How to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

---

Episodes You Might Also Like

Description

Your LinkedIn profile should reflect the expertise and value you bring to your work. Does yours? In this solo episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar explores the gap between doing strong work and making your value visible to the people who could hire, refer, or recommend you.

Your LinkedIn profile is working for you long after you update it. Paula walks through how to make that profile reflect what you want to be known for, from a current, recognizable headshot and a headline that goes beyond your job title to a Featured section that showcases your expertise. She also shares how the questions you answer and experiences you have can become content, and why thoughtful commenting is a practical way to build recognition.

If your approach has been to update your profile, check the box, and move on, this episode will help you rethink how you use LinkedIn. You’ll hear strategies for showing up consistently, contributing your perspective, and helping your network connect your name with the value you bring.

Chapters

2:16 – Why treating your profile as a resume (instead of a working asset) limits your reach

5:04 – Strategies for leveraging your headshot and headline to create a credible and authentic first impression that follows you across LinkedIn

7:57 – How to use the Featured section to control the narrative and showcase your thought leadership before someone even scrolls down

9:25 – What to include in your About section (and using first vs. third-person perspective) so you can attract the right people

10:55 – How to use the Experience section to show the connection between your former roles and what you’re doing now

11:58 – Why you’re overcomplicating content creation on LinkedIn, and why others will care what you have to say

13:21 – A simple commenting strategy that allows you to join conversations and increase visibility 

14:26 – How to arrange the Skills section of your profile for the algorithm and PDF exports

15:32 – Why LinkedIn is rarely the problem if the platform isn’t working for you

Mentioned In How to Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

LinkedIn Strategies & Leadership Tips to Master Personal Branding with Richard Bliss

Personal Branding Strategy Sessions

Subscribe to The Branding Room Only on YouTube

Call to Action

Follow & Review: If you enjoyed this episode, leave a 5-star review on your favorite podcast platform! 

Want more ways to grow your personal brand? Make sure you’re signed up for my upcoming webinars and workshops.

Your LinkedIn profile is more than an online resume—it's your professional homepage. My Leveraging LinkedIn: Build a Brand That Works for You is a three module course providing practical, ethical, and sustainable strategies you can implement today. Get access now.

Conferences are an investment—make sure you maximize yours. My Engage Your Hustle™ Conference Playbook gives you the strategies to prepare, stand out, and follow up with impact. Get your copy today.

Sponsor for this episode

This episode is brought to you by PGE Consulting Group LLC.

PGE Consulting Group LLC empowers individuals and organizations to lead with purpose, presence, and impact. Specializing in leadership development and personal branding, we offer keynotes, custom programming, consulting, and strategic advising—all designed to elevate influence and performance at every level.

Founded and led by Paula Edgar, our work centers on practical strategies that enhance professional development, strengthen workplace culture, and drive meaningful, measurable change.

To learn more about Paula and her services, go to www.paulaedgar.com or contact her at info@paulaedgar.com, and follow Paula Edgar and the PGE Consulting Group LLC on LinkedIn.Transcript

