‘Build your personal brand for career success’ webinar summary and recording
Personal brand isn’t just a buzzword; it’s your professional reputation in action, shaping how others perceive your expertise and experience.
In this practical webinar, you’ll learn how to define what you want to be known for, showcase your expertise with confidence, create a consistent, authentic presence, and use AI responsibly to support your efforts.
You’ll also get top tips for updating your LinkedIn profile, so you can take charge of your online presence and drive your career success.
What is Personal Branding?
You will be glad to know you already have a personal brand. When we’re thinking about a brand for an individual, we’re really talking about our reputation.
- What do you want people to say about you?
- What do you want to be known for?
- How would you like to be described?
Luan highlights this point by quoting Jeff Bezos:
‘Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room’
When we use it in the context of career and opportunities, it’s about how we present ourselves to the world.
It’s about owning your story and clearly expressing your values, so people perceive you the way you intend.
Luan acknowledges this may be a challenge and feels like you are treating yourself like a product. To a certain extent, you are.
Personal branding is about identity and communicating this identity at every touch point available to employers and your network. Such as social media, face-to-face interactions, published work, presentations and meetings.
Building your personal brand is not a quick win. It takes time and consistency.
People will always turn to friends, family, peers, colleagues, and their wider networks for recommendations. In those conversations, if you’re known, if people remember who you are, what you do, and what you stand for, then your name is far more likely to come up.
What is Holding You Back?
I don’t know what to say / I don’t know what I want to be known for
Luan suggests taking the time to think about this through the lens of your overall career planning.
Reflect on how your colleagues would describe you. Does this align with your career goals? Think about how you want to be seen and recommended for.
I don’t have enough experience yet / I don’t want to sound arrogant
Everyone has a story, whether from their career, education or life.
Luan appreciates that some LinkedIn posts can come across as arrogant when telling their story or giving advice. However, as long as you are being yourself and have reflected on your values, you will come across as authentic.
If you are seeing posts that do not resonate with you, Luan says to unfollow them, dismiss it and focus on the positivity and the people that are going to add value to you.
I don’t want to be an influencer
You don’t need to have a large audience to build opportunities or to be trusted. Don’t worry about the numbers.
I don’t have time to write social media posts
Luan’s advice is to demonstrate, not build.
You are already doing things that can be used as content, such as attending events, reading research, and completing work projects, so you don’t need too much extra time to think of things to post.
I don’t want to share my personal life online
What you share online is completely up to you. If there are elements of your life that you don’t want to post about, then don’t.
Your personal brand is not about your personal life; it is your reputation that has credibility and trust.
Using Social Media to Showcase Your Personal Brand
Your social media policy
Luan’s focus on social media is primarily about LinkedIn, but these tips can be used across different platforms.
First, define your social media policy. Your ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’
Your employer may have social media guidance to help, but also reflect on your own values, what you want to achieve with your social media and what you don’t want to share.
Create a checklist that you can refer to when you find or create content, ensuring it aligns with your brand.
Who you want to have conversations with
Think about who you want to be mentioning your name? Who do you want to learn from and have conversations with?
This isn’t about having a huge following. It’s about career opportunities and the people you want to connect with and build relationships with.
Build your ‘shop window’ and be visible
When you are creating a social media presence, write it for the ‘who’. As in the people you want to see your profile.
Luan says to think: “I want people to discover me, and I know who those people are, and I’m going to stay visible by doing some updates regularly.”
Now, regularly is different for different people, and Luan says she’s not going to advise anyone on how much to post, as it is whatever works for you. Don’t feel the need to post very often; this is counterintuitive for LinkedIn. Once a week or every two weeks is plenty.
It is not just about the public posts but the personal interactions that help you stay visible.
Luan highlights how some attendees of this session messaged her, letting her know they are looking forward to the session. This is great for starting a conversation and networking.
Also, interacting with posts. Commenting on posts from your desired audience and replying to people who comment on your posts.
Your LinkedIn Profile
Luan’s first takeaway is to reframe how you see your LinkedIn profile, it is different to a CV.
A CV is a historical statement of your work and education experiences.
A LinkedIn profile is more than that.
LinkedIn Profile Tips
Tailor your profile – Think about who you want to see your profile and tailor it accordingly. This could be potential employers if you are job searching, angling yourself for speaking or research opportunities, or for expanding your network.
