Building a Personal Brand on LinkedIn
Why personal branding matters more than ever
It’s widely acknowledged that LinkedIn is having a moment. With the rapid decline of Twitter/X and the search for alternatives, LinkedIn certainly came into its own. With new platform additions and a strong push for thought leadership content, it has become a thriving community for knowledge sharing and expertise.
Yet for many founders, LinkedIn remains an afterthought - with a lone work placement from 1997 still doing the heavy lifting on their profile.
We know, we get it. When you’re running a business, the last rabbit hole you want to disappear down is LinkedIn. It is seen as a time drain, and founders often complain that when they go on there, they see a load of stuff that isn’t relevant.
But ultimately, the only reason for that is that the algorithm has no real idea about what interests you. So it bases it on that barista role 20+ years ago and hopes for the best.
In today’s digital world, the truth is, founders need to be seen and understood. Your public profile acts as the face of your business and its ethos. LinkedIn offers a perfect platform to share this and can offer snapshots into your expertise and the company’s underpinning principles.
The Opportunity for Founders on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has quietly become one of the most powerful tools in a founder’s digital arsenal. And yet, it’s still underused - or misused - by many at the helm of early-stage and scaling companies.
In a landscape where attention is currency and trust is hard-won, a founder’s presence on LinkedIn offers a direct line of influence.. Your point of view. Your vision. Your decisions. People are increasingly interested in who is building something and how, not just what is being built. Carve a narrative that catches the attention of customers and industry insiders.
What makes LinkedIn unique is its hybrid role: part networking platform, part publishing tool, and part search engine. Unlike fleeting content on other social channels, LinkedIn (and finally now Instagram) is indexed by Google. Your posts live longer, your profile ranks high, and your commentary gets associated with your company’s direction. This is the rare case where being visible actually builds long-term equity - not just impressions.
And crucially: personal profiles on LinkedIn consistently outperform company pages in both reach and engagement. That isn’t a bug - it’s a feature. People engage with people. Especially in sectors where trust, category creation, or leadership positioning matters, a founder’s voice can cut through in ways brand accounts simply can’t.
There’s also a talent angle. Future hires - especially the senior, in-demand ones - are watching. They want to work with founders who have clarity, energy, and presence. Being visible as a founder isn’t just about marketing; it’s about magnetism.
For those ready to treat their profile not as a résumé, but as a digital front door, the opportunity is wide open.
What ‘Building a Personal Brand’ Really Means (On LinkedIn)
Let’s be clear: building a personal brand isn’t about becoming a thought leader, chasing likes, or sharing motivational quotes for the algorithm. On LinkedIn - especially as a founder - it’s about strategic visibility. Being known for the right things, by the right people, at the right time.
Source: Pexels
A strong personal brand on LinkedIn isn’t accidental. It’s the outcome of being intentional with your narrative, your presence, and your digital footprint. It’s about showing up in a way that aligns with the business you’re building, the values you represent, and the conversations you want to shape.
This isn’t about frequency. You don’t need to post daily. But when you do speak - whether it’s about product decisions, market shifts, leadership lessons, or the founder experience - it should build a coherent picture of who you are and why it matters, be intentional.
More than ever, audiences (investors, talent, press, customers) make decisions based on what they see online. That means your LinkedIn presence isn’t a side project - it’s an extension of your business strategy.
Here’s what building a personal brand really looks like on LinkedIn:
Clarity of message – Are you consistently reinforcing the same themes and values?
Credibility through action – Are you demonstrating, not just stating, what you believe in?
Relevance to your audience – Are you joining the right conversations, not just starting them?
Done right, your LinkedIn profile becomes more than a summary of your past - it becomes a signal of your future.
Why Now? Timing, Visibility, and Algorithm Shifts
Surge in Senior Presence in the UK
A remarkable 85% of FTSE 100 CEOs now have active LinkedIn profiles, up from just 12% in 2023.
Content from C-suite professionals delivers 4× higher engagement than typical user content, with UK executive activity up roughly 30% in recent years.
This surge isn’t vanity - it’s utility. Investors, media, hires, and partners are actively following CEOs with an eye toward real-time insight and credibility.
Platform-Wide Algorithm Overhaul Centred on Expertise
LinkedIn’s 2025 algorithm changes place a heavy premium on:
Expertise and domain-led content - insight, industry analysis, and advice now get higher distribution.
Engagement quality over quantity - meaningful comments and dwell time signal trust more than “like bait” tactics.
Native content formats - text posts, carousels, videos and newsletters are preferred over outbound links, which can reduce reach by up to 25–35%
Posts seen in the first “golden hour” that perform well often continue surfacing for weeks: timeliness still matters, but relevance now matters more.
