LinkedIn networking – Rock Your Career®

Personal branding on social media can feel overwhelming for some professionals and consultants. Maybe you’ve struggled with it, too.

You want to be warm and approachable, but you don’t want to overshare. You want to be professional and polished, but you don’t want to be thought of as the boring guest at the cocktail party.

Decide How You Want to be Known

The first thing to do when using social media to uplevel your personal brand is to decide how you want to be known.

Pick a subject you’d like to focus on so you become THE Expert on that subject. This should be a topic you’re excited about because you’ll be sharing and writing about it for some time to become known as a Subject Matter Expert.

Choose Your Networks

While some gurus advise you should be on all the social media platforms, most professionals and consultants find their clients and cohorts stick to one or two social networks, depending on their industry or profession.

Don’t stress about this. Simply pick the two social networks where you get the most traction. These two social networks are ones you’ll update daily.

Keep Your Social Media Profiles Consistent

Review your profiles on all your social media channels. Would someone unfamiliar with you or your brand be able to tell you’re the same person on each social media channel?

If not, it’s time to align your social media accounts. Use the same profile picture, bio, and header image across all your social platforms. This makes it easy for visitors to recognize your brand, regardless of the social network they’re using.

Post Frequently

Maintain an active profile on your industry’s and your target audience’s most popular social networks. (A target audience consists of people who need to know about you.)

Some networks are better for posting multiple times a day (like X/Twitter), while for others, posting only 2-3 times a day (or a week) works better. This is another reason to choose only one to three platforms; activity helps you gain traction with your target audience. You also want to be able to effectively manage the social media channels you choose.

A dormant account can negatively impact your online brand.

To determine the best posting frequency, run a few short experiments. This will help you discover how frequently you should post and what times work best for your followers.

If you’re unsure what to post, follow the 4 out of 5 rule. This rule means posting 4 pieces of valuable content to your audience for every 1 piece of promotional content. Don’t be afraid to promote great content to your followers, even if you didn’t write it. When you’re the one who shares the latest news in your industry, followers will view you as the go-to source of trends and news in your industry. Curating great content counts.

Join Communities

Once you gain some traction with your personal brand on social media, look for communities of like-minded professionals or your ideal client tribe. Facebook and LinkedIn have groups. While some channels may use different terms for these communities, they all mean the same thing: an online gathering of people around one central subject, whether that subject is learning and development, social media, HR, healthcare, etc.

The great thing about groups is that they allow you to form connections with other members and give them value.

It’s also an easy way to do customer research and create your own professional learning network. You can discover what questions your audience frequently asks, what they struggle with, and what they would love to know more about.

Using social media to brand and enhance your online reputation is brilliant. Just remember to post and share valuable content that benefits your target audience.

Wendy Terwelp is an award-winning career expert and personal branding strategist who works with high-performing leaders and organizations wanting to advance careers, rock networks, and up-level their brands online and offline. Click the link to get your free personal brand self-assessment.

We are an affiliate partner of Postoplan.

“Hi Wendy, I’d like to join your LinkedIn network.” Sound familiar?

This is the standard LinkedIn invitation sent when people hit “connect.” And there’s a good chance you’ve received many of these since you joined LinkedIn.

As a career expert who advocates LinkedIn as a tool for career management and personal branding, my clients frequently ask me what they should do about LinkedIn invitations from people they don’t know.

When you receive the standard LinkedIn invitation from people you don’t know, typically one of two things happen, 1) it’s deleted or 2) you hang on to it because you don’t want to offend the invitee by not accepting. Translation: “invitation limbo.” And a full inbox. After a certain time, invitations are deleted automatically by LinkedIn.

Here are solutions you can use to take action on LinkedIn invitations from people you don’t know:

Step One: Review their profile.

Do they have a professional headshot?
Do they have a professional summary that communicates who they are and what they do? Is it interesting? Does this seem like a person who’d add value to your network?
Have they provided value added content? This could include media links, status updates that resonate with you, etc. Check out their activity.
Look at their groups. Do you share any in common?
Check out shared connections. How many do you have in common? Have any of the common connections written a recommendation for this person?
Is this person an alumni of your school? Or employer?

If all of these are a “go” and the person seems like they’d be a wonderful connection to your LinkedIn network, hit “accept” and write a personal message welcoming him or her to your network.

Step 2: But, I’m still not sure…

If their background seems intriguing, and you’d like to learn more prior to accepting, pick up the phone and make a personal connection or
Hit “message” and here’s what I say, “Hi! Thanks so much for your LinkedIn invitation. Refresh my memory, how do we know each other?” Or, “Hi, Thanks so much for your invitation, how might I be of service?” See if they reply and determine your next move based on their response.
If they’ve written you a message, you can reply to the individual without immediately accepting the invitation.

Step 3: Notice Red Flags

If the profile is missing key ingredients, seems sketchy or that profile looks too familiar (hello, stock photo!), decline.

Step 4: You Get to Choose

It’s YOUR LinkedIn party and you get to decide who gets to join. You got this!

Let me know your favorite tips for LinkedIn invitations in the comments.

And if you or your company needs help with LinkedIn, let’s talk!

Wendy Terwelp is president of Opportunity Knocks™ of Wisconsin, LLC and author of the Rock Your Network® series. Dubbed a “LinkedIn Guru,” by the Washington Post, Terwelp works with organizations ready to take their employees to the next level with the right personal brand, networking strategies and online activities… to not only close more deals and attract more clients, but prepare emerging leaders for the roles you have to fill. Her consulting services, speaking engagements, and workshops serve audiences worldwide through conferences, associations, and corporate engagements.

Terwelp’s private coaching clients regularly win raises, promotions, and jobs. Are you a rock star at work who wants career success on your terms? Schedule a session to discuss your career, goals, and next steps.