A recruiter asked me how I “do” personal branding on LinkedIn. Do I really need to?

The best creatives I know don’t post hot takes. They don’t post daily thought-leadership threads.

They don’t do those ironic “look-at-me-being-funny-on-LinkedIn-because-I-am-too-cool-for-LinkedIn” routine. (We all know that guy is the most desperate for attention on LinkedIn.)

The best portfolios I’ve seen are from people who don’t come near Linkedin.

Do you do personal branding? Do you need it to get ahead?

I’m an introvert and I HATE drawing attention to myself. It gives me hives. I also will be the first to say that this has been terrible for my career. Because being the best creative in an agency, unfortunately will not get you as far as being a loud mouth ass kisser.
I have always respected people who let their work speak the loudest and who open their mouth when they have something smart to contribute, not when they just want to hear the sound of their voice. However, I am aware enough to know that most people do not really think the way I do.
I am a freelancer and staying in touch with people and being visible is VERY important to my staying busy and making money. This is very counterintuitive for me. Letting my work speak for itself is not enough. I have seen it when mediocre people beat me to a gig and are busier than me.
I am not able to put out posts or things just for the sake of creating content to stay in people’s feeds. If I post something, it has to be something that I truly believe and that I think is a unique POV.
I am working very hard right now at finding my unique voice and perspective on things. Not just spout my opinion about the Sidney Sweeney jeans ads or whatever other hot take I have, because… really… does anyone care what I think? I want to put out content that will make people think or contribute towards shifting views or at least make people laugh once in a while.
I actually seem to do it well here in FB, but feel less constrained and self conscious about it because this platform is anonymous. If someone hates what I said or thinks it’s stupid, so be it. My name is not attached to it. But I am so very self conscious when it comes to LinkedIn that it paralyzes me.

Unfortunate AS1 is correct b/c these are the ridiculous times we live in.

I could never live within myself for being one of those attention-starved people. Personally, I prefer to walk softly and let my work speak for itself.

The Ex Apple Ex Boyfriend Ex Con needs to go touch grass

Not a creative but people with the fastest careers all seem to know how to get eyes on LinkedIn. Posting or getting mentioned in posts MASSIVELY impacts your visibility. All that LI hustle stuff is cringe and I’ve seen folks have great results simply posting about their work semi-regularly and tagging lots of contributors in those posts to maximize reach.

Advertising is a reflection of culture. Like it or not, right now that’s our culture.

if you don't have a brand to maintain how will people trust you to maintain theirs

It’s unfortunate that people are role-playing as quirky "unhinged" versions of themselves because recruiters feel personal branding means being loud and different. But I find a lot of posts sound the same. There's also a difference between being real and just being loud for attention.

I read a post a week or so ago about “my child says I sound like an idiot talking about myself when I hopped off an interview. Then they called me ‘cringe’.”

No they didn’t. You made that up for dopamine likes and a hope you get hired. If you’re on the creative side, I agree that your work should speak for itself.

LinkedIn is starting to lose its luster. But here are some tells of LinkedIn posers vs. people who have genuine good things to share:

- posts multiple times a day vs 4x a week or less
- uses the word “hook”, comment with a , or emoji bullets
- publishes on LinkedIn vs. a personal website to drive reach over quality
- shares too many hot takes on campaigns
- shares too many extracurriculars of an agency (we had a party!)
- uses “hot take” in copy
- tags 90 people in the agency for reach


The best accounts are measured, consistent, and short. If you must use LinkedIn, don’t look like the above. You’ll get a scarlet letter and i see CCO’s make this mistake all the time.

As an account person I struggle with what to say on LinkedIn because I agree, I feel like I see those with massive success posting regularly with something meaningful to contribute… and of course posers too…

But any thoughts on what are some topics that account folks could share that would come across as sincere vs “posting to post”? Anything strategic feels like attempting to be a brand strategist, anything creative feels like attempting to be an art director, it’s hard to pick a lane when it comes to social “thought leadership” (I hate myself for saying those words 🫣).

To be honest, I love seeing when creatives share any side hustles or passion projects on that kind of platform. Feels like the right place to do so given it’s related to the work they do, but yet people like me can see what they like to do or what their sweet spot is creatively. At work there isn’t always opportunity to get to know that and who knows, a project could come up that they would be perfect for and that way I can advocate for them to work on it. My two cents!