Feed Philosophy Shift: Relevance Over Recency
As of mid‑June 2025, LinkedIn tweaked its feed to surface older but more relevant posts-sometimes even two to three weeks old - if they match your professional interests or past interactions.
This change rewards evergreen insight and thoughtful commentary over flash-in-the-pan posts.
Engagement & Growth Trends in the UK
The UK is part of LinkedIn’s fastest-growing regions, where penetration among professionals aged 25–44is rising. Platform-wide, users now spend an average of 33 minutes daily on the platform, driving a 12% rise in engagement year-over-year. Meanwhile, video posts generate up to 5× more engagement than text, and carousels remain top performers for dwell time and saves.
Why This Timing Matters for Founders Now
Market positioning: With executive usage at record levels, founders who post insightfully can stand out amidst rising noise
Algorithm alignment: The platform now actively rewards consistent, expert-led, native content-precisely what founders can deliver
Longevity of impact: Quality posts reach beyond the initial hour and feed-amplifying credibility and search visibility over time
First-mover advantage within sectors: Many industries still underutilise thoughtful founder content, meaning early leaders enjoy disproportionate visibility
Key Takeaways for Founders
Source: Pexels
Show up now: Senior visibility on LinkedIn is no longer optional - it’s expected
Prioritise expertise, not gimmicks: Quality, relevant content over rapid-fire posting or applause bait
Lean into native formats: Video, carousels, articles, and newsletters outperform external links
Think beyond virality: Posts that resonate continue delivering exposure weeks later
Test, reflect and refine: See what’s working and what isn’t. Not everything will stick. LinkedIn Analytics are pretty comprehensive and can tell you exactly what is of interest to your audience and what is worth ditching.
Three Signals of a Strong Founder Brand
The best founder LinkedIn profiles feel effortless - but they’re anything but accidental.
So what makes a strong founder identity? Here are our 3 top tips for founders when building a personal brand on LinkedIn.
Be consistent with your messaging. Ensure that across all channels, both on and offline, your message is the same. As a founder, you have the ability to make it personal. The U in USP is what made you set up the business in the first place. Talk about, in the same way across all marketing touchpoints
Make sure the strategic narrative aligns with your business. Every year or so, you will be sitting down to define your strategy for the year ahead, refining an existing strategy or at least, you should be! When selecting topics to write about, think about whether they respond to those objectives. What do you want potential customers to think, feel and do?
Know when and where to show up. Be smart with your engagement. It doesn’t mean hours on the platform. It means showing up, even for 5 - 10 minutes, ideally daily. Choose when to simply react to a post and when to actively respond. This will help not only train your own algorithms but also expose you to others' followings; a great networking opportunity.
The SEO Payoff
LinkedIn isn’t just a social platform - it’s a high-authority domain that plays a quiet but powerful role in how founders show up in search.
Your LinkedIn Profile Often Ranks First
Search for your name or your company’s leadership team. In most cases, a personal LinkedIn profile is among the top results - often ahead of your own company site, media coverage, or financial profile. That’s not a coincidence: LinkedIn has a domain authority of 98/100.
Think of it as your always-on, founder-led landing page - except you don’t have to pay to rank for it.
Strong Personal Brands Strengthen Domain Authority
Google increasingly rewards people-first content - real opinions, experience, and commentary from identifiable individuals.
When founders publish high-quality content that gets linked to, shared, or embedded, it indirectly contributes to their company’s perceived authority. Especially when that founder is clearly connected to the business through their bio, backlinks, and topic consistency.
In short, your personal brand can become a feeder channel for your company’s organic search performance.
SEO + Social = Strategic Visibility
Here’s where this gets interesting. SEO and LinkedIn are often treated as separate disciplines. But in practice, they’re deeply connected:
Google ranks personal profiles high.
LinkedIn content helps shape search perception.
Branded search queries (your name, company name, category term) are all influenced by what people see on your LinkedIn.
And unlike paid campaigns, this visibility compounds over time.
Most founders invest in their site and product SEO - but forget the asset that’s already ranking on page one: them. Building a personal brand on LinkedIn isn’t just good for credibility. It’s good for Google.
For Founders Looking to Have Impact, We Can Help
If your website is your business card, your LinkedIn is your handshake. Done right, it builds momentum, credibility, and scale and can have a significant impact on your broader founder strategy, which we’ve outlined in our other Journal article.
For founders serious about stepping into this space, strategy comes first. We regularly work with those in the design space to develop digital campaigns for founders that have impact. Get in touch with us to discuss it further.
