It’s no longer enough to have a great product. Today, people are only going to buy from you if they feel like you care about them. If they feel like you’re likable, personable, and easy to talk to. In other words, social selling and building a recognisable personal brand is the name of the game.
But how do you go about building a personal brand for yourself? How do you establish a reputation as a social seller without coming across as fake or plastic? It takes a lot of work, to be sure.
Thankfully, we had Daniel Disney, Founder & Owner of The Daily Sales, on the show to talk to us all about social selling.
We covered the biggest mistakes people make around social selling, best practices on how to get the most out of social selling, the most underutilized tool on LinkedIn for social selling, tips for building a persona on LinkedIn, and more advice to help you understand how to build a personal brand.
Use the Tools You Already Have
A personal brand doesn’t have to be complicated or confusing. You don’t need a suite of fancy tools and systems and software. You just need one platform that you’re probably already using regularly anyway.
LinkedIn.
While most of us regularly log into LinkedIn (and if you don’t, that’s a whole separate conversation and podcast) few of us probably use it to its full potential. Few squeeze every drop of value out of the tool like they should.
So if you’re sitting there asking yourself, “How do I even go about using LinkedIn?” you’ve come to the right place. First, there are three things that you should immediately focus on getting nailed down before you even start thinking about posting.
1. Your LinkedIn Banner
This is the big image that sits behind your profile picture. A lot of people just have a plain image, or something generic and bland. That image is your mini billboard. It tells everybody that comes to your page, before they ever read a word, who you are and what you’re about.
2. Your “About Me” Section
LinkedIn gives you a lot of space to brag about yourself. To highlight your skills and what you do. So why does it seem like most people only use a sentence or two?
The reality is that in sales, your customers and prospects want to know what you can do for them.
Daniel Disney – Founder & Owner of The Daily Sales
If they’re giving you the space to talk about who you help, what you can help achieve, what problems you solve, and what companies you’ve worked with, why wouldn’t you be using it?
3. Your Profile Photo
While it’s important to have fun, your LinkedIn profile photo isn’t the place for your candid vacation photo. It should be professional, clean, and crisp.
A good photo, good background image, and a good summary will completely transform your profile. Now that you know how to fine tune your profile, the question has to be asked, “How do I go about posting so that people actually look at my page so that I can build that personal brand?”
How to Build a Personal Brand
Now that you have a handle on how to set your page up to maximize your brand, it’s time to start actually attracting people to your profile.
The mistake that most people make is taking on too much too quickly.
You don’t have to burst from the starting blocks at a full sprint. That’s a quick way to pull a muscle, so to speak. You’ll get exhausted and overwhelmed quickly.
Instead, start small.
Success on LinkedIn is about showing up consistently. When you do show up, don’t stand in the corner being quiet, but talk, share content, and engage with others.
Daniel Disney – Founder & Owner of The Daily Sales
Start with once or twice a week. You don’t have to have anything earth shattering to say. In fact, you don’t even have to post on your own profile to start. Begin showing up and commenting. Don’t be the person that stands in the corner observing. Get your name out there by simply commenting on the posts of the people who are posting the content that interests you.
So that the people that log on weekly will see your name popping up. And the more that they see your name, the more that are going to associate you with someone who provides value.
Your content doesn’t have to be overly sales-y. It just needs to be authentic, compassionate, and human. That’s going to create the building blocks of a personal brand.
Once you’ve got a handle on that, then you can begin posting unique content and attracting the kind of people you want to attract.
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe to The B2B Revenue Acceleration Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.
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