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5 Ways to Ramp Up Personal Branding Using LinkedIn

August 16, 2018

Your personal brand is not just what you do or where you work, it’s the way people perceive you as an individual from the brand you build around yourself.

Like it or not, social media is here to stay. It also happens to be the best place to build your personal brand and the single most important way you can set yourself apart in your industry. The greatest part? You are in control of your own personal brand and how you present yourself and engage online with potential clients and customers.

There are a lot of social media channels out there, and it’s important you choose which is the best for your profession. For most industries, the best social media channel for building your personal brand is LinkedIn.

30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢

If you’re looking to get serious about improving your personal brand and are ready to ramp up your efforts, these 5 tips will be critical for seeing results.

1. Complete Your Profile

Set yourself up for success by taking the time to fully complete your profile on LinkedIn. Your profile is the foundation of your personal brand and represents who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and the skills and expertise you possess. The content on your profile dictates how you’re seen professionally.

Update all your information, fill out every relevant section and use keywords in your summary and work experience. Use your LinkedIn profile to add the personality that is hard to convey on a resume.

Pro Tip: When completing your profile, keep your target audience in mind and include examples of your work that position you as a thought leader in your industry.

2. Share Relevant Content

You want to become a known resource for information by sharing what LinkedIn refers to as conversation-worthy updates with your audience. Meaning, when you’re looking for relevant articles, news, and data to share with your network, you’re going to want to make sure that it’s content your audience will find interesting and valuable.

On top of sharing those updates, take advantage of LinkedIn Publisher. When you write and publish an article on this platform, it will be tied to your professional profile. By sharing your knowledge and expertise on this LinkedIn Publisher, it will help to develop and strengthen your personal brand.

Pro Tip: Diversify your content. Make sure you are switching it up by sharing a mix of images, videos, articles, questions, and curating content written by others. Don’t be scared to throw a little personal insight into the mix too, after all, part of building your personal brand is showcasing who you are as a person, not just what you do.

3. Engage – The Right Way.

Improving your personal brand goes beyond optimizing your profile. You must also focus on truly engaging with your audience, and no, that doesn’t mean just clicking the thumbs up on every update you see. It’s communicating back and forth through updates you share and participating in discussions with other individuals to strengthen personal connections. By engaging with your connections through shared content and discussion you can become a trusted source to your audience.

Pro Tip: When engaging through commenting, leave insightful and thoughtful comments. Don’t comment simply for the sake of commenting.

4. Utilize Groups

LinkedIn provides individuals the opportunity to join groups that are specific to their industry and area of expertise. In these groups, people share industry insights, seek advice, and provide feedback for other professionals. Participating in groups allows you to showcase your knowledge around a subject and start to grow relationships with like-minded people. Think outside the box when joining groups.

Ask yourself the following questions when determining which groups to join:

Where are your prospects at?
What are their pain points?
What is your industry expertise?
What are the areas you can use some a little extra knowledge in?

By answering these questions, you will be able to utilize groups to their fullest potential.

Pro Tip: Be aware, there are many groups that aren’t managed or that the community in them are not active. So, when searching for the right groups, explore ones you think will be beneficial then narrow down to a few top key groups to spend your time in.

5. Be Consistent

One of the key components of improving your personal brand is consistency. The more you stick to a plan and make it a priority, the sooner you’ll see connections happening, conversations starting and business increasing. It’s recommended to share content at least 3-4 times a week, engage daily, and utilize publisher at least once a month.

Pro Tip: Make a daily, weekly, and monthly checklist for yourself and set calendar reminders to keep you on track.

Like any goal, improving your personal brand won’t happen overnight, but by using social media to share your expertise, participate in conversations, and become a reliable source of information, you’ll have the opportunity to build valuable relationships, generate more business, and become a thought leader in your industry.

Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

10 Tips for Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile for Recruiters

August 7, 2018

There are over 562 million profiles on LinkedIn, which means there is a lot of competition for eyeballs. There is a vast amount of digital business happening 24-7, and it’s your job to stand out and grab your audience’s attention. Your LinkedIn profile page can be one of the most important assets in your personal brand toolbox—especially in the recruiting world.

Your profile not only represents who you are and what you do but it is also your firm’s brand. To stand out in this always-on professional business network, follow these 10 tips to optimize your LinkedIn profile.

30 Minute How-To Guide: Check out this webinar to learn how you can build your brand on LinkedIn ➢

1. Start with a Solid Value Proposition

Arguably the most important part of telling your story on LinkedIn is to have a strong value proposition. What problems do you solve? What value do you add? How do you make a difference in the lives of your clients and candidates? These questions will help you determine your unique value proposition.

Your unique value proposition is a key differentiator. It’s the key benefit that your personal brand offers. This is “the thing” that will help your audience determine whether you are the most qualified person for the job.

2. Be Authentic

Make sure that your bio is authentic to you and not a cookie-cutter description of what you do. Infuse some emotion into your story by being authentic. An authentic bio speaks to your audience and tells them why you do what you do.

Here is a great example of an authentic and unique LinkedIn summary for a recruiter.

3. Build Out Your Recruiter Summary

Spending time on your recruiter summary will help your profile jump off the page and will help inform your audience what your specific area of expertise is.

Here are some things to think about when writing your summary:

Does your summary communicate to clients that you could be the solution to the problem they’re facing?
Does your summary provide credibility about your abilities?
What differentiates you from other recruiters?

When structuring your summary, try to be concise and only spend 1-2 sentences on each point. You want to convey your story and what makes you unique, but at the same time you don’t want to write a memoir. Try to summarize what you do, your accomplishments, your values and passions, and the differentiators that make you great.

What led you here? (Personable) (Experience)

What you do
Accomplishments
Values / Passions
Differentiators

4. Profile Photo

Your profile photo should be professional and show off your personality. Getting professional headshots is always worth it, but if you can’t make the time, then here are some tips to try at home.

5. Design a Customized LinkedIn Cover Photo

Your cover photo should be unique to your brand. People who view your profile are there to check out you and your firm. The recommended size for your cover photo is 1584px by 396px, if you find that your cover photo is blurry when you upload it, try to make it the maximum size.

Looking for some inspiration, here’s an example of an excellent cover photo:

6. Customize Your URL

Customize your LinkedIn URL to make it easy for people to find you. Find your unique URL in the light-grey box below your name. Click the edit button and revise. For example, an ideal LinkedIn custom URL would be www.linkedin.com/in/yourname

7. Align Your Industry and Location to Your Target Candidates

Be sure you set your location and your industry so that your profile will show up in searches in your area and field of expertise. Include your location and industry in your bio naturally so that anyone who reads your bio can get a sense of your focus and where you offer your services.

8. Include Your Previous Experience

Your previous positions tell your audience that you have experience and that you can deliver on your promises. It tells a story of who you were and who you’ve become. Be sure there aren’t too many major gaps in your history and that it tells a consistent story. These descriptions should be high-level, more than 2,000 characters, and not read like a CV. You should include your accomplishments in this section.

9. Add Your Current Position

If you haven’t already, be sure to end your previous job and add your current firm. If you don’t want to broadcast to everyone that you’ve just started a new position right now, be sure to go into your settings and change your “Account & Settings” options. Select “Privacy & Settings”. You will now see a further set of privacy options to check. The important one is to “Turn Off Your Activity Broadcasts.”

Your position title should be no more than 100 characters. Once you’ve filled in your current position, update it with current responsibilities, and be sure to think about how those responsibilities help your clients and candidates. Once you’ve finished adding in your responsibilities, add in a description about your firm and how you play a role within the firm.

