How to grow your personal brand on LinkedIn™ through speaking

Most people think of text posts when they think of LinkedIn™.

But you’re ignoring a massive opportunity to grow your presence and brand if you’re not speaking.

And I don’t just mean creating videos.

Speaking on LinkedIn™ could take on many forms – and the list below is in order of least effort to “I may not be ready for that yet”:

• Being a guest on a Linkedin audio event.
• Being a guest on a podcast and sharing a video extract.
• Creating your own short videos to share.
• Being a guest on a LinkedIn™ live video event.
• Creating your own podcast and sharing snippets on LinkedIn™.
• Creating and hosting your own LinkedIn™ live video events.

All of these speaking opportunities bring more visibility to you, your brand and your business.

Collaborations with other creators to speak at LinkedIn™ events gives you visibility to their audience.

Becoming more visible through speaking is the exact strategy that I used to grow from 3,000 to 35,000+ followers in a year. And more than that – I built my entire coaching business on LinkedIn™ and 99% of my clients tell me, “I loved seeing you on that video”.

But there’s a catch of course.

You can only do a good job at speaking at a LinkedIn™ event or creating your videos if you have a clear message to share and you know how to deliver it well.

So here’s my step-by-step guide on how to gain more visibility through speaking and sharing your message strategically on LinkedIn™:

1. Create your speaking strategy

Start with the lower hanging fruits: being a guest on other podcasts and live events. This way you don’t need to worry about the logistics of recording or live-streaming and can just focus on your message and delivery.

Find two types of collaboration opportunities:

1. Relevant podcasts where you can share your experience.
2. Creators hosting live events on LinkedIn™.

When you’re just starting out, approach podcasts as a way to practice your stories and your speaking skills: start small and then work your way up.

For Linkedin collaborators, first reach out and establish a relationship with creators who are relevant to your industry or audience who are also hosting live events (this step requires some research).

2. Develop your pitch

When you find the right podcast or the right live event that you want to pitch yourself as a guest on, develop a personalized pitch that shows that you understand the audience and that you have real value to bring to the podcast.

A good pitch has these key elements:

1. Who you are.
2. What you’re known for.
3. How you’ll bring value to the podcast/event.

Pro tip: Don’t pitch-slap: take time to build a relationship with the creator or podcast host first, especially if they’re already active on LinkedIn™.

Pro tip #2: When you get a “yes”, ask the creator or podcast host if they would be willing to share the full video of the podcast with you later on so that you can use it on your own LinkedIn™.

3. Craft your stories:

Before you start speaking on podcasts and events, take time to work on the stories from your life and work that you can talk about.

Start with brainstorming on the big 5-10 stories of your life.
Write these out. Pro tip: they will also serve as great content for written posts.
Now condense them into “beats” so that you don’t need to memorize them.
These will serve as a backbone for your messaging on podcasts and live events.

4. Refine your speaking skills and delivery

It’s time to invest in your speaking skills. The best podcast in the world won’t help you build visibility if you don’t know how to speak well.

The basics of speaking well that will help you become a compelling speaker:

1. Being concise with your responses – learn how to say a lot with a little. Leave them wanting more.
2. Varying your pitch and pace – too many speakers sound monotonous because they’re not being intentional about the way that they speak.
3. Take strategic pauses: pauses add drama, allow the audience to think and reflect and let you think of the next thing in a more organized way.
4. Body language: Just because you’re on camera doesn’t mean you can’t play with your body language. Know where the frame is and make sure you utilize your gestures to highlight important points.
5. Energy: this is possibly THE most overlooked aspect of speaking well: impactful speakers know how to turn themselves on and add energy to their speaking style.

Pro tip: Work with a coach if you don’t have a lot of experience or if you don’t feel confident or articulate enough when you deliver your message.

5. Leverage the content as snippets on LinkedIn™

This is the fun part. Now that you’ve done the hard work, you can have fun with the content you’ve helped create.

Request the collaborator that you worked with for a full version of the video interview (remember you asked them if they were ok with this in step 2). Find important, pithy lessons or stories that you shared that you can extract from the interview. These moments should be no longer than 1.5-2 minutes.

Now you have some solid content to start showcasing on LinkedIn™, showing you speaking on your subject of expertise and delivering crisp, memorable messages. This is just the start – once you’re comfortable with being a guest on shows, work your way up horizontally and vertically: find higher profile podcasts and events to speak at, and also expand your strategy to creating your own video content.

Your own videos will give you a lot more creative control and you’ll be able to re-shoot them multiple times if you’re not happy with the “first” take. The gold is in iteration – once a few parts of the speaking strategy work, add on other parts and keep evaluating what’s working for you.

Speaking well will give you an unfair advantage over your competition and showcasing your speaking skills on LinkedIn™ will make you stand out in your industry as a thought leader.

About me: I work with founders, entrepreneurs and execs at companies like Amazon, IBM, AT&T and SAP to become memorable speakers. Through our coaching work, my clients have gained the confidence and articulation skills to speak on global stages like TEDx, live events and broadcasts and create original videos effortlessly.

Want to learn more about this topic? Make sure to follow Nausheen I. Chen on LinkedIn™, or on her website.