10 Ways to Use LinkedIn Stories for Personal Branding

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You would be lying if you didn’t see this coming- Story feature on LinkedIn. Snapchat broke the tradition of just posting ever-lasting content by introducing Stories to the world in 2013. And the rest is history! 

Since then, ephemeral content is dominating the majority of social media feeds. LinkedIn too quickened its pace and released Stories for millions of users. 

Isn’t LinkedIn supposed to be strictly used for professional purposes? Undeniably yes! 

That’s why LinkedIn encourages you to show your amiable side on LinkedIn stories while keeping the professional aura intact. It’s a remarkable tool to get your branding wheel in motion!

But what is it exactly, and how can you use it to magnify your business ethics without posting snaps of steaming Starbucks coffee? Let’s find out. 

What are LinkedIn Stories?

Just like Instagram, you can upload videos and images as LinkedIn stories that last for 24 hours. But these stories have a short duration of 20 seconds and can only be accessed with the LinkedIn app for smartphones. You can also add engaging texts, eye-catching stickers, share questions, and mention people or pages. 

You can use a swipe-up feature to redirect your story viewers to your website, podcasts, other social links, etc. Similar to Instagram stories, it appears on the top of your followers’ feeds once shared. They can tap on it to get its full view. 

You can easily access detailed story insights like impressions, reach, engagement, and clicks. You can also use LinkedIn analytics tools to get more details on your overall performance on the platform. If the metrics don’t level up to your expectations, you can even promote your LinkedIn stories via ads, fostering more engagement. But is investing so much effort in stories worth it? Let’s find out. 

Benefits of Linkedin Stories for personal branding 

Needless to say, LinkedIn features have always been unique in the truest of sense from the very start. This social media channel is an outlier considering both its users and the intent behind their presence. 

Stories are great ice breakers in a stiffly formal place like LinkedIn. If your stories are engaging enough, your followers will reply, and thus you fast-track valuable conversation. Despite striking similarities, LinkedIn stories are pretty different from Instagram stories. Have a look at the benefit zone to learn how! 

Building relationships

The primary goal is not to kill time with merry chit-chats but to look for mentorship, sales, or job opportunities. Using LinkedIn stories, you can imbibe genuine relationships with your followers. Even if you are a business owner and have a full-fledged team working day and night, you need to take the onus of being the face of your business to boost trust and credibility factors. 

Evolve into an expert

Imagine yourself as a professional trainer, and you want to start a workshop for public speaking. You open your slumbering LinkedIn profile after months of inactivity and post about your workshop. Despite you being an expert in this field, only a handful of people turn up! 

You can volte-face this exact situation and get startling responses by using LinkedIn Stories. Talk about your best practices and emerge as an expert in front of your followers. If they like your tips, they can even react and send your story to their peers. It’s a quick way to make them realize your worth, and they will further look up to you for professional help. 

Community inclusion

I need not iterate the jam-packed advantages of a well-established community. LinkedIn already has amazing groups and circles. LinkedIn stories drive your community to take some actions that will echo your branding waves to their followers. You can even collaborate with other industry leaders and bring a smashing crossover story about it. 

Now that you have enough conviction on LinkedIn story’s potential, let’s have a look at the best ways to leverage this vital branding tool. 

10 ways to use LinkedIn Stories for personal branding

You need to keep in mind that LinkedIn stories are pretty different from those in Snapchat and Instagram, especially when you are striving for pitch-perfect personal branding! 

You can create a positive image and build anticipating opinions favoring you using LinkedIn stories. Here are 10 ways you can use it for driving insane visibility and engagement. 

Educate your tribe by inspiring them

Everyone desires professional growth, and for that, we always rely on the most experienced authority. You can be that pivotal guiding personnel who can inspire and educate what you learned over the years regarding your respective niche. In return, you earn a massive following and online reputation in just a few blinks. 

James Laurain, a creative Tech Copywriter, shares his secrets on a copy that converts with his writer audience. He uses the hashtag #LinkedInAdRewrite for his posts, where he educates on copywriting’s best practices. 

Share industry-specific trends and data points

Every industry leader must highlight the trends with valid data points. Let’s say you have paramount expertise in social media marketing. Talk about the year-on-year growth of major social media platforms and the usage patterns of the dominating bunch. 

Throw light on their latest updates and how to leverage them effectively to reap maximum benefits. Your followers will keenly rely on you for major updates and happenings in your niche. 

Put forth your opinions 

Personal branding comes at the cost of being responsible. When you are influencing a set of people, your values mold your followers too. So it’s essential to communicate your opinions, general or niche-based, with your audience. 

Many famous personalities speak their hearts out on crucial matters to reinstate their virtues and strict adherence to their belief. It brings you under the positive limelight when you stand your ground and makes you more respectable. So don’t shy away from sharing your opinions on your LinkedIn stories. 

