Speaker 1: Good morning everyone and welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for tuning in for this week's video where we are going to talk about all things personal branding, LinkedIn, for college students, why you should care, and where you could start. So we're going to get ourselves comfy and let's dive in. Okay team, so I've chosen this little angle down here because it's like kind of cute and like kind of cozy, which is how we're feeling about LinkedIn. We're going to start with what is LinkedIn? Like why do we even care? Should we be using it? So let's talk about what LinkedIn is. Yes, LinkedIn is a job searching website. That is primarily its function. It's for people to go on, make an account, kind of make like a little CV and for people to search for jobs. But it has also become a very, very, very, very powerful networking tool and it's something that we should definitely be paying more attention to in 2023. Personal branding is essentially how you view yourself and how the world views you. So if we use an example of like McDonald's say, you see that like yellow M and you know instantly we associate it with chicken nuggets and yummy fast food and all of those things. We know that that is McDonald's and that's essentially what you want to get from your personal brand. You want people to be able to search for you or be shown like a picture of you and to be like, Oh, I associate them with like PhD advice or whatever. This might not seem important as a college student. And I totally get that because I was literally the same. I was like, why do I care? Like, it's not like I own a business. I'm not a marketer. That's not exactly what I want to do. And those are predominantly the people that you tend to see on LinkedIn. Recently it's become a more thriving place for people in college, academic to share their research and to build networks that way. So it is definitely something that is coming up in the research world and something that we all should be aware of as PhD students. A lot of companies now are asking for your LinkedIn URL when you apply for jobs. It's a lot of times what people include on their CV is their LinkedIn URL. So making sure that you have a positive presence and it's not like completely dead, but you want to have some things on there, making sure that it's not like a bad impression. When it comes to the end of your PhD or the end of your college life and you start looking for jobs, people are going to be Googling you. That is just the way the world works now. People Google your name. You want it to come up filled with like value packed, good stuff that makes you seem like a really good fit for that job or that company. So to start early while you're in college and start building that personal brand is super, super, super valuable. And I wish I had started a lot sooner. I first of all want to cover easy ways that you can get started. So these are three easy, easy, easy ways to get started on LinkedIn, provided you already have an account. Obviously like we're going to make an account first. Number one would be to engage regularly with other creators. So just like browsing through your feed, liking posts, commenting on posts and adding insightful value. That is a good way to get noticed. So what I really like about LinkedIn is the organic reach is essentially unmatched. There is so much organic reach that you can get with LinkedIn, which is why I love it personally as a social media platform, but also as a networking tool. So let's say that you comment on someone's post. All of your followers are going to see that, but also all of their followers are going to see that as well. They're going to say so-and-so commented on the post or another new comment has been added to this post. So immediately you're reaching two networks worth of people. Even if you only have 10 followers, that person who posted that might have a thousand. So already your post is being seen by a thousand other people. That gives those a thousand other people the chance to comment and reply and maybe add a connection request. So making sure that you comment on posts that are relevant to you. Number two would be to sending direct messages to people. So an easy way you can do this is literally by searching in the LinkedIn, like people who work at AstraZeneca. Let's say that you want to get a job as a scientist at AstraZeneca, like type in AstraZeneca. You can scroll through all the people that work there. Maybe someone went to your university and like you want to DM them a message about getting into that role, or maybe someone is working in your dream role and you want to find out a bit more about it. Like sending them a personalised connection invitation and asking to have a chat further is a really, really powerful way of again, building your network. So can you see already from those two, without even posting yourself, you're able to get your ideas out there, show that you are engaged and it really helps you build your brand as a college student. It might not seem relevant now, but when you'll start looking for jobs, you'll be like, oh, that person, I'm so glad I'm connected with them on LinkedIn. You can just send them another DM to start cultivating those relationships early. If you are ready to start posting on LinkedIn, yay, this is super exciting. Number three, post on LinkedIn. So you might not think that you're an expert. You don't have to be an expert to post on LinkedIn. A lot of people just want to see your thoughts and your experiences, things that you've struggled with, questions that you might be able to answer and everyone has their own unique experiences. So you do have a unique voice to share, but it's worth sharing on LinkedIn. How I deal with my LinkedIn schedule. So first thing I would say is I try and take inspiration from everywhere. There's a lot of real talk about actually getting like creator's block and not knowing what to post, but I found that drawing on my own experiences and like the lectures I've gone to, the research I'm doing, that kind of thing, papers I've read is like a really useful place to start because the chances are if you've got a question or you're struggling with something, like the chances are that someone else is also struggling with it. So while I'm out and about, let's say I've read a really interesting paper that comes up with like a new treatment and I'm like, oh my goodness, this is so interesting. I'll write it down on my notes app on my phone, literally just like as a bullet point. Then what I tend to do is pick one. So every morning I try and post like early just because I'm more of like an early bird. So I'd pick one. So let's say like today I'm going to post about, do you need research experience for a PhD and different ways that you can get research experience. I know I made a video on this. I'll link it up here if you want to watch that. But let's say that I want to post about that. Then I would draft a post essentially. They don't have to be super, super, super long, but they do have to be in your own words. And what I try and do is make, really let my personality shine through here. Like I really write as if I'm speaking to a friend or I'm speaking to someone I know really, really well. And that gives my voice a sense of authenticity and make sure that I am, yeah, being myself when I'm, when I'm talking. Then