You update your LinkedIn profile, share an occasional professional insight and engage with people in your network, but have you ever stopped to consider what these activities are actually helping you achieve?
It’s possible to spend considerable time building a social media presence without being particularly clear about the professional reputation you’re trying to develop.
You may attract followers without becoming better understood for your expertise. Or you might remain relatively quiet online despite having valuable experience that could contribute to conversations in your field.
Having worked in marketing and communications for many years, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of setting objectives before choosing communication activities.
We wouldn’t ordinarily recommend that a business invest in a marketing campaign without first understanding what it wants to accomplish and who it needs to reach.
I believe the same principle applies to personal branding.
If social media is part of your professional visibility strategy, it helps to be clear about what you want that presence to achieve, and that means setting personal branding goals that go beyond simply becoming more active online.
Here are five goals worth considering if you want your social media presence to strengthen your professional credibility and support your career ambitions.
1. Define and Refine Your Professional Value Proposition
One of the first things I would encourage any professional to do is examine how clearly they communicate their value.
We often assume that our experience speaks for itself, particularly after spending years working in a particular industry or developing expertise in a specific field, but someone encountering your professional profile for the first time doesn’t have the benefit of knowing your career history.
They may only see a job title, a brief summary and a few contributions you’ve shared online.
So, What impression does that information create?
And more importantly, would they understand what your professional expertise is useful for?
Consider a senior human resources professional whose LinkedIn headline describes them as passionate about people, leadership and transformation.
Those interests, though relevant, do not tell us much about the specific contribution the professional makes.
Now imagine a description that explains their experience in helping organisations strengthen leadership capability and navigate workforce change.
The second gives people a clearer understanding of the problems they can help address.
This is where your unique value proposition becomes useful.
It brings together the expertise you’ve developed, the problems you understand and the contribution you want to be associated with.
Your value proposition should provide an accurate and understandable explanation of what you bring to your field.
Your Personal Branding Goal
Within the next two weeks, review how you describe your professional value on your primary social media platform.
Identify the problems you help address, the experience that supports your contribution and the professional audience most likely to benefit.
Then ask two people who understand your work whether your description accurately reflects your expertise.
Don’t worry about creating the perfect headline.
Focus on making your professional value easier for relevant people to understand.
2. Audit Your Social Media Presence for Clarity, Evidence and Relevance
Once you’ve clarified your professional value proposition, the next step is examining whether your online presence supports it.
Many personal branding audits focus on profile photographs, banners, biographies and consistency across platforms.
And while these elements matter, a professional profile should be current, appropriate and easy to understand.
People need evidence that supports the capabilities you’re presenting.
Suppose a professional describes themselves as an experienced business transformation leader.
Their profile might contain an impressive biography and several statements about driving change, building teams and delivering results, yet there may be little information demonstrating the kind of transformation work they’ve actually undertaken.
A relevant project description, case study, recommendation or professional contribution could help others understand that experience more clearly.
This doesn’t mean publishing confidential details or claiming credit for work delivered by an entire team.
No. It means finding appropriate ways to demonstrate what you’ve contributed and learned.
When reviewing your professional presence, I would focus on three questions.
Clarity: Can someone quickly understand my professional expertise and the problems I help solve?
Evidence: What examples, achievements or contributions support the capabilities I’m claiming?
Relevance: Does my profile reflect the professional direction I want to pursue, or is it primarily a record of responsibilities I’ve held in the past?
These questions are particularly important for experienced professionals considering a transition.
You may have developed capabilities that are relevant to your next career move, but your profile could still be emphasising the work you’ve been doing for the past several years.
An audit gives you an opportunity to identify that gap.
Sometimes, updating a few descriptions and adding a credible example of your work can make your professional value considerably easier to understand.
Your Personal Branding Goal
Over the next month, review your primary professional profile and identify three areas that need improvement.
Prioritise clarity, evidence and relevance before focusing on visual changes.
For example, you might refine your headline, add a description of an important project and update your professional summary to reflect your current ambitions.
Your objective is to ensure that what people encounter online gives them an accurate understanding of your experience.
3. Invest in Personal Development That Strengthens Your Credibility
Personal branding is not just about communicating what we already know, it also involves making sure our knowledge and capabilities remain relevant.
This becomes increasingly important as industries, technologies and professional expectations change.
A strong reputation built over many years is valuable, but it doesn’t mean we can rely indefinitely on the same knowledge and approaches.
We need to keep learning.
However, let’s make an important distinction between acquiring credentials and demonstrating professional capability.
