Step out of the shadows: Build YOUR brand in 2025

Communications professionals are messaging supercomputers. We help little-known brands blast through the social media noise, break into the 24/7 news cycle, and win accolades that make an impact.

In short, we’re amazing at promoting other people’s work. But we are often quite bad at promoting ourselves, and that means being forgotten by prospective clients and employers.

The good news is that most comms practitioners have already begun the journey – you have a LinkedIn profile. The next step is to treat yourself like a client:

1. Know your audience – in this case, clients/employers and their influencers who have LinkedIn profiles.
2. Reach those people with content that resonates with their pain points, opportunities, and emotions.
3. Make sure your content has styles your audience likes and keywords the algorithm loves.
4. Learn the LinkedIn writing “hook,” structure, photos, videos, etc.
5. Create partnerships with prospects and their influencers through comments on their posts, attending their virtual events, and reaching out with direct messages.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. That’s why Proven Media Solutions founder Dustin Siggins, PR consultant Lindsay Wilson, and Storyblok’s Brandon Watts recently gave their secret sauces to making LinkedIn work for them.

Four Key Takeaways

1. Don’t get caught up in vanity metrics. Sure, a lot of impressions feels good – but being recognized in a way that matters to you matters more. Proven Media Solutions has generated a new client every month since December; Lindsay has built a supportive community of like-minded people; and Brandon is speaking on prominent panels about how AI is changing the public relations industry.
2. Authenticity ≠ oversharing details of your personal life or your politics. Let your personality, knowledge, and unique points of view shine. That includes how you post – some of Brandon’s punchiest and most stand-out posts are literally two lines long. And personality can come out in how you say things or the images you use.
3. Don’t brag – but do share successes, advice, and lessons learned. Dustin shared two examples in this clip:

4. Perhaps most importantly, don’t let the algorithm get in your way. Many LinkedIn users spend too much energy on their posts and not enough building relationships and sharing their experiences on other people’s profiles, events, etc. Yes, your post matters – but just as diet, hydration, and rest matter more than lifting to build muscle…so does spending a lot more time on the virtual coffeehouse that is LinkedIn.

Seven Steps for Success

How you use LinkedIn to bring your brand into the light will depend on your specific needs and goals. But whether you are expanding your network, looking for work, or finding prospective clients, these seven steps will help you come out of the LinkedIn shadows in 2025:

🗸 Scheduling posts ahead of time. Yes, it can hurt the algorithm, but freeing up brain space and time is more important.

🗸 Engaging other people’s posts with questions, additional insights, and requests for further explanation of key points

🗸 Maxing out new connections in marketing, PR, and public affairs target audiences each week

🗸 DMing new contacts within 24 hours of connecting

🗸 Reaching out to people with whom he’s gelled for Zoom calls to shoot the breeze and discuss business opportunities

🗸 Using HubSpot to stay in front of prospects through a regular cadence of DMs and e-mails

🗸 Setting limits on how much time he spends on LinkedIn so he still has the bandwidth to do everything else it takes to run a company

You’re great at telling the stories that matter, and your own brand should be part of that message. LinkedIn isn’t the only way to make this happen, but it’s an effective and relatively easy place to start.

Watch the full Dustin, Lindsay, and Brandon conversation below!

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Dustin Siggins is the founder of Proven Media Solutions. A former Capitol Hill journalist, Dustin got into PR to help people’s great ideas get into the press. After six years as a freelancer, Dustin led communications for a trade association and started his company in 2018. Since then, he’s built a team that specializes in the nuts and bolts of earned media, supporting marketing, public relations, and public affairs teams and consultants who need help securing press for their clients and principals. With over 4,000 pieces of media coverage under his belt, at outlets ranging from HuffPost and National Review to USA TODAY and PR Week, Dustin has developed a method to the PR madness.

Written by: Editor