Here’s an example of how you articulate your current position:

10. Update Your Skills & Endorsements

Professional skills tell a lot about a person, they describe what a person’s unique value is to any employer or candidate. Add skills that define your professional role, experiences, and contributions. Make sure that your skills are up-to-date and relevant to your job roles.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Watch Parqa’s Free 30-Minute Webinar: Growing Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn For Recruiters. LinkedIn is the go-to social network for recruiters, it’s never been more important to make sure your personal brand stands out online. Learn how to grow your business, and gain traction on LinkedIn, in this 30-Minute How-To Guide for Recruiters.

Why It’s Vital to Keep Your Recruiting Company’s LinkedIn Page Up-To-Date

July 26, 2018

As a recruiting or staffing firm owner, you wear more hats than most. You’re making sure your team is bringing in new searches, staying in touch with quality candidates, filling searches, and nurturing your clients to ensure you have repeat and referral business. This alone is more than enough to keep someone busy. Whether you’re working in the business or on the business, there’s more to it than the fulfillment side of things. There is also the branding side of things.

What is your online presence saying about you?

You and your recruiters are the face to your business. If your company’s culture and your clients’ experience is important to you – and I’m sure it is – then you care deeply about the experience your clients and candidates are receiving when they work with you. If you’ve grown your recruiting agency from the ground up, you better believe the people you hire will need to reflect the work ethic and follow-through you’ve come to be known for.

What If Just One Bad Recruiter Ruined Your Chances for The Search?

Imagine this hypothetical scenario. One of your recruiters was introduced to a potential client lead by someone in their network. They showed up for coffee and were not prepared. No business cards. Not equipped to talk about what services you offer, what niche/market you focus on, and what differentiates you from your competition. It’s not likely they’d make a great impression, and even less likely they’d get a search out of the deal. If they persisted in this mindset…would you keep them? No way.

Well, your online presence is one of your more crucial salespeople. They never sleep, they never go home, and they are always under scrutiny. If you reach out to a potential client and leave them a message or send them an email, what is the first thing they do? They Google you. They want to know if you have credibility, do you know anyone they know, and are you offering something worth their time.

If they search for you on LinkedIn, I hope they see your relevant background, your summary with information relevant to what you are selling them, and possibly even mutual connections. Most recruiting firm owners are on top of their LinkedIn profile. New award? Posted. New search? Posted. Updated services? Posted. But what about your company’s LinkedIn page?

That little thing that you made when you first started the company and updated a few times, and then got busy and you had to prioritize filling a search, hiring another recruiter, or…posting to LinkedIn. We all know what falls to the bottom of the priority list.

How to Make Sure Your Company’s LinkedIn Presence HELPS You

While it’s not the closest item on that list to making you money…it may be closer than you think. Remember that recruiter we referenced above? Think about your company LinkedIn profile as that individual.

Do they dress well? (Do you have a cover photo?)
Do they know the services you offer by market and/or niche? (Does your summary have outdated information or talk so generally in industry jargon that it’s impossible to tell what you DO in the industry… staffing/consulting/search/recruiting/perm/direct hire focus, market where you place talent, industries or roles you specialize in, etc.?)
Do they know if you’ve won awards, if you’re a part of any industry associations, or if you have made specific placements in the areas you “specialize in”? (Are you posting on your LinkedIn about newsworthy information? Do you have a bulleted list of roles you’ve filled…or even more ideal, do you have descriptions like the following: CFO at a $750M manufacturing company.)
Can they hold their own in a conversation with your potential client in the area the client specializes? (Are you writing blogs and posting industry articles about information relevant to your clients’ pain points?)

If you read the whole list above and can say YES to all of them. Then you are in the top 20% of recruiting companies we talk to. You either have hired a marketer to make sure your online presence on LinkedIn is polished, up-to-date, and active – or you have spent HOURS over the years doing it yourself. If you hired a marketer – good job. If even one search came in because the person you reached out to looked up your company on LinkedIn, and it gave them the validation they needed to call you back, then your investment has paid off.

How to Get Back to Selling and Away from Worrying About Your Company’s LinkedIn Presence

If YOU are doing it yourself and it’s working for you, you are a true rock star and should get an award. If you are doing it yourself and wishing you were spending that time building relationships, closing business, and growing your team – we can help.

