Personal Branding Mistake #91: IT'S NOT ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW, BUT WHO THEY KNOW

Second and third degree connections are critical to advancing your career and spreading your personal brand message. Connect, communicate and collaborate.

First degree connections on LinkedIn are not the only ones that matter, in fact, second and third degree connections can be huge additions to your audience. 21.1% of LinkedIn users have between 500-999 first degree connections, so imagine how many second and third degree connections you can add to your network! Your second and third degree connections know people you don’t and are a great way to form new relationships. Find them and reach out.

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Personal Branding Mistake #92: NOT PATTERN SAVVY!

Look at some successful branded individuals you admire. Notice any patterns? What are their most endorsed skills or most frequently used keywords? Do they match how you’re branding yourself for the same industry?

One of the best ways to build a powerful brand is to learn from others. Visit the social media sites of professionals you admire. Learn from their best practices. There are many patterns and practices that lead to effective personal branding on social media. For example, try to stay clear of these overused words when creating content. The 10 most overused words on LinkedIn are:1. Motivated, 2. Passionate, 3. Creative, 4. Driven, 5. Extensive experience, 6. Responsible, 7.Strategic, 8. Track record, 9. Organizational, and 10. Expert. Avoid these words and come up with alternatives to engage your audience. The top 50 status updates on social media in March 2015 averaged 120 characters. Be on top of trends like these and adopt best practices to improve your online branding.

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Personal Branding Mistake #93: OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE?

Who cares! Don’t hold back on connecting with higher ups. You can always find some point of commonality to connect on LinkedIn. These connections are instrumental for success and provide excellent branding exposure.

1 in 3 professionals worldwide use LinkedIn. Professionals in high positions are on social media platforms for a reason. Introduce yourself, reach out and build a great network of valuable connections. LinkedIn is the top social media platform for senior professionals with a vast array of knowledge, advice, connections and experience to share. CEO’s have an average number of 930 connections on LinkedIn. Don’t be afraid to try and connect. What’s the worst that can happen?

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Personal Branding Mistake #94: IT'S IN THE DETAILS

Literally. Look at the Additional Information section on the profile of someone you’d like to connect with. Maybe there’s a common interest that starts the conversation! 

Finding a way to initiate conversation with a new connection can be tricky. Often, many professionals include little details about themselves in the Additional Information section on LinkedIn. Use this information to find common interests and start up a conversation. 48.7% of LinkedIn users believe that the direct messaging feature is the most important method to start that conversation. Try to find common ground and use it to send a personalized direct message. Capitalize on the information connections provide and successfully reach out!

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Personal Branding Mistake #95: NOT SPEEDY ENOUGH!

Studies show that the average LinkedIn user visits your site for less than 20 minutes a month – that’s less than a few minutes per visit! This means you need to make a quick impression and you need to be search friendly. Is your profile and personal brand ready?

Your social media platforms should be optimized for quick viewing. To make sure your viewers spend enough time on your profile create and share extremely concise posts. Shorter updates attract much more engagement on all social networks vs. longer ones. Facebook posts with less than 40 characters receive 80% more engagement and Tweets shorter than 100 characters attract 17% more engagement. And don’t forget the power of visuals. Visual information is processed 6,000 times faster than text so include visuals early and often to make a lasting impression.

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Personal Branding Mistake #96: NOT MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS A PRIORITY

Endorsements are great, but any friend or peer can quickly click a button to endorse you. Recommendations however, require thought and time, and create credibility. Do you have good recommendations for your personal brand? 

Endorsements are important because they help LinkedIn members build their professional profiles and make them 4X more likely to be viewed. However, recommendations are an even more powerful why to build brand value. LinkedIn makes the recommendation process simple: Ask your connection to search for your name on LinkedIn. When your profile appears, tell them to click the “message” tab near the top of your profile. In the drop down menu, they should choose “recommend” and from there they can write a recommendation. Don’t be shy. Ask for recommendations to strengthen your profile.

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Personal Branding Mistake #97: PERSONAL BRANDERS BEWARE!

Don’t forget who you're talking to in your outreach. What you find funny may be obnoxious or offensive to someone else. Keep your personal brand PG and friendly.

While you may maintain a network of like-minded individuals, not everyone thinks the same way as you do so keep it clean. 93% of recruiters using LinkedIn say candidate interactions and posts must be appropriate and applicable. Stay away from controversial topics such as politics and religion. If you question whether a certain visual or article could be interpreted as offensive, don’t post it. Eliminate all risk damaging your brand’s value and play it safe.

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Personal Branding Mistake #98: YOU FORGOT TO PROOFREAD

Be sure to read… and re-read and re-read every post you publish. Small errors can make a big impact! 

Your brand value declines if there are spelling or grammatical errors anywhere on your platforms. Who wants to talk to a sloppy professional when there are lots of other choices? 54% of employers react very negatively to spelling/grammatical errors online. It could cost you a job. Proof your content not once, not twice but at least three times. Have someone else proof it too. Proofreading is essential so don’t forget to do it!

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Personal Branding Mistake #99: THINK BEFORE YOU POST

On LinkedIn and highly public pages like Twitter be wary of what you post. Posting regret can be a burden to your personal brand. Don’t fall victim to poster’s remorse! 

Content shared on the Internet will forever be stored so don’t post anything that has the potential to devalue your brand. Post thoughtful, well-written and grammatically correct content. Don’t forget the importance of posting visuals and videos as image-based content attracts 39% more user engagement. Elevate your brand by using extreme discretion when posting and sharing content.

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Personal Branding Mistake #100: NOT LEARNING FROM YOUR MISTAKES!

Everyone makes them, but the key is acknowledging them and fixing them. Learn from your mistakes – and our mistake posts! Thanks for helping us reach 100.

Personal branding matters on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and in all aspects of your professional life. Watermelon Social finds your brand promise to help you build new relationships and new opportunities on the web, and beyond. Talk to us and we’ll talk to you about your brand – and how we can help you tell your story.

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