Using LinkedIn to Grow Your Personal Brand
Real estate is getting more and more competitive. Simply having a presence on social media isn’t enough anymore. The best real estate agents are creating a personal brand to get ahead of the game.
When it comes to defining personal branding, Chris Ducker said it best, “Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” Creating a personal brand is basically creating and maintaining a positive reputation that’s used to draw in potential buyers.
Personal branding is a big task and there’s no one right way to do it! A great way to get started is to learn how to use your LinkedIn profile to its fullest potential.
Whether you’re new to LinkedIn or you’ve had lots of experience on the platform, here are all the tips you need to optimize your profile and make sure you can be easily found by potential buyers.
Optimize your profile for searchability
While setting up your LinkedIn profile, your main goal should be to become as “findable” as possible. Start by making sure your profile is complete. According to LinkedIn, your profile is seven times more likely to be found in searches when you add a profile photo and twelve times more likely to be found when you add your two most recent employment positions.
Upload a great profile picture.
Your profile picture is important! Make sure you upload a clear, quality image. The profile picture should be from your shoulders up, try to avoid full body shots. Dress professionally and don’t have anyone else in your picture. LinkedIn recommends uploading a photo that’s 400 x 400 pixels and under 10 MB in file size.
Get the most out of your “About” section
The About description is one of the first things people who visit your profile will see. Take this opportunity to be specific and go into detail. Create a compelling story and talk about what makes you different from your competition.
LinkedIn has a great article on how to write an About section that stands out. Click here to read.
Add your LinkedIn signature to all other social streams
Put your LinkedIn URL everywhere! If you’re active on any other social media platforms, post about your LinkedIn page and invite your followers to find you, or paste the link somewhere on your profile. You can also add your profile link to your email signature, blog, or online resume. If you publish any content on LinkedIn, whether an article or a slideshare, put your profile link at the end!
Update frequently
Be active on LinkedIn’s platform. LinkedIn recommends posting once every business day. Sound overwhelming? Fortunately, even if you’re only posting monthly, you are many times more likely to be found than someone who never posts! In addition to content you create, it’s good to post any time you publish an article, guest-host on a podcast, make a career move, or take a new course!
Customize your LinkedIn Profile’s URL
When you first sign up with LinkedIn, they auto generate a URL for your personal profile. Usually this is linkedin.com/name123456789. To customize your URL and make it easier to use, follow these steps.
Go to your LinkedIn profile. On the right hand side of your page, click “Edit profile and public URL”
2. In the upper right corner, click the pencil icon next to your current URL.
3. Finally, type your new URL in the text field. Click save and you’re good to go!
Write articles for LinkedIn
To put it simply: posting articles on LinkedIn can get you lots of attention. Social Media Examiner put together a phenomenal article on the power of the LinkedIn publishing platform, how LinkedIn Pulse works, and what you can do to gain visibility by writing articles. If publishing on LinkedIn seems like something you’d enjoy doing, be sure to check it out.
Choose your skills strategically
According to LinkedIn, “skills are among the most common queries performed by recruiters and hiring managers”. But optimizing your skills isn’t just helpful for people looking for jobs. This is a great way to be more searchable and easily found by anyone looking for someone with your background!
LinkedIn allows you to list up to 50 skills. LInkedIn data shows that members with 5 or more skills receive up to 17x more profile views. Research the skills other professionals in your field are listing on their profiles.
Participate in groups
Participating in a group is a great way to gain traction. Contribute meaningfully in discussions with other professionals or people who might be seeking answers from someone with your background. Click here for a list of LinkedIn groups for real estate agents and new home builders to join.
Engage meaningfully
In addition to participating in groups, it’s important to meaningfully engage with posts on your timeline, recognize work anniversaries or new position updates, and take advantage of any other ways you can reach out to people in your network.
Keep your content positive and helpful
Each social media platform is a little bit different. It’s important to understand the culture of each one and tailor your content accordingly. LinkedIn is a professional network— be conscious of the content you bring to that space. Stay positive and focus on contributing value to others.
Understand how the algorithm works
Here are the basics. LinkedIn puts your post in the feeds of select contacts for a few hours to test out their reactions. If you don’t get much engagement in that window of time, your content won’t be shown to more people. Combat this by having your team like or comment on your post when it’s first posted.
Avoid being penalized for outbound links
LinkedIn penalizes for outbound-links because they want traffic to stay on their website. Get around this by either publishing your work on their publishing platform, or by posting without the link, then adding it after it’s been posted with the editing feature.
LinkedIn is a robust platform, but you don’t have to master the program to master personal branding. As long as you’re interacting and putting out valuable content, you’re on the right track! For more help with marketing and services related to the home building industry, check out NoviHome’s LinkedIn page! See what we did there?