How to build your personal brand on LinkedIn

5 min read

LinkedIn and personal branding are not exactly the same, but using the platform wisely can significantly enhance your expert image.

There are very mixed opinions about LinkedIn. Some see it as one of the favourite platforms for self-admirers, where people can freely talk about their achievements, completed courses, micro-degrees, and being named Employee of the Year. As a result, many people tend to stay away from LinkedIn.

However, some consciously use LinkedIn to strengthen their brand, sell their company’s product or service, and position themselves as opinion leaders.

The difference between these two groups lies in the content: some talk about themselves, while others focus on what is valuable to their audience. Shameless self-promotion should be left in the past because the platform can be used much more skillfully.

Where to start with LinkedIn content creation and how?

1. Decide what you want to be known for

Your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. It all starts with your skills, values, and how people perceive you. We all have a personal brand, whether we’ve worked on it consciously or not.

The good news is that you can shape your personal brand yourself. Ask yourself: what do you want to be known for? Positioning yourself as an expert is challenging, and you should first clarify your expertise. Think about what you want to convey to people. Why should they trust you? What results have you already achieved? What have you learned in the process? A unique personality certainly gives you an edge.

2. Who is your audience?

Next, define the target group you want to reach as precisely as possible. Are they marketing managers, engineers, or developers? After determining your audience, think about their current challenges so that your content can help them be more successful in solving their problems. Understanding your audience is a prerequisite for creating valuable content, and understanding begins with active listening.

To create good content, it’s essential to understand your audience’s pain points, goals, problems, and opportunities. Only then can you start creating high-quality content.

3. Be original

Whatever you do, don’t forget that artificial statements don’t yield results. Be authentic! Real people, real stories, including mistakes and failures. Be brave enough to talk about them. Those who succeed on LinkedIn have found their unique voice and know how to tell a story.

It’s easy to tell when people take the path of least resistance and rely entirely on AI for their content creation. I’m not talking about using ChatGPT to bounce ideas around or getting a language check on a post. That’s entirely welcome and helps create more robust content. But it’s best to avoid bureaucratic language, awkward expressions, empty sentences, and even more so, AI-generated comments.

4. Write as you speak

Remember that social media posts don’t need to be long and complex. They should be easy for your audience to understand without effort. The clearer the message, the quicker it resonates. Remember that people’s attention spans are getting shorter, so avoid writing long and rambling texts. Try to break down your content and use LinkedIn’s article format for longer pieces.

5. Your profile should reflect the same message

Unclear messages are one of the most significant barriers to LinkedIn profiles and content not working. Optimize your profile: make sure it reflects what you want. Does your audience understand what you’re offering? Check your profile picture, and pay attention to your headline and banner. Use all available options to showcase your experience, especially the “About” section, where you can summarize your story comprehensively.

6. Consistency is key to success

Many people give up on LinkedIn after three to four months of trying. Give yourself time to succeed. Building a LinkedIn following takes time. Be consistent and stay visible, both in posting your content and commenting on your followers’ posts.

Sponsorships in 2024: how to make them truly support business

8 min read

The ongoing EOK (Estonian Olympic Committee) presidential elections seem to be once again centred around money — or rather, the lack thereof. However, if we look at larger sponsorship collaborations in sports, the picture seems different: Estonian companies have plenty of money. Unfortunately, while funds are allocated, collaboration opportunities are not maximised.

Imagine investing 15% of your marketing budget in a campaign but not measuring or adjusting the results along the way. It sounds unreasonable, right? Unfortunately, this is still quite common in sponsorship collaborations. The sad reality is that many are just “present.” The full potential of sponsorship is achieved when the brand not only displays its logo but engages the audience, creates value, and measures how the investment actually yields results.

The sad reality is that many are just “present.”

Collaboration with various events or individuals generally consists of three stages:

Selection of collaboration projects and preliminary research.
Development and implementation of a sponsorship activation strategy.
Measuring effectiveness.

Who to collaborate with?

It is crucial to choose collaboration partners who share the company’s values and goals. Poor planning and expectation management often lead to unsuccessful collaborations. Here, the event or individual seeking sponsorship plays a significant role, as they must provide a clear value proposition and an overview of the target audience. Sometimes, even event organisers are unaware of their participants’ profiles and whom they are actually addressing.

