Shift #38 - LinkedIn Branding Lab & Workshop
Friday, June 28, 2024 | 12-1:30 pm CST/1-2:30 pm EST (1 hr 30 min)
Details
Michelle Hurt, student/intern
Jennifer Gonzalez, practicum supervisor
This is a screenshot of the beginning of the LinkedIn workshop. The chat on the right is a great feature, because it's a way that participants can interact. We're encouraged, at the start of every webinar, to put our location and the program we're associated with. This time, we also needed to put our LinkedIn profile link.
This workshop was extremely helpful. I've had my LinkedIn profile active for a long time now but it's only been the last few years that I've really used it. I notice that many profiles are very basic while others are really well done. It turns out, you can make your profile work for you and showcase your brand. During the workshop, we received practical tips that we could implement right away. For example, the banner photo is something we should utilize; it shouldn't be an afterthought. Kimberly, one of the hosts, called it real estate and to use it to showcase who we are. We also learned to evaluate our current profile and ask a few questions: Is the profile inviting? Is it accessible? Thinking about these things will help us to present ourselves well, especially to our professional advantage. One thing that I had never thought about was that I could have my own personal brand; I didn't need to be a business to have one. Personal brand is "what people say about you when you aren't in the room" (Jeff Bezos). It is also your reputation and what makes you unique, so it's important to know how to position ourselves in such a way to make an impression in the minds and hearts of people.
We were also encouraged to view our Library of Congress internship as a brand accelerator. With our experiences this summer, it will help build our brand. We considered how this internship can leverage our talents, accomplish goals, develop new skills and competencies, connect with Library of Congress staff and other interns, and our ability to be agile and adaptable. Asides from very practical tips from our hosts, we were also placed in breakout rooms to talk about personal brand. My breakout room was with two other interns, Brenna and Onur whom I have connected on LinkedIn. We each had to say the three most important things we want to convey when someone finds our LinkedIn profile and views it for the first time. For myself, I stated that I want to convey that I am kind, determined, and professional. Lastly, once we were done with the breakout rooms, we went back to the main room in Zoom and heard one of our hosts talk about her own LinkedIn profile and her process to update it accordingly. My main takeaway from that part of the workshop is that we can use our different experiences to our advantage. For example, our host is a musician but she is also a librarian and her profile reflects both aspects of her life. This was really encouraging because I am both a parent and an employee and I can do both well (for the most part, ha!). So many great lessons learned from this workshop and I'm grateful that the Library of Congress continues to equip us interns for success.
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