Summarize with AI
In September, Coral Norman led Pink Dog Digital’s webinar on personal branding for professionals. The session covered how to figure out what your brand should say, how to put it to work on LinkedIn, and how to keep it going without burning out.
The full transcript is here if you want every detail. These are the points worth bringing into your own week.
Start With Three Questions
Coral opened with the idea that personal branding applies to anyone in a professional setting, from CEOs to people early in their careers. Before touching a LinkedIn profile, she recommends journaling on three questions:
- Who are you?
- How do you show up for your clients, your team, and your network?
- What are you known for in your circles?
Then ask two or three colleagues or friends to answer the same questions about you. Their answers often surface strengths you overlook.
Coral used Pink Dog owner Gina Ramsey as an example. In Baltimore, Gina is known for knowing everybody and for her read on the SEO and AI landscape, and her LinkedIn activity reflects both.
Put the Layers to Work on LinkedIn
Once you know what your brand is, LinkedIn gives you three places to apply it.
Your profile. Fill it out completely, and write your headline around what you help people do. Coral’s own profile describes how she helps brands position themselves to bring in leads that convert. Your About section should tell the story of your career and what it lets you offer others.
Your content. Three posts a week is the goal, but one or two is a sustainable place to start. Every post should connect back to the layers you journaled.
Your engagement. LinkedIn rewards people who participate. Spend 20 minutes before and after you post commenting on other people’s content, and reply to the comments on your own.
Use AI as a Starting Point
Coral was direct about AI slop: people can spot unedited AI posts, flyers, and headshots right away. However, she also sees a practical use for AI. Feed your journaling and your colleagues’ answers into an AI tool and ask it to help you build out your personal brand. Then read everything it produces, correct anything it made up, and rework it until it sounds like you.
Teach, Believe, Learn
For thought leadership, Coral sorted content into three buckets.
Teach what you know. Expertise you take for granted is often exactly what your audience wants to hear. Her example was a post pulling the top takeaways out of Google I/O so readers could skip hours of announcements.
Share what you believe. Coral told the story of her kids’ summer lemonade stand, where the fun of setting up gave way to the boredom of waiting for customers. It became a post about how business is sometimes boring and still worth it, and it landed because it was personal.
Share what you’re learning. Pink Dog’s case study on measuring success through conversions as AI Overviews reduce website clicks is one example. Work in progress invites questions and conversation.
If your industry feels boring, post anyway and watch the data. Engagement will show you what your audience finds interesting, and a fresh angle can revive a topic that fell flat.
Real Always Beats Polished
One of Gina’s posts from a vineyard fundraiser, shot entirely on an iPhone, drove about 25% of her July LinkedIn impressions. Everyday photos that show who you are are enough to get started.
Smaller networks can perform well, too. Gina has over 5,500 connections and Coral has around 645, yet Coral sees roughly four times more engagement per connection.
Repurpose What You Already Have
A single webinar can become short video clips, a blog post, a transcript page, Instagram carousels, and a podcast episode. Blog articles, service pages, and slide decks can be broken down the same way. Coral recommended Canva for templates and HeyOrca for scheduling posts weeks or months ahead, which is currently free for a single personal account.
What to Avoid
- Going silent until you need something
- Copying someone else’s style because it works for them
- Posting without engaging with anyone else
- A profile that reads like a resume
Your First Week
Coral closed with a short action plan. Journal the three layers, clean up your headline and About section, publish one post from the teach, believe, or learn bucket, and start commenting on other people’s posts. Expect engagement to trend up within the first month or two, with consistent traction building over three to six months.
Our next webinar covers AI visibility on October 22. We hope to see you there!
Build Your Personal Brand with the Experts at Pink Dog Digital
At Pink Dog Digital, we specialize in helping Baltimore-area businesses craft fully integrated digital strategies that drive results. From boosting visibility with social and search to closing sales with paid media, we know what it takes to build a content strategy that converts.
Some of our services include:
- Digital Advertising
- Social Media Management
- Content Creation
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Generative Engine Optimization
- Web Design
Contact us at 410-696-3305 or email us at [email protected] for any inquiries or to book a service. You can also fill out our online Contact Us form or visit our website to learn more about us.