Parqa was created within a leading executive search and consulting firm (privately owned, 35-person team, 10 practice areas, one of the largest in the Midwest, rapidly growing…now at $16M), so we understand the recruiting business and have been testing recruiting industry marketing best practices for years. We’re a niche digital marketing agency focusing specifically on the recruiting industry.

We can help bring your company’s LinkedIn profile up to speed, help write thought leadership blogs, and manage posting to your company’s social media so you can get back to closing business and growing your team.

Need help getting your online profile worthy of the brand you’ve developed? Let’s have a conversation. It’s never too late to provide your best online sales tool with a little professional development.

5 Steps To Creating a Better Workplace Culture

March 29, 2018

You hear it all the time from people who have recently left a job: “I liked the work I did, but I didn’t love the culture.” Or someone who’s envious of a company’s image will say: “how do I work for a company with a culture like that?” To each person, “a culture like that”—one they view as ideal—is going to be a little different. So how can you create a one-size-fits-all workplace culture that will satisfy the most employees and keep them happy, healthy, and productive? Here are five simple steps to improve the overall culture and energy of your workplace.

1. Having an environment people want to work in

Working from home is all the buzz right now. While it’s true that employees should be trusted to work from home, companies should strive to create an environment people want to physically work in every day. While a brand-new work-space isn’t always feasible for companies, continually updating your work-space is important. By investing in new carpet, a fresh set of paint, or maybe even new desks, employees will feel revitalized in their work-space. Your employees are spending a third of their day in the office, so make it an area they want to be in. For our part, Parqa just moved into a new office space with stand-up desks, walking treadmills, and a wellness room—all amenities that keep us refreshed so we can bring better ideas and better attitudes to the table.

2. Invest in your employees’ health

Speaking of healthy employees, a healthy employee is a happy, more productive employee! And it doesn’t need to be costly to show your employees you value their wellness. You can offer gym membership reimbursements (that often align with your employees’ health insurance), provide healthy options when ordering food for meetings, and offer sit/stand desks to show your team you’re invested in their health. Our personal favorite health benefit at Parqa: Fitbit Challenges. All employees were given Fitbits, and challenges are held every month. This not only encourages employees to get their steps in and stay fit, but also builds a comradery amongst team members who may not always cross paths on a normal day. There’s nothing quite like bragging rights when you’re the winner in the office.

3. Growing the family

When employees spend 40+ hours away from home and their loved ones, families should be made to feel as if they’re apart of the work family too. This could be as simple as inviting them to holiday parties, including them in company picnics or summer barbecues, or just encouraging they stop by the office for lunches or happy hours. To create a culture people want to work in, it should feel like an extension of your personal life. This will encourage people to be in the office more often, and not make them want to ‘run as soon as 5 pm hits.’

4. Fun, fun, fun

Every month there should be a time when people are encouraged to leave their desks for a few hours during the workday and just enjoy the company of coworkers. This can be anything from a March Madness party to an offsite fundraiser that benefits a local charity. We have a “fun committee” with our sister company, Versique, that plans plenty of fun new events for our teams to look forward to. Your company isn’t going to go under just because people spend 3 less hours on work that week; trust that your employees want to get their work done and treat them to a celebration every now and then! They’ll be more relaxed, feel appreciated, and more motivated to get things done.

5. Live and breathe your brand

No matter how many of these things you try to add to your workspace, employees won’t embrace the culture until you and the rest of the executive team do. This starts from the top down. An encouraging attitude about your work is contagious; but one bad apple can spoil the fun. Be mindful of the energy you bring to every meeting, conference, and interaction you have: you spend so much time at work that if you’re not living and breathing the positive values you want your business to embody, what’s the point?

In conclusion, setting a fun and positive workplace culture can mean the difference between happy, productive employees and pent-up resentment and conflict. We all thrive and do better when we feel valued, balanced, healthy, and inspired.

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