Someone left a comment on my LinkedIn post recently that stopped me mid-scroll.
“You always create value anytime, and your content creation journey has been so impactful. I went to your profile sometime ago, and I see how dogged and determined you are. Honestly, you are value-driven, and I am glad to be connected with great minds here.”
I realized that my effort over the years to build a personal brand online is finally paying off. Somebody else noticed my effort and could genuinely say that I am value-driven.
But this did not happen overnight or by accident. It happened because I made a deliberate decision early on that I was going to show up online with my story, not desperation.
Before you start thinking about your LinkedIn content strategy or how to get noticed by recruiters or clients on LinkedIn, you need to make that same decision. Are you going to market your need or your story?
What Does Desperation in Marketing Yourself Online Look Like?
For most of us, sounding desperate online makes us remember posts that say barely more than “please hire me.” And yes, that is one version of it. But desperation also shows up in subtler ways.
Desperation looks like:
Showing up online and making claims without any evidence of your skills. Using phrases like “strategic thinker”, “excellent marketer”, and “passionate and reliable” does not prove that you have those qualities. If your strategic thinking is not visible in your case studies, or your marketing skills are not reflected in your content, then how can an audience tell it’s genuine?
Copying what everyone else in your industry is posting because you do not yet know what makes you different. With AI, thousands of people in your industry recycle and replicate the same posts, takes, and industry terms. Your unique thinking, experiences, and results are what set you apart. Leave those out, and you blend into the masses, following every trend.
Posting only when you need something and going quiet every other time. If every post you publish is a pitch and every piece of content ends with “DM me if you need my services”, your audience starts seeing your content as ads, not value. Without value, the perception of competence does not improve.
One more thing that you may be getting wrong. Looking desperate is as much about what you leave out as it is about what you say. When you market yourself online without sharing your achievements, documenting your wins, or showing the proof of what you can do, you leave a gap. And people fill that gap with doubt.
If you would like to explore 20+ tactics you can use to market yourself online, this guide by GPG Designs is worth looking at: 24 Different Ways You Can Market Yourself Outside of Social Media.
How I Learned to Market Myself Online Without Sounding Desperate
That pressure you feel to be visible online, to get noticed by employers, to stand out and make magic happen…
I felt it too, especially when I started job hunting close to the end of my MBA degree.
But I made a decision. Instead of posting about how desperate I was to secure a job, I started documenting my journey.
I created a series on LinkedIn called “Things I am currently working on as an MBA student trying to secure a marketing role by September.” Every week, I showed up and shared exactly what I was doing. What I was learning, the challenges I was navigating, and the small wins I was collecting along the way.
Before I knew it, people started engaging. Strangers were sending me job adverts. People I had never met were rooting for me.
Vulnerable “please hire me” posts would have gotten me sympathy and, at most, engagement. Instead, talking about my journey connected me with individuals navigating similar situations. By sharing my process, I showed potential employers what I was capable of in terms of skills and deliverables.
That is the power of storytelling for personal branding. It does not just make your content more interesting. It makes you more memorable. And in a world where everyone is competing for attention, being memorable is everything.
Before you dive into building your presence online, you might also find this helpful: Key Things You Need to Know Before Creating Your First Content.
How Do You Market Yourself Online Without Sounding Desperate?
When I started posting on LinkedIn, I barely got any engagement. My posts were too basic and focused on sharing information. There was no story in them. I was sharing what I knew, but I was not sharing how I knew it, why it mattered to me, or what it cost me to learn it.
The moment I started wrapping my knowledge in personal stories, everything shifted. People could relate, and they started commenting, sharing, and reaching out. Because now they were not just reading information. They were connecting to a real person with a journey that they could see themselves in.
What should you take away from this? People do not connect with your need. They connect with your story. When you show people where you are, where you are trying to go, and what you are doing to get there, you stop sounding desperate, and you start sounding like someone worth investing in.
Ready to market yourself online without desperation? Here’s how you can do it in 4 simple steps:
These worked for me and will work for you too.
Document your journey in real time. You do not need to have everything figured out to start showing up. Share what you are currently working on. Share what you are learning. Share the challenges you are navigating. People connect with the process, not just the polished outcome. This is one of the most underused personal brand content ideas for career builders.
Show evidence of your skills. Do not just say you are good at something. Show it. Write about a project you worked on. Talk about a problem you solved. Share the result of something you did, even if it was voluntary or personal. Evidence builds trust in a way that claims never will. This is how to build credibility online as a beginner without a long CV or years of experience.
Get involved in voluntary activities and talk about them. Your experience does not have to come from a paid role to be valid. Every project, every collaboration, every initiative you have contributed to is proof of what you can do. This is one of the most practical career-building tips for graduates who are just starting out.
Celebrate every wins no matter how small. Got great feedback from a manager? Share it. Completed a course? Talk about what you learned. Landed a new role or opportunity? Tell the story of how you got there. You have to blow your own trumpet professionally. Because nobody else will do it for you. Nobody is going to notice your wins if you do not talk about them. The key is in how you talk about them. Not “look how amazing I am” but “here is what I did, here is what I learned, and here is how it can help you too.”
There’s a strategy to building your online presence. Are you doing it right? Find out in this guide: The First Thing to Focus on When Building an Online Presence (And Most People Skip This)
The mindset shift I want you to walk away with is this: If the only time you show up online is when you need something, your audience will never see your value. They will only see your need.
When you show up consistently with your story, your skills, your wins, and your journey, something shifts. People stop feeling sorry for you. They start believing in you. They start sharing your name in rooms you have never been in and sending you opportunities you never even applied for.
I applied the strategies shared here, and I now get recruiters reaching out to me without me making a single application. That is what happens when you decide to market your story instead of your need.
It is the difference between marketing yourself and sounding desperate. And this is exactly what your online presence needs.
Conclusion
The CCS Brand is the creative agency for busy product business owners, service providers, and founders. We bring your ideas to life through strategy, storytelling & visual content. We handle the creative work behind the scenes so you can focus on doing what you love (running your business!). Learn more about how we increase online visibility and sales for your business:
I am Fatimah Owodunni, and my goal is to help business owners and founders move from posting reactively to building a content system with clarity, intention, and purpose. I believe content should support your business goals, not compete with your energy or time. If this article helped you think differently about showing up online, share it with someone who needs to hear it today.
Follow me on Instagram for daily content tips. Visit YouTube for in-depth breakdowns and tutorials.