Personal Branding
Personal branding is the practice of marketing yourself in a professional manner. It includes the overall combination of skills, strengths, experience, knowledge and personality that is conveyed about your professional self.
Overview
Personal Branding Examples
- Application materials
- Professional attire
- Digital portfolios and work samples
- Written and verbal communication
- Business cards
- Social media platforms, including Facebook and LinkedIn
LinkedIn for Personal Branding
LinkedIn is the premiere social networking platform that enables users to showcase essential information about their professional self. Building a complete profile will assist your intended audience learn more about your work experiences, transferable skills and interests.
View the profile essentials section of this guide to learn about the content sections included in a LinkedIn profile.
Profile Essentials
Your LinkedIn profile is an overall summary of your employment history, education, interest areas, skills and endorsements, volunteer activity, honors and recognitions, and more.
Intro: the profile introduction includes your name, a headline, geographic location, and your current employer (if you're currently working).
View the profile intro example and descriptions below the image.
- Profile Photo and Banner Image: include a photo that represents your best professional self. You may also upload a banner image to display on your public profile.
- Headline: when potential networking connections discover your profile, your headline will be one of the first pieces of information they learn about you. This information can be customized, depending on what your current role or goal is.
- Education: optionally include your education information in your profile intro.
- Industry: select the industry in which you're most interested in at this time. You can adjust this information as your industry interests change.
About: the about section of your profile is an overall summary of your professional self. It can be written in first-person (unlike your resume) and should communicate career aspirations and academic interests. This information will set the tone for the content you include in the sections that follow.
Featured: you can add your best posts, documents media attachments and websites in this section of your profile. This may be an article you publish, share or comment on, or a new company that you follow.
Background: the background section of your LinkedIn profile includes your work experience, education, licenses and certifications, and volunteer experience.
Skills: the technical and soft skills/competencies you have developed can be added to this section of your profile. As new skills are developed and mastered, users can add-to this section, as well as assess mastery through LinkedIn skills tests. Connections can endorse skills that you have included in this section of your profile.
Accomplishments: include any honors, awards and publications in this section. A good practice to follow is to include a written summary of the recognition so your audience understands its significance.
Recommendations: professional contacts who are familiar with your work can provide a written recommendation for inclusion in this section of your profile. You have the opportunity to approve the recommendation before it is added to your profile.
The Career Planning & Development Center (CPDC) assists individuals with exploring and defining their personal career goals while developing the skills and confidence necessary to succeed.
Explore additional resources, tools and services on the CPDC's website, Connections page, and Linktree. Follow us on Instagram to learn more about our events as well.