How to Raise Your Profile on LinkedIn (The Basics)

When it comes to LinkedIn, there’s a difference between building a personal brand and building a profile. Despite what the internet would tell you, not everyone needs a personal brand. Ask yourself: are you the product? If your professional identity is tied with what you offer, then by all means, take the personal branding route - but understand a personal brand is not just about having a presence on LinkedIn. That said, if your LinkedIn journey is tied to business development, a solid LinkedIn profile, managed properly with time invested, will generate you enquiries and ultimately customers. A profile is going to help you in positioning yourself as the go-to person in your industry. Not quite sure how you get there? That’s what we’re here for.

The Difference Between a Personal Brand and Building a Profile

Ok, before we start, you need to understand the distinction between developing a personal brand and raising a profile is crucial. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone needs a personal brand. This path is more suitable for those who are essentially the product, individuals whose identity is tied to what they offer professionally. Personal branding is basically a fluffy phrase for something very simple - profile building, online and in person. You can probably guess what gave rise to these ‘LinkedInfluencers’. Social media influencers, of course.

For those engaging in business development on LinkedIn, a well-optimised profile takes the win over an elaborate personal brand. The pandemic made it relevant for professionals to open a window into their world. Regardless of pandemic conditions, establishing a genuine online presence is key. It’s about showing people what’s behind the curtain. But what's the big deal about personal LinkedIn profiles, and why should businesses be invested in yours? It all boils down to authenticity, thought leadership, and the inherent power of the individual vs the organisation. As an individual with a platform you can convey trust and reliability, which are essential since authenticity is usually the deciding factor in who someone chooses to with. Ultimately, if people buy into you, they will buy from you. So when it comes to raising your profile as an employee, just remember, you are an individual of your company – what can you offer?

Why Does LinkedIn Matter?

The landscape of LinkedIn has changed, and in our honest opinion, we think business profiles are sh*t. They don’t add any value to your brand - they’re pointless. At co&co, we’ve seen time and time again the benefits of employee-generated content. Studies back us up, showing that employee-generated content is 24% more likely to be shared than brand-generated content. Why? Well, it’s all down to individuality.

If you can be your authentic self on LinkedIn then you’re halfway there. LinkedIn is a space where people can mould themselves into something that people want to buy into and are invested in. After all, people buy from people; it's all about building trust and reputation.

So let’s say you’re a massive company looking to have employees advocate for your brand over LinkedIn. You need to think long and hard about your strategy. We get a lot of people who don’t put a lot of trust into this strategy to begin with because they might think:

👉 How can we trust the staff to advocate for us?

👉 What if they say something wrong?

👉 What if we get cancelled?

Look, if you’re a genuinely good company to work for, none of this should be in question.

There are many reasons why should businesses give a sh*t about employee-generated content:

💻Demonstrates brand advocacy

💻Showcases your personality

💻Provides multiple routes to the market

💻Higher engagement for business content

Our world is saturated with content, so standing out means being real, giving your employees the freedom to voice their opinions, and showing the world how sh*thot your brand really is.

Our services at co&co have helped many businesses take their LinkedIn game to the next level. Our Fieldfisher case study is proof that this strategy works. We educated the team on how to use LinkedIn and build strong online profiles for business development. Now the team have a great understanding of how to use LinkedIn to help them generate clients. The whole team understand the importance of personal brand values and are committed to posting regularly. We can see them engaging on the platform, and sharing content that conveys their personalities as individuals, whilst maintaining a clear and consistent corporate brand message. That’s the end goal.

Optimising Your Shop Windows

Your work-life might pay the bills, but let's be honest – it's the least interesting aspect of who you are. This is what we ask everyone in our workshops; who are you outside of work? When it comes to LinkedIn, consider your profile as the shop window to your professional world. A good LinkedIn profile is like dating … How you look will get you a date, how you behave will get you a relationship.

A few tips for ya:

Profile Picture:

✅Make sure it’s candid, clear, in high-resolution and up-to-date.

Hero Image:

✅Be consistent with on-brand values and highlight your value offer. Add in a CTA.

Bio Line:

✅Target your ideal audience, highlight your value/offer, add an authority builder

Bio Section:

✅Introduce yourself, highlight your solution, show results / social proof, and include a clear CTA

Balancing individuality with brand continuity is mega important for your brand. We get it though, this can become particularly challenging in larger teams. There needs to be a balance. Heard the phrase ‘get a girl who can do both’? Well this is exactly what we can help you with. You can express your unique personality whilst maintaining brand elements. Have a look at how we do it 👇

See how we still keep our unique edge?

👉Terrible at cooking

👉Terrible at reversing

👉Terrible at dancing

But still maintain those consistent brand elements:

✔️co&co logo

✔️black and white colour scheme

✔️Same CTA in red

✔️Same slogan - No fluff. No bull. Just mega marketing

Be sure to express your unique personality whilst ALSO showing what brand you're representing. Your LinkedIn presence should be a reflection of your authentic self, not a polished corporate façade. That said – people need to know they’re in the same place. We are a small team at co&co which makes managing a consistent tone of voice less difficult. But let’s take a salesperson in a huge company as an example … How do you balance this tone of voice and maintain brand continuity? Make the brand you’re representing recognisable. Be consistent across your headers, bios, CTA’s, and colour schemes. Even though everyone needs to express their individuality, it should be clear what brand you are advocating for.