Exclusive announcements 

Your posts related to product updates and brand announcements might get buried under a plethora of posts in your connections’ feed. So, sharing exclusive announcements on LinkedIn stories will improve visibility and guarantee quick responses. 

For example, if you’ve built an online course and are going to offer it for free to your audience, telling your followers and offering it as an exclusive is a great way to be of value to them. 

The value of your video content goes up by repurposing an online recording as an automated evergreen webinar and relaunching it as either a promotion for your business (lead generation) or a paid session. By taking chunks from the content or audience Q&A and posting them on LinkedIn, you are automatically raising interest in your session.  

Further, if you’re having any event or launches, you can reward your connections with some entry discounts. Share a glimpse of business events and live updates to arouse interest.

Radhika Bajoria, a Senior Editor and Anchor, announces her one-on-one resume-building session on her LinkedIn story. She has added a link so her viewers can join the mentorship thread.  

Post tips and tricks 

Let’s say you are an animator, and designing comics is your bread and butter. You have used various tools over time, but you prefer only a specific permutation of those. Now that you have gained a certain command over the nuances, you aim to help the beginners. 

Writing all of these in a lengthy post might not get you the deserved attention compared to the visually appealing LinkedIn stories. 

So you can start sharing your views, comparing the tools and the end output with your designer folks as stories. You can also share shortcut tips and innovative tricks to create mind-blowing gigs. Result? You get more visibility on the platform. 

Himanshu Rawat, a freelance website developer, and graphic designer, shares valuable development tips. Here’s his recent story about must-have skills for React enthusiasts. 

Behind the formal scenes

People only connect with you when you show your genuine side. Personal insights truly authenticate your relation with your followers. That’s when behind the scenes come into play. Your followers can relate more with you when they see you talking live about your daily routine and sharing a slice of your work schedule. You can share the book you are reading currently or a recent Netflix flick that moved you deeply. 

You can even share the projects you and your team are working on right now and give a status update to build curiosity! And even you might end up getting befitting suggestions and help too. 

Michael Reilly, CEO of Reilly Content Creations, shares his latest addition to the library in his story. The book he shared is a valuable recommendation for his content-creating audience. 

Exciting collaborations

Collaborations are incredible for personal branding! Team up with other prominent personals and come up with an exciting partnership. Let’s assume you run an agency that provides website design solutions. You can team up with a content marketing professional who can talk about the website design tips and plugins that matter most from a marketing perspective.

Vital testimonies and shoutouts

LinkedIn values word of mouth. That’s why it offers incredible features like recommendations, skills, and endorsements. Take it a step further and share client feedback and testimonies in your LinkedIn stories. Don’t forget to tag your clients and team when giving them a big shoutout. 

Lea Turner, a famous LinkedIn coach, shares her testimonials from happy clients on her story. She also drops her website name so her connections can directly book their slots for consultations. 

Q&A sessions

The most fantastic way to establish an instant rapport is by solving the concerns of the masses. Use question stickers so your story viewers can type out their queries. You can address them live. 

If you receive something repetitive, you can answer those queries in your story rather than explaining them individually. Mention those specific sets of people in your story, so they don’t miss out on answers. You can even ask questions to your followers with the “Question for the day” sticker to build further anticipation. 

Highlight key achievements 

Efforts go down the drain if you don’t follow your own preachings. So it’s better to practice what you generally suggest others should do and give them a sneak peek of the final result. Let your followers know about indispensable values they will receive once they follow your advice. Show them your key achievements and the secret behind them (hint: don’t be over the top about it, be natural). It will definitely back up your words and encourage them to follow you. 

How to add LinkedIn Stories?

Now that you know what to post, the next big question is how to post. Please note that LinkedIn stories can only be added via the mobile app for now. Follow the given steps to add LinkedIn stories. 

Step 1: Open your profile using the mobile app.

Step 2: Tap the “+” sign on your profile picture from the top of your feed. 

Step 3: Add a video from the gallery by clicking on the left icon. You can also shoot a short clip directly from the app.

Step 4: Add catchy texts and stickers. Tag relevant people and pages from icons on the top right corner. 

Step 5: Click on the link icon to add a link. Type out the designated URL and tap on Done. 

Step 6: Click on the “Share story” button to make it live.

Step 7: You can share your story with your connections, and they can forward it too. 

What’s next?

Despite its successful rollout, LinkedIn stories have lots of missing features. There is no trimming option. Personalized view setting is unavailable, so your story is visible to every connection and follower. Filters, which are a massive hit for both Snapchat and Instagram, are totally absent from LinkedIn. Probably, this particular social media cares more about authenticity without any filter layerings and encourages candid self-representation! 

But regardless of the add ons, you can establish personal branding like a pro. It might be a bit tricky, but with consistent effort, you will pull it off. By the way, how do you promote yourself on LinkedIn? Are you using stories already? Let us know in the comments.