Paula Edgar: Welcome to Branding Room Only, the podcast where your personal brand gets a front row seat. I'm Paula Edgar and if you're here, it's because you know your brand isn't just about what you do, it's about how people experience you. In each episode, you'll hear stories, strategies and lessons from leaders and influencers who built their brands and made their mark. And I'll share the tools you need to do the same. Let's go. Hi everyone, it's Paula Edgar and welcome back to Branding Room Only. Today, we're going to talk about one of my favorite tools and you know this, because you've heard the podcast before. We've talked about it on the podcast many times and that is LinkedIn and why it is one of the most powerful networking and personal branding tools available to you. Yet so many professionals are not using in a way that feels reflective of the value they bring, the level of work they're actually doing. There are people who are listening to this right now, who are operating at a really high level, right? High performers, you're advising on complex matters, you're managing demanding clients, you're leading teams. And still, if someone looks you up on LinkedIn, that level of expertise is not immediately clear. So we're messing with our value proposition here, that gap. It matters, right? People are not trying to sit around trying to remember who to call. They want to be able to think of names they see and then go to LinkedIn profile and be able to see consistency. They want to see the people who show up, the people who feel and are familiar, because they have continuously shown up. It's an important part of how we use our network. So if you're not visible, you're not a part of what that consideration can be. So let's pause there and take a deep breath. We're going to get into this. If you are not doing strong work, we got a problem, you got to go back to episode one of the podcast. But if you are doing strong work and still not seeing the opportunities that you expect, the issue is not your capability. It's how the work that you're doing is actually showing up. And LinkedIn, my friends, gives you a direct way to close that gap. So let's start with the mindset shift. Let's get your head into it. LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn is not your resume. Your LinkedIn profile is not just a resume. So many people will say to me, but Paula, it's just your online resume, no, it's not. A resume gets sent when someone asks, but your LinkedIn profile is working for you all the time. Remember, it's what comes up when someone searches your name. Oftentimes before, if you have your own website or a firm bio, it comes up first. Google yourself now, check it out. It is what a potential client, a conference organizer, or any referral source reviews before deciding whether to reach out, in order to share your information with somebody else, who might be reaching out. So that question becomes really simple. When somebody lands on your LinkedIn profile, do they understand your value quickly and clearly? Do they understand what you do, how you add value? This is where many people, many, people get stuck. They treat their LinkedIn profile as a one-time task, as opposed to an ongoing driver of their brand and their relationships. They update their profile, check the box, move on. No, no, no, no, no, that's not going to work here. That approach limits what LinkedIn can actually do for you. Your profile is the foundation, right? We talked about this. We're going to get into a little bit more. But your activity and how you build your network is what creates the visibility. Posting consistently increases how often people will see your name in their feeds. The algorithm, as much as it changes, is not going to change there. You want to be able to have content so that folks can see who you are, how you're at value. Commenting on people's posts, it puts you in conversations that are already getting attention. It helps to see both of your networks gets to see when you're commenting. When you're doing the right thing and adding, you know, content that's visually exciting or even just visually attractive, it helps people to want to stop the scroll a little bit more, right? So when you're thinking about this, none of this, none of what I've said or I'm going to say, requires you to overhaul your schedule. It's not going to require hours and hours of things, but it does require consistency. People need to see your name more than once. Oftentimes the hesitancy that people have, when it comes to posting on LinkedIn has to do with, oh, they're going to see that I posted. My friends, I think I'm special. I know I'm special, but I know I'm not so special enough that everybody who wants to see my content is going to see it each time. So if you see it twice, good on you. But if you never see it, that's a problem for me. People need to see your name more than once. They need to connect with you on specific topics, your expertise, your areas of interest. Those connections between who you are and your visibility, that helps that recognition build over time. And it's why LinkedIn is so powerful. So let's go back to your profile. Because when somebody sees your content and clicks, they want to be able… you want them to see that your profile is doing the job you're wanting it to do, which is to represent you when you're not there, to give additional context. So let's start with what people see first. I have talked about this ad nauseum, but the photo that you choose for your LinkedIn profile, meaning your headshot, is important. It is the first impression, there's nobody there to say, oh, she was having a bad day, or his wife made him wear that tie. People decide very quickly whether they want to engage and your photo plays a huge role in that. It should be clear. It should be current, my goodness, current. I need to be able to find you in an actual room, based on what you look like online. And it needs to be aligned with how you want to show up professionally, right? Don't want it to be too old. Don't want to be too stiff. Want it to be recognizable, credible and authentic to you, while still aligned with whatever your goals are. This is important. If somebody meets you in real life, is the photo going to match who walks into the room? It