A pedestrian walks by a sign at a LinkedIn office in San Francisco, California.
As recently as a decade ago, the concept of a personal brand seemed a little bit new age. Today the reality is your digital footprint can be a key competitive advantage, in what is an increasingly crowded, and difficult to navigate talent market. Reframing curating your digital presence as an investment in your career can be a helpful first step to building long-term professional value.
LinkedIn Has Leveled The Playing Field
Historically, building a high-value professional network was the preserve of elite universities, alumni groups, professional societies, private clubs and (yes, really) golf courses. A consequence of this was the perpetuation of structural and systemic inequity.
LinkedIn’s stated goal is to “Create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. The mission of LinkedIn is simple: connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful”
Perhaps more than any other technological advancement, LinkedIn’s billion+ membership has truly leveled the playing field in a meaningful way for all professionals, irrespective of their background or demographic profile. LinkedIn gives you unparalleled visibility and insight to leaders both inside your organization, and across your industry. The heavy focus on content and the newsfeed makes it easier to participate in the conversation, and in doing so, invite yourself to a “seat at the table” that might not otherwise have been granted.
Once you graduate from responding to content that’s already there, to creating your own content, LinkedIn enables you to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, potentially opening up new opportunities inside your company, or indeed elsewhere.
Managing Your Personal Brand Is No Longer The Domain Of The C-Suite
After I made the transition from working in a startup unicorn to Fortune 500 corporate America, the veil was lifted and the secrets of boardroom power were revealed to me. The basic truth is that c-suite executives in large corporations are extremely well looked after, and have very large staffs to execute on their behalf. What I found to be most striking however, is that every single member of the c-suite has a dedicated communications person.
It is easier to understand why a marketing leader would have a communications person, but at first it seems counterintuitive that a finance leader or a technology leader would have this kind of dedicated support. At the executive level how you communicate, and therefore how you are perceived, is a key part of the job. Communications staff in these types of roles spend roughly 75% of their time managing internal communications and 25% managing external communications, which perfectly illustrates why managing your personal brand is critical. As you get more senior, companies will pay people to do this for you.
Wherever you are currently in the corporate hierarchy, and whatever your aspirations are, starting to take ownership of your professional brand is a sensible investment of time and effort. If you are unsure where to begin with creating professionally focused content on LinkedIn, their simple framework is helpful:
- Why this?
- Why me?
- Why now?
The framework helps you answer “does this content add to the conversation / is it useful?”, “how does my experience qualify me to talk about it?” and “is it timely or newsworthy?” At a minimum you should be able to answer the first two questions, and once you’re able to answer the third question, it will help you broaden your reach.
Crafting Your Professional Brand Has A Network Effect
A distinct side benefit of investing time and effort into your professional brand is that your network (connections and followers on LinkedIn) will grow significantly. This process creates a flywheel effect: creating content that adds to the conversation grows your follower base, and the more followers you have the further your content reaches. Furthermore, although it might not be something you need right now, having a broad network of connections will absolutely help next time you’re looking for a job:
There is so much ‘noise’ in the talent market, that simply applying online is often no longer enough to get the right eyes on your application. Most larger organizations have a fast-track process for employee referrals (I’ve written about that here), so having a large network will absolutely pay dividends in the future.
Companies Now See A Digital Presence As A Highly Desirable Asset
Andreas Jonsson is the CEO of Shield, a tool which helps companies like Atlassian
“We saw how modern companies across industries had vibrant and active employee ambassador programs, but no way to track and measure their LinkedIn activities… we take the guesswork out of LinkedIn and empower companies and their employees to reap the massive benefits from organic content. Content that authentically amplifies company values, culture, expertise, and more. The benefits span far and wide, from brand awareness, attracting talent and customers, to generating serendipitous opportunities at scale.”
Jonsson believes that in the era of earned media, companies who lead are the companies who empower, encourage, and celebrate employees who become brand ambassadors. He’s also acutely aware that “the talent landscape is changing. You no longer stand out with your MBA, straight A’s, or a few of the right logos on your CV. Thousands of people look just like you, when that’s the only thing visible. The real differentiator today is your online activity, the foundation of your personal brand.”
Jonsson goes on to say that investing in creating a personal brand will be a key differentiator for hiring decisions now, and in the future: “If you look at two equally knowledgeable and skilled candidates, but one has built a following online through consistent content creation, and thus have the reach of thousands if not millions of people - who would you hire? For most the answer is obvious. The person creating online, who has built a following. That person can amplify your company culture and values, and be a great ambassador for your brand from day one.”
Given the many benefits a well-curated personal brand can bring to your career, the question really is, why wouldn’t you invest your time in crafting something really compelling?
