by Virginie Cantin
LinkedIn Coach & Wall Street Journal bestselling author
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We all have a personal brand whether we do something about it or not. LinkedIn is a great place to proactively manage it.
Personal branding on LinkedIn is about curation and authenticity. Curation is about carefully selecting what information you feed into your LinkedIn profile. If you put everything you’ve ever done on your LinkedIn profile, your personal brand will be all over the place. And this is how people will perceive you.
Because we all have a personal brand whether we do something about it or not. A personal brand is what people say about us when we leave the room, said Jeff Bezos. Luckily, thanks to LinkedIn it’s easy to proactively manage your personal brand.
Women more than anyone need to be intentional about their presence on LinkedIn. As stated in a recent Harvard Business Review article, women must be twice as good to get half as far.
The first step to proactively manage your personal brand is to get clear on:
What you want to be known for and how you want to be perceived.
The more specific you are, the better. In other words, your LinkedIn profile has to have a clear direction that is simple stupid for anyone to understand. From that point on, everything on your LinkedIn profile has to be dedicated to supporting your personal brand.
This means selecting what information you keep, what information you delete, and what needs to be added to complete the full picture of you as a leader. More often than not, the key is to rework your LinkedIn profile with your personal brand in mind.
Repetition is key to create a trusting bond with your network. But trust doesn’t come only with repetition, you also need authenticity. Authenticity is key to make your personal brand memorable. If your personal brand is not making you memorable, then it’s not serving you and your career goals.
Stop using words and phrases that anyone can say about themselves. Here's a list of real examples of overused phrases you should NOT put on your LinkedIn profile:
I bet you can stand behind all those statements, can’t you?! That’s why those are not great phrases to have on your LinkedIn profile because anyone with drive and ambition can say them about themselves.
Adding authenticity to your LinkedIn profile in a way that works means that you find a way to say these phrases in a way that no one else can...
In sum, use simple words to describe your unique way of doing things.
Get a minimum of 10 recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. The more experience you have, the more recommendations I expect.
For more hands-on tips, read my article: Algorithm-based LinkedIn Profile Optimisation for Women
Makeover your LinkedIn profile with my 10-step action guide to finally stand out.
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Learn from a Wall Street Journal bestselling author and LinkedIn coach
Few years ago, I was working as a Chief Marketing Officer of a tech startup. The workload was crazy and the environment toxic. But I told myself it was OK because I finally had a job with a title and salary I felt I deserved.
But then, after a few months, I encountered a * slight * problem. I got laid off. It was the first time I lost my job and I felt like a giant failure.
The thought of interviewing again was crushing me since I had never managed to be seen for my skills, gifts and potential. Each interview always broke my self-confidence a little bit more.
A lot has changed since then. I've discovered a way to quickly get high quality job offers using LinkedIn. I now help professional women implement my system to use LinkedIn to get ahead in their career.
I’ve seen the impact my program has on my students’ lives and career… It's up to you to be next!
VIRGINIE CANTIN
Course creator, LinkedIn Coach & Wall Street Journal bestselling Author of 60 Days to LinkedIn Mastery
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