Personal Branding For Recruiters: How to Grow on LinkedIn

Hey folks! This week, we’re diving into personal branding with Anna Bertoldini, Senior Social Media Brand Manager at NielsenIQ. 

While Anna’s corporate responsibility is to amplify NielsenIQ’s brand across the world, she’s also managed to grow a personal community of over 30,000 LinkedIn followers and spends her evenings helping other professionals find their voice as an award-winning Personal Branding Coach. 

In this episode, Anna shared a huge number of actionable tips that’ll help you build a powerful and unique personal brand. If you’d like to hear the full interview, you can catch it on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

Let’s get into the key takeaways!

1. Why you should care about building a personal brand

Building a reputable personal brand will help you grow your career in multiple ways. 

Sharing your knowledge online helps you:

Gain visibility

There are over 1 billion LinkedIn members, yet only ~7% posted at least once in the last 3 months. So, if you post once or twice a week, you’re bound to gain more visibility than people who scroll LinkedIn without posting, commenting, or engaging.

Position yourself as an industry expert

By writing posts about relevant topics within your niche, you can build authority with your audience and position yourself as a reputable source of information. If someone in your network has a question or a job opportunity, who are they more likely to message - someone who posts about the topic every day or someone whose expertise is hidden behind closed doors?

Learn from others as you expand your network

Building a personal brand will naturally help you grow an audience of followers and connections. These people don’t just have to be faces on a screen; you could message them, understand why they’re interested in your posts, and learn more about their areas of expertise.

Overcome imposter syndrome

If you post regularly on LinkedIn and receive positive feedback, it’ll boost your confidence and help you feel more secure in your role. Maybe it’ll give you the push you need to ask for the promotion you deserve!

When people recognise your name and expertise, doors open - not just within your company but outside it, too.

2. Align your content with your company’s policies

If you’re worried about how your company might react to you posting content on LinkedIn, make sure you understand your company’s social media policy before you get started. 

Familiarise yourself with the guidelines, and make sure every piece of content aligns with their values. 

Once you’re confident about what you can post, focus on adding value, not self-promotion. If your content is genuinely helpful to your audience, it’ll be easy for your managers to view it as a positive reflection of their brand as well.

3. Experiment until you find your niche and voice

Finding your voice and your niche might take a bit of trial and error, and that’s okay. 

Anna recommends starting by experimenting with different content formats and topics. Maybe you could share:

> Career lessons
> Industry insights
> Personal anecdotes

Usually, a mix of content types works well so that people can get to know your expertise and your personality. 

Take note of what works and what doesn’t by seeing how your network responds to each post. Also, make a mental note of which types of content you enjoy writing and posting!

Always remember to be authentic. Don’t try to copy another creator’s style; just be yourself.

Once you find your voice, consistency is crucial. Keep posting regularly and engaging with your audience to build some momentum.

4. Build trust through engagement and storytelling

Engaging with the people in your community is just as important as posting your own content. Commenting on other people’s posts is a great way to build authority and maintain your position as a trusted voice.

Anna also highlights the incredible value of storytelling. By talking about yourself and the challenges you’ve overcome, you can create content that’s relatable and helps people connect with you on a deeper level.

Give this storytelling structure a try:

> Start with an intriguing hook
> Set the scene using vivid descriptions
> Find the turning point or light-bulb moment
> Tie your story to a takeaway that adds value to your audience

5. Consistency is the key to long-term success

As a Personal Branding Coach, one of the biggest mistakes Anna sees is people starting strong and then losing motivation. 

It can be demotivating to post great content that only gets a handful of likes, but consistency is what leads to success. Instead of aiming to see results overnight, think about the bigger picture.

Try not to let early setbacks discourage you. With time, effort, and creativity, the results will follow.

Whether you’re brand new to posting on LinkedIn or are looking to increase the tempo or refine your strategy, remember to stay authentic, add value, and be consistent. 

Chatting with Anna has inspired me to sit down and write some of my own posts later on, and I hope it’s helped you feel inspired, too. Remember, your personal brand is an incredibly valuable career asset - it’s definitely worth the investment! 

Lastly, we need your feedback! Hit ‘reply’ and tell us what you’d like in future Recruiting Wisdom issues and we will go build it.

See you in the next one!