Brand-you: how to be authentic on LinkedIn

The sixth Professional Marketer Series event, in April, delved into ‘Online advertising and personal branding’. James Potter, aka The LinkedIn Man, looked at how you can create an authentic, online persona to get you and your business noticed…for all the right reasons. Event bloggers for the CIM in London, Eileen Donaghey and Carly Price went along and have posted their thoughts, with lessons all professionals can benefit from when using LinkedIn.

James Potter shares his £10m LinkedIn success

James is a LinkedIn adventurer who specialises in helping executives use LinkedIn for more effective networking and business building.  He explains:

“I have the best job in the world! I get to turn the 'lights on' in people’s heads, to share the things that they haven't realised, highlight paths they haven't considered and share what LinkedIn can do to help them in business and make their future even better.”

He learnt how to use LinkedIn hands-on, not by reading a book, but by playing around with it in his role as a corporate sales director and seeing what worked. James’ success enabled him to pull in over £10 million in sales while he was in corporate life which encouraged him to launch his consultancy and training business, The Network Coach Limited.

Eileen Donaghey makes it personal with LinkedIn

Eileen was so struck by James’ message at the event that she’s vowed to make LinkedIn personal. She’s getting in touch with one hundred of her LinkedIn contacts to rekindle her connections. Her blog post, sets the scene and provides two key lessons for using LinkedIn to develop your personal brand:

“CIM ‘Getting Noticed’ event has changed the way I’ve been thinking about LinkedIn. The LinkedIn Man, AKA James Potter, said something which really struck with me. Look at it as your social network not as social media. Yeah alright James, so you’re telling me that you personally know all of your 500+ connections? Well apparently he does…”

Read Eileen’s blog: ‘How many of your LinkedIn connections do you actually know?’

When she’s not volunteering as a CIM event blogger in London, Eileen is Senior Marketing Manager at Doughty Street Chambers.

 Connect with Eileen on LinkedIn

Carly Price sets out five LinkedIn golden rules

Carly has pinpointed 5 top tips from James’ talk which will help you maximise the power of LinkedIn to build your profile and business.

“At the latest CIM London Professional Marketer event, James Potter, aka the LinkedIn Man, provided some useful tips around how to maximise your use of LinkedIn. Here are some of the key insights from his talk. No.1 don’t treat LinkedIn like Facebook...”

See Carly’s post: ‘5 ways to get the most out of LinkedIn’

Carly is a B2B marketer who’s passionate about travel, tech and trends. In her day job, Carly is Marketing Manager at eCommera.

 Connect with Carly on LinkedIn

What is the Professional Marketer Series?

In the London region, the Professional Marketer Series was created as an event programme which can enhance marketers’ expertise. Each event examines the different skills and behaviours that form the basis of the CIM’s Professional Marketing Competencies and enable marketers to contribute fully towards the achievement of business goals. Attending these events helps to build your knowledge, competence and authority as a professional marketer and contribute significantly to your Continuing Professional Development and gaining or maintaining Chartered Marketer status. Wherever possible, each event is followed by a delegate’s view of the event, complete with the important learning points, from one of the volunteer event bloggers in London.

Gen up on social media networks

Should you want to immerse yourself in this topic try the CIM Bookshop:

Buy: The Business of Being Social

The book is a practical guide to harnessing the power of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social media networks for all businesses.

 Join the LinkedIn group for CIM in London

There’s a group for CIM members in London on LinkedIn or you can join the conversation on Twitter.

LinkedIn: CIM Communities – London
Twitter: @CIMinfo_London