Create a More Engaging LinkedIn Banner for Your Professional Personal Brand

Don’t overlook the power of your LinkedIn banner for enhancing the pitch of your professional personal brand.

Research shows that first impressions are formed within as quickly as a tenth of a second. As the world’s largest networking platform for professionals, LinkedIn is the virtual shop front for your professional personal brand. Your LinkedIn profile banner, therefore, becomes the shopfront window of your personal brand. It can either fall flat and do little for (or even hinder) your personal brand, or it can engage and inspire others to want to connect and learn more.

60% of recruiters are said to review social media profiles during the hiring process. The emotional reaction the hiring manager for your dream job has could inadvertently add to your credibility or hurt it. If you run your own business, your client's subconscious processing of your professional personal brand contributes to the value they perceive you’ll provide them.

Personal branding doesn’t have many quick wins, so you should grab as many low-hanging fruit as you can. A fresh and enticing LinkedIn banner is one of them. But don’t just pick any template you find on Canva. Be strategic about what your LinkedIn banner is communicating for your professional personal brand.

Here are my top ideas for using your LinkedIn profile banner to elevate your personal brand positioning. Any one of these methods or a combination makes your LinkedIn profile banner more valuable real estate for your professional personal brand.

1. Show your credibility

Donald Miller’s Story Brand framework in Building a Story Brand is one of my favourite go-to formulas. The 7-part process, based on a typical story-telling structure, is as follows:

1. A character (your audience is the hero)

2. Has a problem

3. They meet a guide (you). With 1) empathy and 2) authority

4. Who gives them a plan

5. And calls them to action

6. That helps avoid failure

7. And ends in success

Your potential customer or next employer is the main character, looking to solve a problem. You want to position yourself as the Guide who has empathy and authority. You can do that in your LinkedIn profile by visually showing your credibility.

For example, this might include:

• Speaking engagement imagery (keynote, host or panelist)

• You hosting your podcast

• Your book (cover or event)

Credibility executed in this way helps create trust by association. It creates social proof that others see your professional personal brand as trustworthy in the marketplace.

2. Highlight your expertise

If you don’t have speaking photos or a book, don’t worry; there are more ways to project Guide energy for your professional personal brand.

You likely already use your LinkedIn profile to highlight the key expertise of your personal brand. But, think beyond your ‘Skills’ section and ‘About Me’, and use your LinkedIn profile banner to anchor your value proposition. Keyword the expertise you most want to align your professional personal brand with. Without the reader having to dig through your profile, make your value pop on the screen.   

3. Tell a transformation story

What is the problem that your professional personal brand helps solve? Ultimately, you are paid for a service in the marketplace because it provides value. What is that value, and how do you capture that in your LinkedIn profile banner? Going back to Miller’s framework, this is showing them what success looks like.

You may do this in a few ways:

• Visually: Capture the ‘success story’ in an image

• Textually: Spell it out in a short and snappy tag line

• A combination of both

4. Call to action

Don’t forget you're a Guide who calls them to action. You might choose to use your LinkedIn profile banner as a call to action to convert your audience. Perhaps draw them to your direct email, DMs, newsletter, website, podcast or YouTube channel. While your call to action of your overall profile might be obvious to you, don’t underestimate another person’s ability to get lost in the noise of the digital abyss. Spell out what you want them to do next.

Don’t overlook the power of using your LinkedIn banner to elevate your personal brand positioning. Switch from the default, generic or confusing LinkedIn banners to one that enhances the pitch of your personal brand.