Consider someone who completes a course in data analytics.
They may update their LinkedIn profile with the qualification, which communicates an interest in developing new skills, but if they’re able to explain how they applied what they learned to interpret business data or support a workplace decision, other people have a clearer opportunity to understand the value of that learning.
The same applies to sustainability, leadership, digital technology and other areas of professional development.
Qualifications can be important, particularly where specific credentials are required, but the contribution becomes more meaningful when you can connect what you’ve learned with how you think or work.
I’ve also found that personal development doesn’t always have to involve formal education.
Sometimes, taking on a challenging assignment, working with a different team, seeking mentorship or participating in a professional initiative can expand our capabilities.
What matters is being intentional about the skills and knowledge we’re developing.
And when sharing that development online, you don’t have to turn every learning experience into an announcement.
You might instead explain an insight that challenged your thinking, a technique you’ve begun applying or a question you’re still exploring.
These contributions can help others understand how your expertise is evolving.
Your Personal Branding Goal
Identify one capability that would strengthen your professional contribution or support your next career ambition.
Over the next 60 days, commit to developing it and finding one practical opportunity to apply what you’re learning.
You might contribute to a project, experiment with a new approach in your work or participate in a discussion where the knowledge is relevant.
At the end of the period, reflect on what you can now do or understand differently.
If you choose to share that experience online, focus on the practical insight rather than simply announcing that you’ve completed another course.
4. Develop a Visibility and PR Strategy That Reaches the Right People
One of the most common mistakes professionals make is deciding what to post before considering who they want to reach.
Perhaps you’ve been told to publish several times a week, share videos or start a newsletter.
These activities, though useful, do not build a credible professional reputation.
Before choosing a format, think about the people whose awareness of your work would be valuable.
Are you trying to become better known among leaders in your industry?
Would you like potential employers to understand your strategic capabilities?
Perhaps you’re preparing for consulting or advisory work and want relevant organisations to become familiar with your perspective.
Your answers should influence where and how you contribute.
For example, a finance professional interested in future advisory responsibilities might benefit from participating in discussions about financial governance, risk and business decision-making.
They may choose to share informed observations on LinkedIn, contribute to a professional association or develop an article examining an issue they’ve encountered through their work. This could be more relevant than maintaining a demanding video schedule across several platforms.
I would also encourage professionals to look beyond social media when considering visibility.
An industry event, professional publication or relevant speaking opportunity can complement what you communicate online.
In our article, Social Media or Traditional Media: Which Builds a Stronger Personal Brand?, we explore how different channels can work together to strengthen professional visibility and credibility.
The objective is to create appropriate opportunities for the people who matter to your professional goals to encounter and evaluate your expertise.
Your Personal Branding Goal
For the next eight weeks, identify one professional audience, one relevant digital channel and one contribution activity you can realistically sustain.
You might share two thoughtful insights drawn from your professional experience, participate regularly in discussions within your field or make a useful resource accessible to relevant peers.
Choose an approach that fits your strengths and available time.
At the end of eight weeks, consider whether your contributions have helped people understand the subjects you want to be associated with.
You may discover that one channel deserves more of your attention, while another adds little value to your objectives.
5. Measure Whether Your Social Media Presence Is Building Credibility
One thing I’ve learned through working in marketing is that measurement becomes much more useful when we’re clear about what we want to achieve.
The same applies to personal branding.
Social media platforms give us access to several readily available metrics.
We can see how many people viewed a post, reacted to a contribution, visited our profile or began following us.
These numbers are good but they don’t tell us whether our professional credibility is improving.
You could gain hundreds of followers without becoming better understood for your expertise. Equally, an article with modest engagement might prompt a meaningful conversation with a professional whose work closely relates to yours. Neither situation should evaluated by numbers alone.
I would encourage professionals to distinguish between three types of measurement.
Activity: What Have You Actually Done?
This includes actions such as updating your professional profile, sharing relevant insights, participating in discussions and developing resources.
Tracking activity helps you understand whether you’re following through on your intentions.
Attention: Are People Encountering Your Work?
Profile visits, post impressions, reactions and follower growth can provide indications that your content is reaching people.
These metrics are useful, particularly when you’re trying to understand which subjects and formats attract interest, however, they should be interpreted alongside the professional audiences you’re trying to engage.
A large number of views from people who have little connection to your objectives may be less useful than a smaller audience with a strong interest in your expertise.
Professional Response: What Are People Doing With Your Contribution?
This is where measurement becomes particularly interesting.
Are people asking relevant questions about your work?
