How To Build Your Personal Brand On LinkedIn, According To An Expert

In the year 2024, career success is about more than just resumes and interviews — it’s about how you present yourself on paper, online, and IRL. In the current job scene, having a personal brand has become crucial in all areas of one’s career whether you’re still a college student or trying to kick-start your post-grad career. But what *is* a personal brand, and how do you create one?

According to the Harvard Business Review, personal branding means defining and expressing your public persona. Similar to how a company has a logo, mission, values, and generally identifiable personality, you have similar ways to define your own brand. A personal brand is used for many reasons — in the working world, this includes helping you land a job, build your network, and showcase who you are as a young professional. 

Personal branding can be put into effect just about anywhere, from networking events to the font you use on your cover letter. But one of the best places to start building your personal brand for the job search is on LinkedIn. That’s because LinkedIn has so many different functions; it’s a platform for job-searching, networking, and sharing your professional accomplishments. 

So, if you’re a college student looking to build your personal brand on LinkedIn, you’re in the right place. Below, Her Campus speaks with Keren Baruch, director of product at LinkedIn, for some personal branding tips to consider.

1. Have a complete LinkedIn profile that showcases who you are.

With over 1 billion LinkedIn members worldwide, standing out in a sea of users is crucial, which Baruch says starts with your profile. “I think the first thing is to make sure that you have a profile that is complete, because when you complete your profile, this is what shows up everywhere throughout the app,” Baruch tells Her Campus. A complete profile, according to Baruch, includes filling out all the major fields, including your experience, skills, profile photo, headline, bio, and more.

According to Baruch, your Linkedin profile acts like a “virtual handshake” — it’s the first thing people see when they click on your profile, so make a lasting impression. “When you’re thinking about your career, it’s so important that you’re making sure you’re sharing who you are, what matters to you, what is your expertise,” Baruch tells Her Campus. “When you have the world’s largest professional network like LinkedIn at your fingertips, making sure that you’re able to stand out is super important.”

2. Build authentic connections.

Personal branding doesn’t stop at setting up your profile. Being engaged and adding LinkedIn to your usual social media rotation helps you stay active and build connections on the site. TBH, this is where I struggle; building connections on LinkedIn seems way different than finding mutuals on IG and TikTok… or so I thought. According to Baruch, you may have more LinkedIn connections than you think. 

“You already have a network of the people that you’re meeting,” Baruch says. “Your friends, your professors — these are all people who are maybe not [in your LinkedIn network] right now, but will come to be the people who are going to help you throughout your career.”

So, if you’re looking to start building your professional network on LinkedIn, start with your classmates or professors and as time goes by, build your connection from there. By starting with people who know you IRL, you’re creating a community of people with whom your brand is set up to resonate with, which is crucial for building a personal brand.

3. Create content that is true to you.

Another huge part of building a personal brand on Linkedin is creating posts. NGL, I had zero idea about what to post on LinkedIn, let alone what to post that would help me with my personal brand. Thankfully, Baruch has a tip for that. 

“The most successful content that we see is from professionals who are reaching an audience that care about a topic that they have expertise and insights to share about,” she says. “The real power is in the knowledge, conversations, and engagement that you can spark for a community kind of helping people learn tangible things that can help them advance in their careers.”

Although it’s important to share your achievements and your success on your LinkedIn, what’s also beneficial is sharing posts about your values and things you stand for, which could in turn be relatable to other people in your network and beyond — thus enticing an audience to connect with your personal brand.

In terms of the different types of content, Baruch recommends trying out different kinds of posts when first starting.

“We recommend trying different formats to see what works for you,” she says. “Whether it’s video, text, [or] newsletters.”

4. Get started ASAP.

I know what you’re thinking: “When is a good time to get started on building a brand?” Luckily, there really isn’t a set timeline for building your personal brand on LinkedIn. According to Baruch, “As soon as you start having experience and work experience, or want to be getting work experience, that’s a great time to start your profile.” 

So, if you’ve started racking up summer internships, jobs, or extracurriculars, now is a great time to build that brand!

• career
• linkedin
• work