drives me crazy, when people are like, oh, well, you know, I love that picture from before COVID and so I don't want to change it out. But their hair is different, they're 20 pounds lighter or heavier, it's different. It needs to match, it needs to align. So please, if this is ringing true for you, then take this as your hint to get it together and get your head shot redone. Next, your headline. So between your headshot and your headline, which is that top part of your profile, it is really one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on LinkedIn, because your headline follows you everywhere on the platform, right? You have to click in to see a lot of additional content, but your headline goes with you to every single place it can be found, in search results and when you're commenting and when people are messaging you. So when you have a headline that says like “Partner at X firm”, that's not enough. Your headline should answer a simple question. What is it that you want to be known for? Who do you add value with? What are your interests? Include your role. Yes, I want to know what your role is. And you can include the organization you work for. Fine. But what's your focus? What's your expertise? How do you couch the value that you bring? This is branding 101, that you are the one who is deciding what the folks are seeing. And if you're not using this opportunity, you're wasting potential opportunity.Also, LinkedIn works with keywords, which I keep saying over and over again. So you want to get found, because this is where you begin shaping how people will categorize you. And also because of LinkedIn's algorithm, how they're going to start characterizing your expertise too, is based on what you're putting out consistently, in terms of content, but also what you're saying about yourself. Next, let us go to your Featured section. This is something that people either ignore, or don't use, because they don't know, or use it without intention, which, you know, again, drives me crazy. Essentially, a Featured section is where you control what people will see, when they want to learn more. You are curating an initial segment of your profile with posts and information that you want them to see, before they go deep down into your experience, or other things. What are some of the things you can put on there? You can highlight articles, speaking engagements, media features, strong posts that show your opinion and your thought leadership, awards that you've won, anything that reinforces your expertise, or kind of gives them a better understanding of your personality, right? And how it's not just what you do, but it's how you do it and the intersection, which essentially is your brand proposition. You want to think of the featured section as like your highlight reel. So if somebody is considering working with you, referring you, or inviting you to speak, this section makes them make that decision faster, because you're showing them, you're saying, here's what I want you to know. That and the “About” section, which we're going to talk about in just a moment. Please, if you have not started using the featured section, all you have to do is right click on one of the posts, the three dots on the post and you can say add to featured and it'll start to build that section. You can drag and drop and reorder. There's all kinds of fun things that you can do with it, to shape the experience that people have, when they come to your profile. Now, let's talk about your “About” section. This is your first real introduction to someone who doesn't know you yet. It's not like your firm bio, or even your website. Well, my website is kind of like my about. It should clearly communicate your point of view, who you help, what you do, definitely what you do and why it matters. It gives you an opportunity to say a little bit about the value, the connection and connectivity. It should sound like you. Now, mine is made in third person, because I like for people to be able to grab it and use it to be able to refer me as a speaker and it's just easier that way. But I could flip it the other way too. No matter what, it shouldn't sound like a press release. If you're writing in third person, I'm going to say to go ahead and shift that. The reason why I'm saying that is because when you're talking in eyes, in first person, it's like you're speaking directly to somebody, the person who you want to reach. The reason I don't do that is because you can gauge my personality and my I-ness with all of my content. So I less need to do that there, but you, most people do. So I want you to be specific. A general, generic profile is going to attract general and generic attention. You want the people who you're looking for to find you, to find you. A specific profile attracts the right people. So please, if you're not using your about section, your summary, you need to be using it. At a minimum, put your short bio in there so that the keywords can be found. Now let's move down to your experience section. This is not a list, right? This is where the resume is. It's not a list. It's a story. Your roles should show how your background connects to what you're doing now, right? You can have bullet points and want them to show impact. If something does not support the direction that you're going in now, it doesn't need to be front and center. And you can, yes, have a little bit less content and things that you don't want people to focus on. You are allowed to be selective. What you're not allowed to do, is to leave that space of your experience without those keywords that I talked about, without that content that lets people know not just what you do, how you do it, and the impact that you've had. Thinking about what clarity you have, what are people… what's the experience they're going to have when they come there. And remember, your experience section allows for additional videos, PDFs, et cetera. There's all kinds of things you can put there to make it sexier than just the words. Okay, now let's talk about content, because this is where I think people overcomplicate things a lot and they don't have to. You are already doing the work, right? You're already answering questions, you're already identifying patterns, you're a thought leader, you're explaining ideas to clients