t. You’ll outlast them. There’s power in patience. Set your goals, stick to them, reap the rewards.
1️⃣ 0️⃣. Reverse engineer what the best do. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Just innovate upon it. Study and perfect your craft (because there’s always room to get better). Find the thought leaders in your niche, study all the intricacies of their profiles, content, and comments.
1️⃣ 1️⃣. Nobody can be you. So learn what the best do, but don’t copy them because then you lose your competitive advantage. In business, lean into your USP. In personal branding, there is no difference.
1️⃣ 2️⃣. Pick a channel where your audience hangs out. Dominate 1 channel at a time. Don’t be average on a bunch of channels. LinkedIn is my favorite because of the organic reach. I’ve been posting daily on LinkedIn since 2019 (whether on my personal account or TMM account) and now I’ve started to now focus on Twitter as well.
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1️⃣ 3️⃣. Active listening:
Read comments
Read comments on posts that other people in your niche posted
Read DMs
Read email responses
This will help you write content that people actually want to hear.
1️⃣ 4️⃣. Personal branding is all about helping. Not selling.
1️⃣ 5️⃣. Invest in a professional, current head shot. It does wonders. No college graduation photos, prom pictures, or AI generated head shots. Show up as you. People want to follow people, not companies, and putting a good profile picture on your account will tap into that notion.
1️⃣ 6️⃣. Be upfront with your boss (if you work at a company so it’s not a surprise to them that you’re posting online – that said, you should work somewhere that you are supported if possible – don’t settle.)