Additionally, focus is essential. Just as we don’t trust influencers who collaborate with everyone, there’s little sympathy for companies that seem to support everything but offer nothing substantial. Focus is vital in sponsorships as well.

Just as we don’t trust influencers who collaborate with everyone, there’s little sympathy for companies that seem to support everything but offer nothing substantial.

The initiative must come from both sides

I have long been responsible for marketing various sporting events and communities (e.g., IRONMAN Tallinn and the Biathlon World Cup in Otepää), including managing sponsorship collaborations. Often, I found myself wanting to work with companies that might even give less money but were passionate about the cause. Unfortunately, 70% of the collaborations were more in the format of “you get cucumbers, I get money.” The primary output was limited to a few banners, logos in the competition guide, and a promotional video on social media.

The proposed list often had more topics, but unfortunately, these opportunities were frequently left untapped. This was because the company would have had to put in additional effort. The reasons varied but mainly revolved around a lack of commitment or time. It could also happen that the decision to support came from higher up, leaving the marketing manager to simply accept that their company was now a sponsor of a particular event or individual.

What value can sponsorship collaboration bring?

The brand collaboration aimed at customers:

increasing brand awareness;
positioning the brand among competitors and maintaining the brand image;
developing the brand’s community;
increase purchase intent and directly advertise products/services to the target audience.

A good example is the collaboration with Farmi during the Biathlon World Cup, where they aimed to reach a younger target group. They supported the construction of children’s tent at the supporter area, had different activities and provided it with all their new products therefore reaching to their needed audience.

Employer branding and internal communication:

showing employees that the company values an active lifestyle;
building the company’s image in the job market;
involving employees in sponsorship collaborations;
offering added value to both existing and potential employees.

Swedbank has shown significant benefits in sports projects, elevating its image as an attractive employer through its collaboration with the Tallinn Marathon, both internally and externally.

Developing partnerships:

demonstrating commitment and enhancing the image among partners;
different events’ VIP areas are excellent opportunities to host partner and client events.

It is proven that sponsors who invest in effective activation strategies for their sponsorships can achieve greater visibility, thereby increasing awareness of their sponsorships (Quester & Thompson 2001; Wakefield et al. 2007).

Community and dedicated fans

Fans care about brands that are deeply connected to local communities, not just during major moments. There is enormous potential at the local level that is currently untapped. For example, sports events often offer the opportunity to create branded emotional points through sponsorship. It’s as simple as setting up a few flags or banners, playing music, and gathering a crowd — no more is needed. The emotions participants get are invaluable. That feeling that someone is cheering them on and supporting them during the toughest moments of a marathon stays with them. If this is tied to a brand, there is a tendency to choose that brand’s products or services in the future.

At the IRONMAN event, these places were even offered for free because the organisers also wanted many people along the course and for participants to have valuable experiences. The company, in turn, can nicely display its brand.

In other words, sponsors need to make an effort to increase their visibility and make an impact. Just a banner is no longer enough; the company must genuinely show interest.

Sponsorship collaborations can be measured, too

Although very few do this. A survey by the market research agency MKTG revealed that just under 20% of surveyed companies’ sponsorship managers had developed a method to measure the return on investment (ROI) of their sponsorships. 73% of them stated that the main goal is “brand awareness,” and ROI was not the main focus of sponsorship. This trend indicates that while investments are increasing, many companies may not fully utilise their sponsorship opportunities.

Once again, collaboration with the event organiser is crucial for measuring effectiveness. Often, proactive communication with the organiser opens up various ways to further measure effectiveness. Naturally, it is impossible to quantify the entire collaboration, but saying it’s all just for brand spreading is simply lazy. Collaboration no longer involves placing logos on banners. As mentioned in the article, there are many ways to maximize collaboration. Even for direct advertising, solutions exist, starting with newsletters, which are among the most widely read emails (about 80-85% of participants usually read the content).In Estonia, sponsorship relationships are still in their infancy, whether it’s about supporting various events or athletes. They often depend on whether the marketing manager is passionate about leading projects. Good collaborations come from mutual initiative. Sponsorship is not charity but a bilateral strategic partnership!