Have professional peers recommended a resource you’ve shared?
Are you receiving invitations to contribute to discussions connected to your area of expertise?
Has someone referred to an insight you’ve developed or explained how it helped them approach a problem?
These responses can provide stronger indications that your expertise is being understood and considered useful.
Of course, not every valuable contribution will generate a visible response, and receiving one invitation or request for advice doesn’t automatically make someone a recognised authority, but looking at patterns over time can help you make more informed decisions about your professional presence.
This connects closely with The Credible Contributor stage of the Credibility Curve, where we explore why the usefulness of professional contributions matters more than how frequently we publish them.
Your Personal Branding Goal
At the beginning of your personal branding plan, record what you currently know about your professional visibility and reputation.
Then review your progress after 30, 60 and 90 days.
Ask yourself what you’ve completed, which relevant people have engaged with your work and what evidence suggests your professional value is becoming easier to understand.
If something isn’t working, consider whether the problem lies in your message, the audience you’re reaching, the channel you’re using or the substance of your contribution.
The purpose of measurement is to help you decide what deserves more attention and what you may need to change.
A Practical Exercise: Set One 90-Day Social Media Credibility Goal
We’ve explored five personal branding goals, but I wouldn’t recommend trying to accomplish all of them at once.
A good starting point is identifying the one area that would make the greatest difference to your professional reputation today.
Set aside 15 minutes and work through the following questions.
Step 1: Choose Your Main Objective
What would you most like to improve over the next 90 days?
Perhaps you want people to understand your expertise more clearly.
Maybe you need to demonstrate capabilities that aren’t currently visible in your professional profile.
Or you want to participate more meaningfully in industry discussions.
Choose the objective that most closely supports your current career ambitions.
Step 2: Identify Your Intended Audience
Who needs to become more familiar with your work?
Be specific.
It could be leaders in your industry, prospective clients, hiring managers, professional peers or people involved in an area where you want to contribute.
Understanding your audience helps you choose activities that are more relevant.
Step 3: Decide What You Will Do
Choose one or two actions you can realistically complete within the next three months.
For example, you might update your LinkedIn positioning and share two professional insights supported by your experience.
Or you could develop a useful resource and participate in relevant discussions where people may benefit from it.
Avoid creating a plan that requires more time than you can reasonably commit.
Step 4: Decide What Evidence You’ll Look For
How will you know whether your actions have helped?
You might ask trusted professional contacts whether your profile communicates your strengths clearly.
You could track the quality of discussions generated by your contributions or whether relevant people begin associating you with a particular subject.
Where possible, look for specific examples rather than relying on general impressions.
Step 5: Review at 30, 60 and 90 Days
At each checkpoint, ask what you’ve completed, what response you’ve received and what you’ve learned.
If the evidence is limited, don’t assume the entire effort has failed.
You may need more time, a clearer message or a different way of reaching your intended audience.
The objective is to develop a more informed approach to building your professional reputation.
What Could This Look Like in Practice?
Imagine a senior professional who wants to be recognised for their experience in organisational transformation.
Their 90-day goal might be:
Over the next three months, I want relevant professionals in my industry to understand my experience in organisational transformation. I will refine my LinkedIn positioning, share two insights drawn from projects I’ve worked on and participate in discussions about workforce and organisational change.
I’ll review whether my contributions are generating relevant questions, professional conversations or feedback that suggests people are beginning to associate me with this expertise.
This gives the professional a clear objective, a manageable set of actions and a way to evaluate progress.
The specific activities may differ depending on your circumstances.
What matters is choosing goals that reflect the professional reputation you want to develop.
Your Social Media Presence Should Have a Purpose
It’s easy to become busy with personal branding, but activity alone doesn’t necessarily strengthen your reputation.
You need to understand what you’re trying to achieve, who you want to reach and what would give those people a reason to recognise and trust your expertise.
That might involve clarifying your professional positioning, providing better evidence of your capabilities, developing new knowledge or becoming more intentional about where you contribute.
It also means taking time to evaluate what’s working rather than simply adding more activities.
Having worked in marketing and communications for many years, I believe we should approach our professional reputations with some of the same discipline we bring to organisational communication.
Start with the objective.
Understand the audience.
Choose appropriate activities.
Then evaluate the response.
You don’t need to become a full-time content creator to build a credible professional presence, but if you’re investing your time in social media, it makes sense to ensure those efforts support the professional reputation and opportunities you’re working towards.
Your goal should be to give the right people stronger reasons to understand and trust your professional expertise.
