The one thing that PR and comms professionals excel at is promoting their clients, but when it comes to themselves, it’s not a priority, especially on LinkedIn.

I've heard it all:

• I have a job, so I don’t need LinkedIn.
• I don’t have time to create content.
• LinkedIn is for people with huge egos.

There are tons of objections. There always will be. The benefits of building a personal brand aren’t widely publicised, but everyone can agree that having a strong network and making people more aware of the value you can bring to an organisation is never bad. LinkedIn can do all these things. And if you’re in the UAE, you have the benefit of joining a LinkedIn community on steroids. 

The UAE is one of the most active LinkedIn markets in the world, with a penetration of about 90% amongst the country’s professionals, compared to about 36% in the UK and 20-30% across Europe. 

More activity means greater engagement, making it easier for users to meet more people and gain more return on investment on the platform. If there’s one place in the world to build a presence on LinkedIn, it’s here.

But what are the exact benefits of LinkedIn to PR and comms professionals?

Insurance if you lose your job

Fear-mongering aside, the number one thing that people who lose their jobs in the UAE say is: “I wish I’d kept up my network”. Why? Most people find a job through their network, not by mindlessly filling out online applications, especially in our industry.

By leveraging your network, you can access inside information about available jobs and get introductions to hiring managers. Instead of throwing your hat in with the thousands of other job seekers applying on the same job listing, you will already have a mini army of ambassadors for team "you". They’ve been following your journey, consuming your content, and learning from you. They know you and trust you, so they’ll be comfortable referring you for job openings within their companies. And referrals are powerful. A candidate with a strong referral is four times more likely to be hired than a candidate without.

Also, 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates. Do you think a recruiter is going to choose the person who never posts and doesn’t have a profile picture or the person who is active and posting industry-specific news every week?

Internal visibility

Invisible work has no value. If people don’t know what you do, they can’t value it.

Most people think this isn’t true. We’re taught that if we work hard, people will notice and we will magically get promoted. But everyone is busy. They barely have time to pay attention to their own families, let alone what you’re up to at work. You need to make your value visible. The easiest place to do this in LinkedIn.

Increasing visibility doesn’t mean virtue signalling or bragging (although these aren’t necessarily bad). Simple tactics like sharing behind-the-scenes photos from important client events or celebrating a new business win show the big bosses that you are relevant and doing good work. When promotion time rolls around, and your name is added to the pile, they’ll remember you because they consumed your content, i.e, your personal brand will do the heavy lifting for you.

Find new clients

If you really want to impress your boss and gain some job security in the process, haul in some new clients. LinkedIn is a gold mine for business development, something that people in our industry don’t realise. The platform is widely cited as the source of about 80% of all B2B social-media leads. Having a strong presence and interacting with potential clients, like marketing and communication directors, is the formula for increasing the agency’s bottom line (and yours). A simple way to start is to send a connection request and pitch them a simple PR idea that they haven’t thought of.

The prevailing wisdom dictates that a LinkedIn presence is a ‘nice to have’, but the reality is: a strong online presence is essential in today’s job market. Having a robust, active network and a well-defined personal brand can significantly accelerate your PR or communications career.

Annie Meikle is the founder of Meikle Communications which delivers strategic thought leadership programmes to corporates and senior executives, mainly on B2B platforms like LinkedIn. The company also designs and implements employee advocacy programmes within companies across the Middle East.