MBA LinkedIn Intensive Workbook

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3 Context Building Your Personal Brand 3

4 Uncovering Goals - Front Page News Document your goals for your next role in terms of a headline. For example: James Smith promoted to VP Customer Service or Technology Visionary, Ellen Cortes, Recruited to Head Product Development Team of 150 people. 4

5 Understanding Your Values In this exercise, you will identify your top five values. Here are some values to consider, but don t limit yourself to just this list. As you go through the list, eliminate those values that don t really resonate with you. Then from the remaining values select the five that are the most important to you. 5

6 Unearthing Your Passions In the space below, document your responses to these three passions-related questions: 1. Think about a time when you were so engaged in doing something you completely lost track of time. What were you doing? 2. At a dinner or cocktail party, what s your favorite topic to discuss with other guests? 3. If you had unlimited wealth, what would you do with your time? 6

7 After you receive your 360Reach results, distill what you learn into the categories below: My greatest strengths: My personality characteristics: My differentiation (things that are unique to you): Defining Your Target Audience Personal branding is not about being famous. It s about being selectively famous. That means, focus on those decision-makes and influencers who can help you reach you goals. Use the space below to identify the people in your target audience. You may know them by name or by job title. Decision-makers (the people who can directly impact your goals hiring managers, senior leaders, etc.): Influencers (those who influence decision-makers or make you visible to them recruiters, thought-leaders, colleagues in related fields, alumni from your school, etc.): 7

8 Understanding Your Differentiation Think about your competitors or peers actual and potential. Can you identify them by name? What do they all have in common? What makes you different? To know what makes you different, it is often valuable to identify what you have in common with your peers (or those who seek to achieve the same goals as you). In the table below, list the items that you share with your peers in the left column and those that are unique to you in the right. SAME DIFFERENT 8

9 Knowing Your Value-add Go back through your 360Reach report and look for your value-add what you offer beyond doing the job. This might be how you do your job, something you deliver in addition to the work you do or your point-of-view. Distilling What You Learned Now, review what you have learned about yourself from all the exercises above and identify the most important characteristics that will help you tell your story on LinkedIn. Top Values Top Passions Key Strengths Differentiation

10 3. POV Personality Drafting Your Personal Brand Statement Your personal brand statement is a tool you can use to remain on-brand. It describes you, what you deliver and to whom. Once you complete your LinkedIn profile, you can test it against your brand statement to see if it is a reflection of the true you. Here are a couple of formulas you can use, but don't feel you have to use one to describe you. I use my to for I support/help/empower/activate by Leveraging my and, I deliver to Example: Combining my passion for world travel and the luxury industry with my expertise in branding and customer service, I inspire hotel executives and staff to deliver branded, consistent, memorable experiences for guests. Draft your statement below: 10

11 Building Your 3D Brand Bio Before you start: Set the scene a) Know your motivation. What are your goals? b) Know your target audience. Who is your reader? c) Know your message. What are the three things you want readers to take away? What s your POV? d) Did you decide to write in the first or third person? Step 1: Gather the content a) Start with the current version of your bio or LinkedIn summary (or draft one if you don t have one). b) Still referring to your current bio, use the color-coded buckets below to capture those elements of your bio you would like to retain in your new 3D brand bio. Don t worry too much about getting the content in the right buckets. Some content might fit in more than one. The goal here is to have a mix of content that will paint a 3D picture of you. c) Go through your responses to the personal branding exercises you completed in previous exercises (values, passions, strengths, personality characteristics from 360Reach, etc.). Identify the most important elements(those items that are authentic to you, differentiating from your peers and compelling to those who are making decisions about you) and enter them in the buckets below. d) Add any additional items that you believe are critical to expressing your brand to the target audience you identified. Valued Values/Potent Passions These are your operating principles and the things that energize you: Astonishing Accomplishments These are the things you have done, roles you have held, etc. (quantified where possible): Fascinating Facts 11

12 These are interesting things people may not know about you. Things like I speak three languages or I started a company selling pens when I was 7 : Quirky Characteristics/ Trademark Traits/POV These are items unique to you. Things like enjoy puzzles and challenges that frustrate others or start every meeting with a joke or believes that work must be fun for employees to excel at it. Credible Credentials This is external validation your degrees, awards, the fact that you were featured in publications, quotes from senior execs or thought-leaders, etc. Super Strengths These are the things you do better than anyone else - your superpowers! 12

13 Step 2: Create a draft a) Start with a bang. Draw your audience in. b) Add a mixture of facts, stats, credentials, etc. And make sure it has all the right keywords. c) Include approximately 20% personal information your values, passions, life goals, etc. d) Inject your personality/style into the way you write. How do you want it to feel? e) End with a way to reach you. Draft your summary here: 13

14 Step 3: Test it three ways, then refine it based on feedback a) Using your new bio and six highlighters (in colors corresponding to the buckets), highlight different elements of the text that correspond to the various content categories. If it starts to look like a rainbow, you re on the right track! If not, revise as necessary. b) Use the table below to give your summary a success score. 14

15 The Test Area Element SCORING Functional Right length Usable for the right purpose (readers) Has the right keywords Factual Authentic Accurate Credible Fabulous Interesting (attracts my attention) Magnetic (holds my attention) Makes me want to know more Differentiated Describes you and only you Showcases your personality Makes it clear what makes you unique SCORE (out of 60) Additional test: Try it out. Test it with a colleague or manager or professor, documenting their feedback so you can further revise it. 15

