Tag Archives: LinkedIn

Takeaways from the College Admissions Process: It’s All about Building Your Brand 

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It’s finally fall, and for over 8.5 million prospective college students across the country, application deadlines are looming.  

Long gone are the days when you simply needed decent grades to get into a good college. With the number of applicants to four-year colleges steadily on the rise, the process has only become more competitive and upped the pressure to stand out.  

Grades–while still important–can only take a candidate so far today as most undergraduate programs are placing a greater emphasis on finding well-rounded individuals, who can best market themselves through a series of essays and possibly an interview. For most high school students, this submission process is the culmination of a multiyear effort of building their resumes with extracurricular activities like clubs, sports and volunteering over the course of their high school, and sometimes even middle school, careers.  

While most readers here are likely past the days of completing their own undergraduate applications, one aspect of the process should resonate. Successfully applying to college relies heavily on how a student markets themselves—the same holds true for the future success of our own professional careers.  

Just as prospective college students can market themselves in a well-crafted application chocked full of thoughtful essays, a stellar GPA, strong SAT score and robust list of extra-curriculars activities, so too can industry leaders through thought leadership, LinkedIn engagement and speaking opportunities.  

Consider some of the following to build your own brand: 

  • Become a thought leader: Thought leadership helps to build credibility and name recognition. In our digital world, which relies on quick moments to foster connection with audiences, thought leadership can establish professionals as voices worth listening to and lay the groundwork for long-term success for both leaders and their organizations. Great places to bring this thinking to the world include LinkedIn articles and posts, company blogs and contributed articles published in industry trades. If you don’t know where or how to begin, partner with a good content writer or PR agency staffed by former journalists to help you get started.  
  • Get active on LinkedIn: Just as College students are building their own brand for the eyes of admissions leaders through applications and essays, industry professionals can take steps to cultivate a professional brand on LinkedIn. In the business world, LinkedIn is a valuable tool for posting original thought leadership as well as for sharing comments and feedback on the content of others. Find a posting cadence that fits your schedule and make sure to engage on other posts through likes, comments and reposts. Consider developing a LinkedIn newsletter to publish thought leadership and build a trusted audience among your professional network.  
  • Get out there: Just as colleges want to see students engaged in the world, so to do employers. Getting involved should be part of building your professional brand as an industry leader. Consider attending more events to stay in-the-know on the latest industry news and for more effective networking. Seek out and, when possible, take advantage of speaking opportunities where you can draw attention to your expertise. Doing so will help you stand out in a crowded industry landscape, helping to shape both the perception and eventual reality of your role as a thought leader in your space. 

Getting into college is really all about building your own brand. For individuals struggling to establish a strong connection with prospects, clients, peers or employers, a strong brand identity can help cut through the noise and set them apart. Establishing and maintaining a strong professional brand with thought leadership, a consistent LinkedIn strategy and active speaking schedule can pave the way for long-term success.  

The Rise of the LinkedIn Newsletter: Are Blogs Old News?

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Since the early days of digital marketing, company blogs have been trusted tools for brands to share their expertise and connect with audiences, while maintaining control of the narrative. Blogs were a breakthrough in the late 90s and early 2000s, allowing brands to speak directly to engaged audiences. But as social media began to change how people discovered and consumed content, many company website blogs became an echo chamber of regularly published content, with little engagement or interaction.  

Enter LinkedIn Newsletters. The feature offers brands a direct line to their professional networks and a notification-system, as well as analytics to direct content refining efforts. Brands that are truly taking advantage of LinkedIn Newsletters will see the pivotal role they can play in strengthening their brand voice and credibility, while expanding their digital footprints. And while LinkedIn Newsletters are not a fool-proof replacement for traditional website blogs, they could be a great addition to a brand’s digital marketing strategy.  

What’s the hype?  

A well-maintained company blog still holds value, especially when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO). In reality, it’s a different type of content from a LinkedIn Newsletter. Blogs are owned content, whereas a newsletter published on LinkedIn is shared content. While there is some overlap between the two, a brand has less control over how shared content is distributed through LinkedIn’s algorithm beyond the newsletter’s subscribers. With both however, brands control the message they are putting out into the world.   

