As a leader, you can leverage your presence on LinkedIn and become the face and voice of your brand. But many leaders make lasting mistakes that hinder their long-term success on the platform.

Of 180 million senior-level influencers on LinkedIn, a lack of engagement or placement will cost you visibility in your industry and the ability to maximize your revenue. LinkedIn is unlike any other platform as it creates niche communities and topic threads for specific industries. This is a goldmine opportunity for leaders to shine as authorities in their respective subjects.

LinkedIn has 900 million members worldwide from 2023 an untapped pool of leaders to network with. Once you find your industry tribe, you can easily connect with them through authoritative, original and engaging content.

So why not start growing your personal brand on LinkedIn today — while avoiding these eight LinkedIn mistakes?

Related: 5 LinkedIn content ideas for entrepreneurs to drive growth and visibility in 2023

8 LinkedIn mistakes to avoid (as a leader)

1. Profile content in the third person — A LinkedIn profile is not a PR biography. Authenticity and personalization are important qualities that will help you succeed on LinkedIn, and writing your profile “About” section in the third person is anything but authentic. Write the copy approachable and recognizable. Your biography is an important first impression, so mistakes here are best avoided.
2. Not being relatable — Think strategically about your voice and how your voice represents not only your company’s brand, but yourself. Leaders often leave the ‘voice creation process’ to their corporate branding team. It’s fine for the branding team to have input, but your LinkedIn profile does your personal brand. The last thing you want is a profile written by the marketing team that is unrelated to your voice and to you as a person. Leaders who thrive on LinkedIn have a relatable tone that is authentic.
3. Too focused on yourself — Your content and profile posts should not resonate with narcissism and should contain only personal achievements. Remember, your target audience and the community you’re trying to build are at the heart of your LinkedIn strategy. Without your community, your personal brand wouldn’t thrive, so shift the focus to them (and not just you).
4. Share company posts without comment — The social pressure to share content has exploded in recent years. But most leaders share content the wrong way. When you scroll through your feed, you’ll probably see leaders clicking the “share” button from their company posts and broadcasting it to their profiles. This has little influence on growth and success. Instead, write at least two paragraphs and add your individual wisdom to the company post before hitting publish.

   Related: Unlocking the Power of LinkedIn: How Entrepreneurs Can Leverage the Platform for Growth and Success

5. Do not publish original content – If your feed is full of reshared posts from the company, you may also fall victim to this error. Writing original content is the best way to grow your personal brand and position yourself as a leader in your field. Thought leadership is a strategic lever for any leader. For this to work, you need to integrate yourself at all levels of the content production process. As a leader, you are the brain and original insight for your brand. Your marketing team writes and creates, and maybe your personal assistant is the person who actually publishes the content. Multiple people can be part of the process, but you should be central to the project.
6. Placing long texts (without changing content types) – In a report shared by Similarweb, a LinkedIn user will only spend an average of 7 minutes and 38 seconds per day on the platform. In conclusion, we can say that you have very little time to grab the attention of your readers. Large blocks of text are a terrible viewing experience. To get more growth out of your posts, add a balanced mix of documents, polls, images, and text posts to your content calendar. This helps ensure that some of those 7 minutes are spent on your content.
7. Do not comment or comment on employee content — If you’ve gotten this far in your LinkedIn strategy by checking off points 1 through 6, your company’s branding strategy is probably strong and a employee branding program could also be part of it. Your employees are probably actively writing and publishing content on their personal LinkedIn profiles. As a leader, the next common mistake is not engaging with employee content. In addition to being a supportive leader, your understanding of their content will not only take your personal brand to the next level, but also encourage your employees to keep up the great work.
8. Lack of transparency — Many leaders are on LinkedIn to generate sales for their company. That’s a reasonable goal and makes perfect sense, but your traditional sales pitches probably won’t work on LinkedIn. Rather, they are too sales oriented and ‘focused on me’. Those who succeed on LinkedIn are community builders and engagers. Transparency plays an important role in developing relationships before the first sales message.

Related: 5 tips for using LinkedIn to become a bona fide thought leader

Now that you’re equipped with eight common LinkedIn mistakes by leaders, you can make sure you don’t make the same mistakes. LinkedIn is a valuable opportunity for a leader to grow their personal brand, strategically position their expertise, and generate leads. Avoid these pitfalls to thrive!