10 Strategies to Elevate your Professional Networking Profile
July 18, 2020
The current pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges and opportunities for all of us. One aspect which has clearly become a focus area, is the importance of our Digital Personal Brand. This includes video conferencing, messaging apps and even social media. Since, we are not meeting people face to face, our digital impression is becoming far more relevant. Use it effectively to promote your personal brand.
Let us understand this in more detail.
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Building your Personal Brand
In todays’ competitive world having the ability to stand out and leave a lasting impression is the need of the hour. We need to use our personal brand to showcase our strengths and skills effectively. We all use the ABCD Model consciously or subconsciously to project our brand.
A – Appearance
B – Behavior
C- Communication & Body Language
D – Digital ImpressionFor professionals and entrepreneurs, working on one’s LinkedIn Profile is the foundation of their professional digital brand. It can help open a lot of doors. Whether it is recognition, speaking opportunities, establishing credibility, business partnerships, job offers and a lot more.
- Appropriate profile picture for LinkedIn
Your profile picture is one of the first things people would notice. Ensure it is a recent photograph. Since it is a professional networking site, it is recommended to have a professionally clicked good quality picture, with a neutral background and good lighting. Use a headshot, wearing simple yet professional clothes. Avoid long shots, or sunglasses. You could also consider adding a banner image for added visibility.
- Power of a headline
Use the headline to specify more than your job title. Use it to highlight the value you bring to your role and other areas of personal expertise.
- Summary
The summary is akin to an “Elevator Pitch”. Use it to highlight your mission, values, strengths, passions, accomplishments and personality. Adding a personal touch can help you stand out as well. We also have the option to add pictures, media, website or blog links to this space which will only add to the overall credibility and brand recall.
- Experience
Firstly ensure the experience section is updated with appropriate company information, designation and dates. Rather than purely focusing on your job description, it is wise to highlight your accomplishments, results, impact created, changes lead, achievements and awards. It is recommended to use bullet points to represent information along with numbers to quantify the same.
- Education
Update details of your education with details of the course and year of completion. Ensure you add additional courses that you may have completed, especially certificate courses which are relevant to your current role and industry.
- Skills and expertise
This section allows you to add keywords for your professional skill. Ensure you update these skills to make it more relevant to your current as well as aspirational role. It highlights your strengths and helps you stand out for the same.
- Review privacy and security settings
This allows you to manage information visible on your public profile as well as for your connections. Review this information and you may choose appropriate privacy and security settings. For example, you could hide your contact information on your public profile and only make it available to your connections.
- Grow your network and follow relevant influencers
Connect with business associates or colleagues over LinkedIn rather than a social networking site. This allows you to connect with them on a professional level and will not come across as intrusive. Also, it is a good practice to include a message focusing on why you would like to connect, along with the connection request when connecting with people you may not know. Nurture your relationships by engaging on posts. Also, follow influencers in your industry. It will help you stay updated with the latest trends, news, job opportunities as well as add to your learning.
- Share relevant content on your LinkedIn feed
Use your LinkedIn page to post relevant articles, blogs, videos or photographs from events and speaking engagements or award ceremonies. Sharing quality content at regular intervals is a great way to stay relevant. However, ensure you do not post too much. Find the right balance.
We hope you found these tips useful. While we all know the importance of using LinkedIn effectively, we may miss out on some of these smaller elements. It is the right time than ever before to make your personal brand shine on social media. Reach out to us for a Social Media Audit on info@avance-imagemanagement.com.