With a LinkedIn Newsletter, subscribers get a notification when a new edition is published, both in-app and via email if they opt-in to that feature. Because subscribers have to actively opt in, they are more likely to read and interact with the content, much like a traditional blog. Brands will also be prompted to create a LinkedIn post with each new edition, expanding the potential reach of the newsletter beyond subscribers. While similar to LinkedIn’s article feature, newsletters allow brands to cultivate a community of subscribers who will interact with others and share the brands insights.  

Lead with Value  

Before marketing and communications teams rush to transfer their existing, evergreen blog content to LinkedIn, remember that content fatigue can be a considerable deterrent. Audiences want a comfortable cadence of content that delivers clear, useful insights. A LinkedIn Newsletter needs to read less like a company update and more like a resource. That means understanding your audience’s needs, speaking to them directly and offering perspective over promotion. But most importantly, the writing needs to read like it came from the mind of a human:  

  • Repurpose with caution: It is not necessarily beneficial to share all the content a company has posted on their website blog on a LinkedIn Newsletter. A press release announcing a new report, for example, may not offer a brand’s LinkedIn audience much value. But an article about an aspect of the report and expanding on a few key points could be valuable.  
  • Perspective over promotion: LinkedIn newsletters are not the place to be promotional and sell products. While a sales-focused call to action can be an aspect of a LinkedIn article, the key focus should be providing expertise and tangible insight. Brands that stay up to date on what matters to their audiences and challenges they are facing will have a better chance of attracting regular readers.  
  • AI is not a writer: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Microsoft Co-Pilot or OpenAI’s Chat GPT can help with brainstorming and organizing a writer’s thoughts, but an effective newsletter still requires a content writer who understands the brand’s goals, their audience and the nuances of the subject matter. An effective writer will offer a final product that personifies a brand and showcases it as a resource an audience can trust. AI written content should always be fact-checked and writers should ensure any use of AI does not supersede proper editing and review processes to ensure human tone and accuracy.

Don’t Forget the Metrics  

LinkedIn shares several metrics around newsletters to help brands refine and improve the content they share. From email sends and open rates to article views and engagement numbers, LinkedIn offers a number of in-platform data points to signal what’s working and what’s not. To name a few:  

  • Email sends indicate how many subscribers opted into an email notification of the newsletter.  
  • Email open rate is a percentage of the email sends that were opened by users. 
  • Article views show the number of times users viewed the newsletter.  
  • Engagement rates report the percentage of interactions on a newsletter compared to the impressions.  

With the above data and more that LinkedIn shares, brands can begin testing new strategies for their newsletters like adjusting frequency, sharing new formats or approaching new, timely themes. The beauty of digital content is its flexibility and LinkedIn Newsletters give brands the time and space to experiment. 

Digital content is only as valuable as the connections it offers brands. LinkedIn Newsletters provide a way to build off a brand’s existing audience on the platform, offer real value and cultivate more meaningful connections.  

Keys to Boosting Brand Awareness in 2025: Embrace New Media

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While you contemplate adding extra protein and strength training to your weight loss plans for 2025, why not consider adding new media and video to your company’s communications strategies?

A turn of the calendar to a new year presents an ideal opportunity to not only consider weight loss and exercise, but to evaluate business strategies as well – both successful and failed strategies. In public relations, as with many other industries, this new year refresh or reinvention beckons us to consider the latest trends and undertake new initiatives to continually boost brand awareness in the year ahead.

This time of year is replete with industry experts offering outlooks on what we can expect in the year ahead. And while traditional PR tactics, like contributed articles to well-respected outlets continue to carry weight, we are increasingly seeing good PR pros encouraging industry pundits to take on new platforms or new features of existing platforms to share their views, including – LinkedIn Live, LinkedIn Newsletters, TikTok, and new X competitor Blue Sky, among others.