literally the best advice, just click post. I know like you're going to be reading over it, rereading it. You can always write posts better, but honestly, honestly, honestly, just click post, blah, done, easy. And then I wouldn't post and go. So don't forget about it. And what I would then do is go back and see if anyone's commented on it. Those people that have commented on it, reply to those comments, like other people's posts, drop them a DM, say, oh, thanks for commenting. Do you know what I mean? Like build these connections and start to really build a presence on LinkedIn. If you keep it regular and keep it consistent, people are going to get used to seeing your content and they're going to want to engage with it. So as long as you're being yourself, then you're going to be able to really help build yourself a network. So that's kind of what I do on LinkedIn. Number one, take notes from your everyday life about what you might want to post about. Number two, write a post in your authentic voice. Go back, make it more authentic. Number three, don't post and ghost. Those are sort of like the three pillars of creating content on LinkedIn, I would say. But let's dive a little bit deeper into what makes a good LinkedIn post. So we've already talked about it being a topic that like you might have questioned in the past, or you feel like other people are going through the same issue, but how do you make it an engaging post to read? How do you make sure that people click that little see more button and actually want to read your post? So I recently experimented with this. So I started doing like your hook, basically. Your first line is everything. Start it with like a question or make it punchy. Make it like one line that's going to make people want to click that see more button. So let's go through an example of like a bad one, and then we'll compare it to like a good one. So a bad, like, not a bad one, but like an average one might be like ways to write a better literature review. Fine. We know what it's going to be about. People might click on that. But another one could be five ways to write a kick-ass literature review. There you go. Like it's five ways. You know what you're going to get, and then you can bullet point it. I would say avoid long blocks of text because people's attention span is like not very good. So make it short, snappy, and engaging. And that's what I'd say is a recipe for good LinkedIn posts. I am not like perfect at this. I'm definitely not an expert, but this is just what I've done in the past. And it's like helped my posts a little bit, um, get a bit better. But yeah, the main thing is just being authentic and not being trying to be anyone but yourself, because that's ultimately what makes you, you. So that's like a good one for LinkedIn, I would say. The sun honestly got so bright over there. So I've moved over here. I'm really sorry. Like this video has been very, lots of different locations, but hey, maybe that's like fun and interesting. I don't know. So finally, I kind of want to share with you my LinkedIn analytics for the last year. So I started posting on LinkedIn a year ago. I had like less than a hundred connections. I didn't really know anybody. And I just really want to show you the power of posting on LinkedIn. Um, I'm by no means like the best LinkedIn creator. I'm literally just a grad student, like trying to answer some questions that I found answers to and trying to help people navigate their PhD journey along the way. So I'm in no way like a LinkedIn guru or expert here, but this is just the stuff that I've done. And it's really, really, really made a difference to me. Let us log in to my LinkedIn. Okay. So here we are. This is my LinkedIn profile. So as you can see, like this is just today, not today, but like in the last seven days, I've had 30,000, almost 500 impressions on my post. Like that is, and I've had 2,118 profile views. So that's people that clicked on my profile to find out more. And this is what I mean, like this kind of stuff is massive for when you come to searching for jobs, it means that people are like, oh, let's have a look at her. Like what's she doing? Content performance. So let's go with the last year, because that's kind of when I started posting on LinkedIn. So I started posting on LinkedIn, as you can see on January the 29th, we can see like a little spike there. So in the last year, I've had almost, well, I say almost a million impressions, like not really, but we've had 729,000 content impressions, which is massive. Okay. And we can see like the spikes, the content that did like particularly well, my top performing posts it gives you down here. So this is when like I obviously went to Cornell, but this is the kind of power that LinkedIn can have. You could also see like how many people have engaged with your posts, how many people have commented, liked, viewed my profile, that kind of thing. I've gone from basically literally zero engagements at all to a lot. That's the sort of power of posting regularly on LinkedIn. I've posted consistently at least three times a week on LinkedIn every single week since then. And it's really become like part of my routine, but I cannot stress enough how valuable I think this is for graduate students. There is something that you can offer. You don't have to be an expert. Just sharing your unique experiences can really, really help other people in the same boat. That's literally what I've done. And it's really helped me. It's just like super good. So we can go into the audience tab here, and then you can sort of see the top demographics of people that you're reaching. So for me, I want to be reaching people in research, veterinarians, and that is exactly who we've got. So we've got veterinarian, veterinary surgeon. That means those people are looking at my profile and following me. And hopefully that could be useful one day for when I start to get a job. Wow. I mean, this has kind of been like information overload when it comes to LinkedIn and stuff. And I don't want to overwhelm people, but I do want to say that thank you so much for watching this video. I really hope that it has been helpful in figuring out what LinkedIn is and hopefully helpful at convincing you that you really should get LinkedIn and start being active on it. I really think that building your network is a huge part of being a graduate student, and it is one of the key things that you should be doing in your PhD anyway. So start early, get on the LinkedIn, start making those connections. And yeah, I just sort of share my framework and what I've done. Obviously it's not going to work for everyone and you can take like bits of that and adapt it and see how you go. But yeah, if you do have a LinkedIn, like please drop it below. I would love to give you a follow. And if you've liked this video, please leave me a thumbs up. If you have any questions, drop me a comment below. And if you want to see more content, like this PhD advice and stuff, then please subscribe to my channel. It means a lot. And thank you so much to everybody who is coming back week after week to support this teeny, tiny baby channel. And yeah, it means a lot. So I hope you enjoyed this video and it's giving you some food for thought. And I look forward to seeing everyone's LinkedIn posts up there soon. I will see you guys next week. Bye.