Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
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Growing your Brand on LinkedIn
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Transcript of Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
Growing your Brand on LinkedIn
Thank You.
Dustin McKissen, CAE, CME
Dustin is the founder of M5 Strategy + Branding, headquartered in St. Charles, Missouri. M5 works with companies, executives, trade associations, nonprofits, and educational institutions to tell their story, grow their brands, and increase their influence.
He holds an MBA and a Masters in Public Management. He is a Certified Association Executive and a Certified Marketing Executive. His LinkedIn posts have received more than 1.7 million views.
But really…
I’m just a normal person who started to write on LinkedIn. I didn’t have:• A powerful national brand behind my
name;• An existing social media platform;• Any sort of “following”;• Any idea of how powerful having a
following can be.
And then this happened:
And this:
And this:
Which Eventually Led to This:
But the times have changed, so
first you need to…
Step 1: Put butts in the seats
(AKA, build an audience)
1. Remember what networking is for:To meet people you don’t know.
2. Don’t introduce yourself as a stranger:Don’t send a generic connection request.
3. Turn a stranger into a friend:Actively invest in your new relationships.
4. The Golden Rule, online.Also, just don’t be a jerk.
Step 2: Create and share the right content
(AKA, The Crappy Day Test)
1. Content must inform, inspire, or educate or it will not be shared.
It is impossible to create shareable content if the sole purpose of that content is to sell something.
2. Pay attention to titles and images.
Titles need to be as catchy as possible while still letting the reader know what they will learn.
Understand the mindset of your audience. Blogs are no place for abstraction.
3. Blog posts need to have a beginning, middle, and an end. They need to have a narrative flow.
Your last line is important as well. Think of the title as the entrance, and the last line as the exit.
4. Pay attention to length (500-700 words).
Too sparse is not substantive enough. Too long will cause your readers to exit prematurely.
Avoid long blocks of unbroken text.
More does not equal better, know when to end it!
5. Don’t talk down to an audience, or talk up to your own ego.
Your audience is more intelligent than you think they are, but you don’t sound smarter using unnecessarily large words or jargon.
6. Understand why people are online, and why they are scrolling through their LinkedIn feed.
Be realistic about how much time and space you occupy.
7. Be a human, not a headshot!
Be willing to write about your mistakes, your bad decisions, and moments when you didn’t have it all figured out.
Authenticity isn’t something you “are”. Authenticity is just you, being you. Warts and all.
And…
Stick to it!Growing your influence doesn’t
happen overnight. You also don’t need a million views to
be an influencer!
“I never wanted to be rich, and I never wanted to be famous. I just wanted to be important in your life.”
-Bruce Springsteen
Build your brand by becoming important in
other people’s lives, and the rest will take
care of itself.
Thank you again!