Depending on the audience targeted, each platform can yield considerable results for company leaders who offer original, valuable and educational content. Leaders who want to boost their brand’s visibility in 2025 should consider the following new media:

  • LinkedIn Lives – In 2025, we will continue to see savvy thought leaders connect with their audiences through LinkedIn’s event-hosting platform LinkedIn Live. LinkedIn Lives are becoming increasingly popular for the platform’s ability to host live events with a casual feel – with one or multiple speakers, while engaging and interacting with the audience through a live chat function.

The tool markets itself in many ways as the event can easily be promoted among LinkedIn followers of the company page or the individual hosting the event. Followers will receive notifications about the event, as well as when it goes live. Moreover, any form of video in social media tends to generate higher levels of engagement than written content alone.

In the insurance space, digital marketing and transformation guru Ema Roloff has seen tremendous success with this resource, gathering roughly 1,600 registrations for an insurance predictions and trends event in late 2024. She hopes to do the same and more this year ahead of her Insurance Trends to Watch for 2025 event Dec. 17.

  • LinkedIn Newsletters – As LinkedIn continues to flex its authority as the social platform for business professionals, its newsletter function has also become increasingly popular for sharing thought leadership and other educational, nonpromotional content. LinkedIn claims it has seen a 59% increase in people publishing newsletter articles and a 47% rate increase in engagement. The platform claims more than 184,000 newsletters published. Once published, these newsletters invite your connections and followers automatically to subscribe so they are notified each time you publish with an in-app and email notification. Another perk – the success of your content is easily measurable through LinkedIn analytics.
  • Tik Tok – While Tik Tok has primarily been a successful B2C tool, we are now seeing the platform used more frequently for B2B engagement. In fact, Roloff has told us, her B2B Tik Tok videos on digital marketing in insurance have attracted more than one million views. We’ve been hearing for years that video content is essential for business communications, and Tik Tok proves the point and should not be overlooked in 2025.
  • BlueSky – As some look to move away from X, the app Bluesky, which bills itself as “an open foundation for the social internet” has been gaining popularity. In fact, BlueSky just reported crossing the 15 million user mark. As audiences flock to newer platforms like Bluesky and Meta’s Threads, business leaders will want to take note to ensure they are meeting their customers where they are.

To understand new media available to your business and what might be right for you, work with a communications specialist or agency that understands your business objectives, your audiences and the new media that can deliver on those objectives and audiences. Technology and AI are quickly changing how we do business, as well as how we communicate and interact with each other and prospects. Don’t get left behind.

How to make the most of your LinkedIn profile

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Creating a LinkedIn profile is a great way to broadcast yourself online. LinkedIn accounts can help you land your dream job or grow your business. It’s important to have the right elements on your profile. Looking to stand out in the crowd and make the most out of your LinkedIn presence? Read below on how to enhance your LinkedIn profile.
ideagirlmedia / Foter / CC BY-ND
Here’s what your profile should include:
  • Experience: In addition to including your job title and how many year(s) you worked in a particular position, be sure to include your duties/roles (include present and past experiences) and, most importantly, your achievements in each role. Note: Leave out  personal information such as family or hobbies.
  • A custom url  for your public profile will make it more sharable and easy to find.
  • A professional photo is a must for your profile. This doesn’t mean you need a stuffy headshot, but keep your personal life out of your photo and keep the picture current.
  • A Summary that highlights your specialties and showcases a bit of your personality.
  • Education.
  • Any awards and honors you’ve received or volunteer work.
  • Groups relevant to you and your work.
  • The company you currently work for (be sure to link to your company’s page).
  • Connections to any Twitter account or blog platform that you use for professional purposes.
Be active.

  • Ask for Recommendations to enhance your profile and write recommendations for others.
  • Join relevant groups and actively partake in group discussions once or twice a week (or as time allows).
  • Attending an upcoming conference? Come across an interesting article? Share it!

Lastly, it’s important to have someone proofread your LinkedIn profile for any punctuation or spelling errors. The fastest way to look unprofessional is to have a typo in what is, for all intents and purposes, your most important professional online presence.

Does your LinkedIn profile have everything to land you the perfect job or grow your business? 

Photo credit: ideagirlmedia / Foter / CC BY-ND