16 Building Your Brand Communications Plan LinkedIn is one of many communications tools you have to express your brand. It s important that all your communications activities work together to increase your visibility and credibility with your target audience. List the communications vehicles on the communications wheel above that are right for you (you enjoy doing them and you are good at them)and that will be effective for reaching your target audience. Then, document the overarching content theme (your point of view) that you will communicate through these vehicles. In the future, you can build your comprehensive annual communications plan (organized by month) to augment the work you are doing with your LinkedIn profile. Once you create it, ensure you implement it by scheduling daily activities in your to-do list. 16

17 Knowing Your Online Identity Your LinkedIn profile is only one part of your virtual brand. It s the most important part and it sits among other results when someone Googles you. It s important that you know what someone sees when they Google you and that you manage your online brand. Follow these three steps: 1. Google yourself (with your name in quotes john smith ). Note what shows up on page Use the Online ID Calculator to see how you show up in the five measures of online ID. 3. Document in your checklist the activities you will implement to improve your brand on the web in the measures where you need improvement. 17

18 Content Building a Stellar Profile 18

19 Crafting a Compelling Headline Refer to the Headline video for ideas on what makes a compelling headline and craft yours below: Building a Stellar LinkedIn Profile Go back to the 3D Brand Bio you created and revise it for your LinkedIn summary. The total character count for your summary is 2,000 characters (including spaces). Leave enough room to add the following items: Specialties: [List the keywords that are critical to your being found below] AKA/Common Misspellings: [Include all the different ways you use your name and the different ways people may spell it] Use the space below to turn your 3D Brand Bio into your LinkedIn summary: 19

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21 Determining Your Top Ten Skills It s important to have your top ten endorsements feature the skills that are most important to your goals and that they show up in the proper order. To do this, think about the skills that are absolutely essential to your next role. Then, go into your profile, click edit profile then click on the edit symbol. Type in your keywords and add them to your profile. Also, remove skills that are irrelevant to your future role. You do this by clicking the x to the right of the skill. 21

22 Contacts Developing Your Strategy for Connections and Groups 22

23 Refining Your Target Audience Go back to the target audience exercise you completed as you were getting clear on your brand. In the space below,list the people you know to whom you will send a LinkedIn request. Add all your addresses to your LinkedIn account. This will help accelerate the process of adding connections. Developing Your Strategy for Groups For all the categories below, search to find the appropriate groups. To do this, just type the keywords in the search box at the top of your profile. When the results are displayed, select groups from the options on the left. Then, look for very active or active groups and those with the largest number of members. This is identified at the bottom of the group description. Identify your ideal groups in the categories below. And remember, you can belong to 50 groups. Alumni Expertise Local Philanthropic/Social 23

24 Interest (passions, hobbies, etc.) Other Focusing on Your Fellow Alums Join your alumni group. Just type the name of your school(s) into the search box and then click groups on the left. Then follow these steps: - Join the groups for alumni of your school and previous schools - After you are accepted as a member, introduce yourself to the group letting them know who you are and why you are excited about being a part of the group. - Look through the discussions to find topics that are relevant to your goals. Then, comment, like, etc. - Post your own discussion or link to relevant content (share) to start to build a community with relevant contacts. Use the alumni tool. This extremely valuable tool gives you information demographic data about your fellow alumni(where they live, where they work, etc.) It also tells you what skills you share with them, what they studied, etc.). Thealumni tool pre-fills the years you attended a school listed on your LinkedIn profile and shows you classmates who were there when you were. Connect. After you have found alums with whom you would like to connect, learn more about them. Google them and research them so you can make your connection request count. Once you find something you have in common or something interesting to discuss, reach out with a customized, personal connection request. 24

25 Career Using LinkedIn for Ongoing Career Management 25

26 Building Your 9-Minutes a Day Plan Identify activities you will implement daily to build your brand and expand your LinkedIn network. Here are some ideas: - Update your LinkedIn status - Reach out to former team members, colleagues or clients - Join a group on LinkedIn and introduce yourself - Identify one new person in your professional LinkedIn groups and reach out to him or her. - Research LinkedIn groups - Read content from a company or thought-leader you follow - Start a LinkedIn group - Reach out to a fellow alum - Send a birthday, thank you or congratulations message to a LinkedIn contact - See who has viewed your profile - Write a recommendation - Request a recommendation - Comment on/share an update - Using a week s worth of 9-minute activities, create and integrate a video into your profile o Day 1: Write a draft of what you want to say o Day 2: Get feedback, refine and finalize it o Day 3: Rehearse o Day 4: Record your three-minute video o Day 5: upload it to YouTube and embed it in LinkedIn How do you make it happen? Us the ideas below to get get the most from your 9-minute actions. 1. Make it a Habit Set a specific time of the day Use calendar invites and set iphone reminders/ use your do-list 2. Focus Close your door or lock yourself in a quiet area. Set your ipad alarm or computer alarm for 9 minutes 3. Eliminate Distractions Silence your phone Turn off instant messaging and chimes 4. Take It Outside of Work Charity work/giving back/community involvement in Professional associations 5. Don t Compete with Other Work While you re drinking that morning tea or coffee or your lunch break While commuting 6. Set Priorities 26

27 Make a complete list of activities Assign each a priority and focus on the high priority actions 7. Involve others Find a 9-minute buddy to work with Challenge your team to adopt the 9-minutes-a-day mindset 8. Link it to Work Put personal brand-building in your team s performance objectives Identify activities that build your brand and PwC s brand 9. Make it Public Blog, Tweet and update your LinkedIn status with the actions you take Tell your coach, mentor, colleagues what you re doing 27