Crisis Communication: How to Prepare for a Storm and Protect Your Reputation

6 min read

Imagine a situation where your company finds itself at the centre of an unexpected scandal. Perhaps a product has turned out to be dangerous, an employee has behaved unethically, or there has been a data breach. Regardless of the nature of the crisis, one thing is certain: the trust relationship with stakeholders is at risk, and so is the reputation of the entire organisation.

The frequency and scale of crises have increased. This is due to several reasons. Social activity has grown, and the media environment has changed. Stakeholders are more aware of their rights, and societal expectations towards organisations have risen. As a result of increased media coverage, crises now develop and spread faster — information travels quickly, making the escalation of crises more likely. Global pandemics, natural disasters, technological failures and even social media scandals can instantly derail a company’s operations.

Crises are inevitable in today’s business world. What happens, happens. The crucial part is how you respond in a crisis situation and how much attention is paid to communicating with your audience. Why is this critical?

What happens, happens. The crucial part is how you respond in a crisis situation and how much attention is paid to communicating with your audience.

Thoughtful communication, that is, interacting with your primary audience, makes crisis resolution efforts visible and understandable to them and reflects the efforts being made to resolve the crisis. In cases of accidents, it is essential to provide accurate instructions so that people can protect themselves or their property. Well-organised crisis communication can help a company protect its reputation, restore trust, and even emerge stronger from the crisis. Leaving key target groups, such as employees, customers, and partners, in the dark can worsen the situation, causing irreversible damage to the company’s reputation and financial results.

Where is the line between a crisis and a particularly challenging workday?

A crisis is an unexpected event or situation that threatens an organisation’s operations, reputation, or stakeholders. This could be a natural disaster, a workplace accident, a product failure, a cyberattack, a financial crisis, or even negative media coverage. Crises are characterised by their suddenness, rapid development and potentially significant impact.

While the potential effects of accidents are often clearer — such as significant financial loss, disrupted supply chains, or operational standstills — it can be harder to gauge the potential impact of so-called reputation crises in their early stages, even though their effects may be far more extensive. These can lead to employee strikes, a sharp change in market position due to brand damage, or even regulatory changes that significantly harm the company’s business objectives.

Preparation and being ready

A crisis cannot be predicted exactly. The best way to get ready for a crisis is to be prepared. This means developing a crisis management plan, forming a team, and conducting regular training and simulations. A crisis management plan should include clear roles and responsibilities, communication protocols, and messages to be used in crisis situations.

Being mentally prepared should not be considered less important than practical preparation. Crisis situations are stressful, and it’s crucial that the team remains calm and makes quick and effective decisions even under pressure. Regular training and simulations help the crisis team develop mental resilience — practicing necessary skills and maintaining confidence.

Regular training and simulations help the crisis team develop mental resilience — practicing necessary skills and maintaining confidence.

Rapid and transparent communication

The first 24 hours in a crisis are critical, and the initial response of the organisation can significantly influence the course of the crisis and its impact. Unfortunately, the main problem organisations and individuals face in crises is often indifference. Instead, the approach should be to take the initiative and act with the mindset that the consequences of the crisis could be severe for the organisation. Typically, organisations are not judged publicly based on the cause of the crisis but on their ability to respond.

The first step is to assess the extent of the crisis and gather the crisis team. The team should collect all available information, assess the situation and decide on further actions. It’s also important to inform all relevant stakeholders, including employees, customers, partners and the media.

Transparent communication is crucial during a crisis. The organisation must provide relevant information, even if not all facts are known. It is important to acknowledge the problem, express regret in proportion to the responsibility and explain what is being done to resolve the situation. Companies often initially deny or downplay their responsibility in a crisis, but lying always makes the situation worse and damages the reputation.

It is important to acknowledge the problem, express regret in proportion to the responsibility and explain what is being done to resolve the situation.

Crises cannot be prevented. Preparation is needed for the impact of the crisis—the loss of trust—and for regaining it. The ability to act and communicate with your audience in a crisis situation will determine whether, after the situation is resolved, the company can continue as before or if poor crisis communication management will haunt the organisation for a long time.