We consider brands as famous and globally popular companies or products but we seldom think that we ourselves could be one. Branding is not just being popular or known by millions around the world but it’s being more consistent in your actions with relevant positioning. A brand is recognised as an entity, product, person or organisation with specific traits which remain the same throughout their lifespan and across the cultures, thereby creating a bandwagon of success.

It’s easy to chirp about brands and preferring them over unknown products or services but have we ever thought that other people too perceive us the same? They may not like to interact, trust or buy from us until we become a brand. They may not even accept us until we are recognised as certain kind of person or professional. They would not start communication until we prove our worth to them. On the other side, it’s quite common to find people who have influencing personality, dominate the industry.

In today’s times, there are more media of communication that you can imagine and it is practically impossible to dominate every platform. Moreover, it’s not even possible to showcase consistent presence on each platform be it offline or online. And how can we expect to dominate the competition which is consistently rising every now & then. One such brilliant communication channel is LinkedIn which is world’s largest professional networking platform and has the power to uplift you to be an influencer provided you are sharing appropriate content for its users. And one can dominate the competition by creating strong brand presence on LinkedIn. Here are the success secrets of strengthening your presence on LinkedIn.

  1. LINKEDIN PROFILE – This is the first impression of your presence on LinkedIn. People may be judgmental but that’s what they can do. So, you job is to strengthen your profile so that they look at your profile with the kind of image you want to create and not the one they want to perceive. Here are a few pointers for the same.
    • Profile Picture – Clear front faced or slightly tilted image upto chest with plain or simple background. Smile can make it more impressive.
    • Headline – Create a strong headline which talks about your profession, hobbies, achievements and purpose on LinkedIn. You have to be smart enough to complete it in 120 characters.
    • Summary – It talks about your complete professional & personal life in 2000 characters which can be divided into 3 parts : your professional career summary, your life summary including your hobbies / passion and your purpose to be on LinkedIn. Write it wisely in 3 paragraphs with up to 3 sentences in each.
    • Experience – A nice way to explain your work where you write your roles & responsibilities in detail. Prefer bullet points and write for all the jobs your have done as people would like to know how you grew in your career and what could be expected from you in future.
    • Achievements, Education & Certifications – These are really important to add value to your profile as these will increase credibility by showcasing your past records and eligibility for work.
    • Recommendations – It is one of the prime ways to gain trust on LinkedIn platform as people will know more about you from professionals recommending you in open space. When people are sharing recommendations which are publicly visible, it means they strongly trust in you and are ready to prove your value, if asked. This also puts their credibility at stake so make sure you get recommendations from right set of people.
  2. LINKEDIN CONTENT – No doubt, it’s crucial to create a strong profile as it creates an image but it’s also important to create relevant content for your connections. If you are a marketing professional, talk about how marketing can help professionals grow in their career or generate new business. If you are in technology domain, share new hacks & tricks about gadgets. If you are HR professional, talk about employees’ happiness. If content is relevant, it will be widely accepted and appreciated.
  3. ENAGEMENT – Creating content is useful but engaging in other people’s content is beneficial. People love when someone responds to the content they create. Hence, it is advisable to engage with at least 10 people’s content everyday so that your develop warm relations with them and create more business out of it.
  4. AUTOMATION – Lastly, you need to automate everything else your life will be a misery. When you grow, your network grows and your responsibilities grow. It’s not easy to handle even a 1000 people network and it may take a quarter break to approach one person repeatedly. The best way is to automate your workflow.

Finally, be authentic and natural in your behavior. People prefer to work with those who are same internally & externally.