Nailing Your Tone of Voice

In the LinkedIn game where everyone seems to be a brand, being a person first sets you apart. You are more than your job. Your tone of voice is the essence of your brand – it’s about how others perceive and describe you. Just talking about work isn’t going to cut it. It won’t make you distinct from any other employee … so what the fu*k will? It’s actually simple. Be personal and make sure that your posts actually sound like you. There’s nothing worse than when someone’s real-life persona doesn’t align with their online image. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not - trust us, you can spot this a mile off.

🤔Who are you outside of your job?

🤔How would your family describe you?

🤔How would your friends describe you?

🤔How would people who don’t like you describe you?

How people describe you is your brand. It’s all about being your authentic self and that’s exactly what you are around your family and friends, right? When it comes to tone of voice, it’s simple – just be you. Don’t overthink it, people buy from people.

Establishing What Matters to You

Step out of the job persona trap. LinkedIn is not a stage for putting on a performance that aligns with expectations. We see content like this daily and it is SO boring … 🥱. This is all about getting people to think of themselves OUTSIDE of their job.

So ask yourself:

🤔What matters to you?

🤔What drives you?

🤔What humanises you?

🤔What are your experiences?

Let’s say you’re called Katie and you’re a marketing assistant in some major firm. The last thing you want is to be reduced to is just a number in a large company. So, what makes you unique? Who are you on a standard Saturday evening on the weekend? Do you go out with your friends and drink a few too many drinks, or are you an avid hiker? Dig deep and find out. It might be that you have dreams of traveling the world or you used to be in a band. Show that you aren’t just a number. Show that you are human. Bet you’re thinking okay well what the fu*k does this have to do with work? In some cases, absolutely nothing. It’s all about being relatable and building your community. People live for it.

Let’s say you are an avid hiker - you can flip this and show that you can spend your weekends doing something you love because of your good work-life balance. Been travelling recently? All thanks to the generous employee holiday allowance. This is how you can make it relevant. Create content pillars that reflect what genuinely fu*king matters to you and separate them into personal, business, and industry content. This authenticity becomes the bridge that connects you with like-minded professionals who resonate with your values and interests.

Engagement and Community Building

You’ll hear people banging on about the LinkedIn algorithm all the time and to be fair, they ain’t lying, it’s mega important. You need to go hard with the engagement. This means engaging with comments, sharing relevant links, and acknowledging and valuing your audience's input. Don’t engage with people for the sake of it, comment like a boss. A mega tip for you all … do NOT use ChatGPT, or if you do, PLEASE at least remove the question marks 🙄. Commenting on other people's content is a good way to place your brand into micro-communities. Offer unique insights, ask questions, talk about your own experiences; just add value to the discussion. When it comes to making connections, you will need to think about what your goal is. Should you be connecting with industry experts, industry creators, like-minded people, potential leads? That’s for you to decide.

Just a few tips for you:

👉Don’t Post and Ghost:

The LinkedIn algorithm will catch you out on this and you’ll notice less engagement across your posts. You need to be actively engaging at least 30 minutes before your scheduled post and 30 minutes after.

👉Consistency in the Time/Days that you Post:

Pick your days. If you want to post 3x a week, let's say Monday, Wednesday and Friday – stick to it. This includes the timings. You might need to play around with times for a bit to find out what works best for you. Make sure you can spend 30 minutes engaging before and after the scheduled post.

👉Engage Every Day:

Don’t get lazy. If you don’t have a scheduled post, still take the time to engage with other people’s content. When you give, you receive. Even if it requires you to spend 20 minutes engaging on the weekend, you’ll be thanking yourself for it in the long run.

👉Adding Links:

Don’t add any links in the body of your post. If you need to add any links in, put them in the comments. The LinkedIn algo will love you for it.

You always hear people saying ‘quality over quantity’ and they’re absolutely right. It’s not about getting a thousand followers in your pocket overnight, that’s not the goal. It’s about getting say 100 active followers that want to be in your space and genuinely want to see what you have to say. Building a loyal community is the main goal. This is all about making real and genuine connections with like-minded individuals. A big one to keep in mind – don’t underestimate the LinkedIn lurkers. Trust us, they are everywhere 👀.

The aim of raising your profile on LinkedIn is to build your credibility amongst your peers as an industry thought leader. To do this you need to show your expertise, experience, and personality in a simple way. You need to be able to highlight what you do and how you can help or provide value to others. The success of this is riding on how well you are able to show your authentic self.

Conclusion

So we’ve told you how you can be loud on LinkedIn – just be YOU. It’s so simple, yet so many people struggle with it. Sack off those business profiles and get your employees to advocate for you. You’ll notice higher engagement with employee generated content. It’s all about being genuine, showcasing what truly matters, and fostering real connections. Success on LinkedIn is no longer dependent on how many figures you earn as a Founder. Yes - you will still see this type of content but it doesn’t make it any more important than what you have to say. Find your voice. Whether an individual or a company, the key is simple – be real, be relatable, and let your LinkedIn presence reflect the authenticity of your brand.

Here at co&co, we’re pretty good at what we do. If you need help in your LinkedIn management, why not leave it to us? We know what we’re doing. We’re always helping clients with LinkedIn training or workshops. You need to leverage LinkedIn while you can - it’s time to start now. 🤝 Let’s have a chat.