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LinkedIn has become pretty well known as a great platform to stay in touch and network with professional contacts, build your reputation as a trusted expert, and raise your profile externally, not just when you’re looking for a new job.
But not many of us think about it in the context of elevating our personal brand amongst our colleagues. But with 60% of employees more likely to engage with posts from co-workers it’s something you should be thinking about to improve your profile and visibility amongst internal stakeholders, not just external
Being active on LinkedIn gives an opportunity to get noticed and make sure your voice is heard with senior leaders, potentially advance your career and elevate your reputation, and be seen as an internal brand ambassador and employee advocate.
Here are my tips for elevating your brand internally.
Make sure you’re connected with internal stakeholders
Take time to find and connect on LinkedIn with the people you want to raise your profile with and look through your suggested connections for relevant mutual contacts within the business. Connect with colleagues you work with regularly, but also those in wider areas of the business, and try to connect with new colleagues as they join your organisation.
Follow their activity so it comes up in your feed, or once a week take a look at what they’ve posted or commented on and join the discussion. Look out for a new feature on LinkedIn that has recently launched where you can choose to prioritise key people’s content in your feed. Just click the bell symbol on their profile.
As your LinkedIn network grows, it’s easy to miss colleagues’ posts. So, you can also manage your push notifications to make sure you see activities from your employer or co-workers.
You’re not visible if you’re not posting
In a previous blog, I’ve given my top five tips for using LinkedIn regularly. The same applies here. Make sure you improve your profile and include your photo – a LinkedIn study found members with a profile photo receive up to 21x more profile views. Being active on LinkedIn is the key to more visibility.
Many of my clients are worried about posting on LinkedIn full stop. You’re not alone. Being worried about what people think, is what you have to say sufficiently “thought leadership?”. Read my tips for overcoming fear of posting on LinkedIn to help you get started. Sharing content relevant to your audience and connecting regularly are great ways of elevating your reputation and reach.
Want to know how you come across? Check out and view your recent activity and click on posts to see how your content looks. You can also add posts to ‘Feature on the top of your profile’, drawing attention to this when people visit your profile.
Get involved with company and colleagues’ posts
An easy way to start increasing your activity is joining the conversation by commenting or sharing posts.
Interact with your company’s LinkedIn page (if they have one) and posts. Share job opportunities the business is recruiting to and add why it would be good to work there, especially if it’s linked to your team. Share good news stories and events. Congratulate people on their achievements. Welcome new people to the team and comment on colleagues’ posts.
Once you are connected to your colleagues, LinkedIn will often help you by offering suggestions of posts to get involved with. There is also a feature called ‘give kudos’ which can be a different way of celebrating achievements. Think of it a bit like sending a card or giving a shout out.
Anything that’s helping you contribute to the employer’s reputation is creating a win-win. Over time, with little touchpoints, and by engaging meaningfully you’re elevating your profile. Your colleagues and senior leaders will see you as being a brand advocate, you’re showing you are proud of your company and care about your colleagues, and at the same time it’s helping promote you.
Share articles from your professional sphere
LinkedIn is a good source of information, current trends, and ideas to contribute to your work. There’s a wealth of learning and resources available to you. Sharing this valuable content is a quick and easy way of increasing your visibility amongst colleagues, positioning yourself as being knowledgeable in your field, becoming the go-to person for expert advice.
Commit some time at least once a week to looking at content from your professional sphere. This could be from your professional bodies, trade magazines, key influencers in your field or networks, or simply articles and posts about content you are interested in. Following #hashtags around your key areas of interest is a great way to access content – you might spot something worth sharing (and it’s great for your continuing development too).
Share your successes
No one likes a bragger, but it is possible to shout about your achievements in an authentic and genuine way. A LinkedIn Work Study showed only 35% of people feel confident describing their professional achievements and 52% of workers stated they would rather talk about a colleague’s achievements than their own. But you need to be proud of your hard work. Acknowledging others who contributed with a simple “thank you for the support of xyz, we couldn’t have achieved this without you,” may feel a more comfortable way of doing it.
Endorse and recommend your colleagues
Another feature you can use to your advantage is the endorsements for key skills and recommendations. Similar to giving kudos, you can look at colleagues’ profiles and endorse them for things you know they are highly skilled or excel at.
You can also give recommendations – these are like mini references allowing you to write a paragraph about what you would recommend them for, giving you an opportunity to support your highly rated colleagues, managers, customers, suppliers, partners or leaders. When you do this, it’s important to only endorse or recommend people you actually know. LinkedIn will add your name, photo and position to the recommendation on their profile, so it’s important you’re happy to stand by it in future.
Equally you can always ask your connected colleagues to do this for you, helping you to gain social proof of your own skills for when interested stakeholders check out your profile.
If you want advice about using LinkedIn as part of elevating your personal brand amongst colleagues, or need a sounding board on the type of content to get you started, give me a call on 07765 894040 to arrange a free chemistry session or a confidential chat.