and to your colleagues, right? So if you have an opinion and you have an expertise and you have experience, then you have content. You don't need to sit down and create something from scratch. And now with the advent of AI, you can take your idea and help ideate it and craft it into something that will help you to show what your perspective is and get visibility for you consistently, which is the point. So what do you need to do? You need to capture what's already happening in your day. What are the things that you're doing? How are you impactful? What are some of the experiences? What are the events that you're going to? And then share those things in a way where others can understand and learn from you and your experiences. A lot of people will come to me and say, well, Paula, I don't think that anybody cares what I have to say. Yes, yes, they do. And this is where the personal and the personal brand comes in, because it's not just what, again, I'm going to say it, what you do, but it's that you are the one doing it. And folks in your network want to hear from you. And it reminds them of who you are and how you add value, which can keep you top of mind in their minds and hopefully connects you to experience or opportunities they may have. OK, so let's spend a moment and we're going to talk about commenting. This is one of the simplest ways to increase your visibility. I'd actually say to you, you don't need to post as much. I want you to make sure you have a commenting strategy, but it has to be thoughtful. I want you to add a perspective, highlight something specific, comments that are like, this is great, or congrats, are fine, but if you really want to get some traction in the comment, try thinking about more than 10 words, right, in your comment. And again, you can have AI help you and then connect the topic or whatever you're going to talk about to what you're seeing in your own work. Not trying to steal, you know, shine from whatever the person is saying, but to give your perspective, so that somebody else who's there might be able to see and understand how you think and get visibility on your profile as well as the profile of the person you're commenting on. So that over time, if you're consistent with this, they will start to associate your name with certain areas of expertise. Okay, so now that we've gone through all those things, here's a few practical things that I want y'all to tighten up. The skills section in the LinkedIn profile is a helpful thing for folks to know. It's not determinative, but it is helpful. But you can drag and drop and you can edit and change, or all kinds of things for those keywords in terms of your skills. These function as keywords that help people to find you, so you want the skills that you want to be hired for, or chosen to speak for at the top of what you are… of the top of where your skills are ordered, especially because if you go to the option of exporting your profile to a PDF, it then highlights those top five skills. So make sure you're thinking about your brand, when you're putting those there. Remember that you're going to be using visuals when you post. Sometimes a post that's just a word only, if you space it out right, it will get good traction. But using a simple image or a graphic can make the difference between somebody scrolling past you, or stopping to read whatever you said, which is what you want. Okay. I want to be direct with you for a moment. And I say for a moment, but I'm direct with you all the time. If LinkedIn is not working for you, the issue is rarely the platform. The issue is usually lack of having done some of the best practices that I've talked about already in this podcast. And then the issue is additionally inconsistency. Showing up once in a while is not going to build recognition or consistent visibility. Showing up regularly will, right? But it doesn't have to mean daily. Regularly means steadily. So if it's once a week, if it's month to month, I am personally offended, when I go to people's profile and see they have not been active in over 30 days. You should not let a month go by without you commenting or posting something. That consistency will get you visibility. Think about it, if you're going to post once a month, that's only 12 times a year. You deserve the visibility and the value that come together with your brand, in terms of getting that consistency to be out there and your visibility to be known. Your expertise is already out there. Your experience is already out there. Remember, LinkedIn gives you a way to make both of those things visible to a much broader audience. I flex on a little bit, hit 20,000 followers recently. And I think to myself, there's only been a couple of times where I've been in one space with 20,000 people, like, and it's usually some kind of game or a concert, right? But then I have the ability to have them see my content and potentially hire me, listen to my podcast, et cetera, whatever the thing is. So when you approach your LinkedIn, with intention and consistency, it becomes one of the most effective tools that you have for staying top of mind and opening whatever doors that you're looking to get open for you. And maybe some that you're not looking, but they need to be open for you. So with that, y'all, that's it for today's episode. And if this resonated and I hope it did, share it with somebody who you think is doing strong work, but they're not getting the visibility they deserve, because they're neglecting, or not maximizing the opportunity that they have with their LinkedIn. And most finally, and definitely, if we're not connected yet on LinkedIn, let's fix that. Make sure you send a note saying, I listened to the podcast and I want to connect you on LinkedIn. And until then, I'll see you next time in the Branding Room and stand by your brand. Bye y'all. That's it for this episode. I appreciate you hanging out with me on Branding Room Only. Now, please do me a quick favor, head over to RateThisPodcast.com/branding, so more people can join this conversation. And make sure to stop by PaulaEdgar.com/events to see what's next. Whether I'm live, online or in person, I'd love to see you there. See you next time in the Branding Room. And until then, stand tall, shine bright, and always stand by your brand.