Showcase yourself and your credibility in a way to support your day-to-day efforts, internal development work, and your career progression.
Keep it updated – An error many people make is not updating their LinkedIn profile and copying and pasting from their CV. Luan encourages you to fill out every section of your profile and keep it up to date.
Check your wording – Check that past work experiences are in the correct tense. It should be in the past, not the present.
Think about keywords people would be searching for that you want to come up in the results.
Think about what you want to be found for and tailor the words you are using for that purpose.
Use job descriptions – If you are job searching, find job descriptions on jobs.ac.uk for the roles you are interested in and mirror their language in your profile.
Get recommendations – Social proof is key; ask colleagues, clients, lecturers, and peers for recommendations.
Additional sections – Don’t forget about the recommended sections on your profile; don’t just stop at the core ones.
The ‘About’ Section
Once you have filled in the rest of your profile, come back to the about section and fill it in based on what you have said.
This is not a personal statement at the top of your CV. It is where you tell your career story and how you got to where you are now.
If you are early in your career, mention your education, why you’ve chosen to study your topic/course, and what you’re looking to do next.
If you have had a career change, tell the story of that. What you used to do and why you changed.
Finally, let people know what your key strengths and successes are. It can be hard to talk about yourself like this, but as long as it’s true and you have evidence for it, you’re just trying to share your credibility and build trust.
Resource
Luan has a LinkedIn profile guide. This guide is designed to help you set up or review your personal LinkedIn profile, so it tells your story, showcases your skills, and makes it easy for the right people to find and connect with you.
Storytelling Content
Like Luan has been saying, your profile is about telling your story and letting people get to know you. Storytelling content is a great way to do this.
Think about the following to generate posts.
What are you working on?
Have you any exciting projects that are coming up or have happened?
Talk about your area of expertise, give advice or discuss your work.
What events have you been attending?
Check your calendar for what is coming up that you could post about.
Let people know you are going and looking forward to it, and then share your thoughts and key takeaway from the event.
Who have you met?
Did you meet someone interesting at an event or in your workday that you want to highlight?
Do you want to thank anyone for meeting you or helping you with your work?
What have you read, listened to, or watched?
Sharing books, podcasts, research papers, etc., that you found interesting can make great content.
This is especially valuable content when you are changing careers and want to be seen in a different sector.
Start giving your thoughts about content in the sector.
Luan uses the example of psychology when she was preparing to release a book on the subject. As psychology was not something she was known for, she planned to build her reputation in the space by using content, sharing podcasts, research papers, etc.
What is your opinion on a topical subject?
Do you have a point of view on something in the news right now?
If this is in your social media do’s and it’s something you want to be known for, then consider sharing your perspective in a post.
What hasn’t worked?
Luan shares her example post of when she was speaking at an event and experienced technical issues.
If you post about challenges, share the lesson learnt or how it turned into a positive.
Responsible Use of AI
AI can be used to support your work, but Luan makes the point that AI doesn’t have work experience, its own career stories, or have been through positives or challenges.
Using the prompt feature
Social media platforms have native AI features, including LinkedIn Premium. These can help you write your posts. You might also use standalone tools such as ChatGPT, Co-Pilot or Claude.
AI can help revise your profile and be prompted for content ideas and first drafts.
However, you must edit whatever it gives to avoid AI cliches and clear signs of AI writing, such as overuse of emojis and em dashes.
Luan is an advocate for using AI tools to support your work, but please edit the outputs and be transparent.
Be transparent about the use of AI and label content when uploading, especially if you are using it for videos and images.
Key Takeaways
- You already have a personal brand, but are you shaping it intentionally?
- Focus on clarity and authenticity
- Showcase your value to the people that matter, keeping your own objectives in mind
- Highlight transferable skills, experiences, and share examples of work
- Consistency and visibility are the keys to generating opportunities
Q&A
Meet the Host
Luan Wise
Luan Wise is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, with over 25 years of marketing expertise across agency, client-side, and consultancy roles. Luan is a LinkedIn Learning course instructor, an accredited lead trainer for Meta, and author of award-winning books on social media marketing, including Planning for Success and Smart Social Media. For more information about Luan, visit www.luanwise.co.uk or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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