Before becoming a LinkedIn TopVoice, Caroline Mignaux simply posted her CV on the professional network. For Digital Campus students, she recounts what happened next and how she became a social media figure.

About a hundred students of all levels gathered in the Digital Campus amphitheatre in Paris to welcome a special guest: Caroline Mignaux, tech entrepreneur, podcaster and LinkedIn Top Voice.


The goal: understanding how to find your place on LinkedIn, step out of anonymity, and feel confident enough to speak up. Caroline Mignaux shared her secrets for building influence, explaining what personal branding is and how to use it to communicate effectively on LinkedIn.

   

Personal branding and growth marketing

It all started in 2020, after 6 years in the United States. Caroline returned to France looking for a new job in digital marketing. Her first instinct: sign up on LinkedIn. For her, LinkedIn is much more than an online CV database — it is a platform accessible to everyone, packed with resources, a "true archipelago of knowledge, where real value lies in attention time".  She gradually developed a genuine personal branding approach, not to present herself as a "miracle seller", but to show what she excels at. "The secret of personal branding is to start building an audience without waiting to be an expert in your field, because we are all already someone's expert."  Growth marketing means building a network of partners and communicating around experience and emotions. "Going into the field and testing what works — that is the real secret of high-performing growth." For example, to choose the cover of her first book, Caroline went to the shelves of the Fnac to show different mock-ups directly to future readers. The result: she was able to pick the cover that resonated most with the public! 

"Building your personal brand is a bit like SEO — it means creating an ecosystem that references you for life on social media."

Today, there are as many strategies as there are people. There is an enormous variety of formats that adapt to each person's approach. For Caroline, the real strategy consists of learning to listen to yourself and know yourself: understanding your strengths, knowing what truly drives you. Are you comfortable speaking? Launch a podcast. Are you introverted? Consider starting a newsletter.
Above all, our expert advises asking the people around you what you do best. You will be pleasantly surprised! 
To stand out, Caroline encourages students to work on creating a niche and an audience with whom to share their expertise. Finding your niche and setting yourself apart to rise quickly in the market — that is her lesson. Are you specialised in web design? That is great, but it is very broad: instead, choose to become an expert in YouTube thumbnails.

Do one thing, do it well, and become a reference.  You can even go further and attract the attention of those you want to impress. How?

"On LinkedIn, don't wait for your dream job posting to appear: you are building your future, so create your own role, make yourself indispensable — add all the members of a company on LinkedIn, tag them in posts, comment on their publications, be of service to them. One day, they will come looking for you."  

Caroline shares a surprising revelation: the LinkedIn algorithm is simple to decode! Today, LinkedIn rewards attention time by prioritising genuine engagement. Revenue is indeed the first indicator to track. Creating video content, for example, requires an investment in resources, so learning how to monetise on LinkedIn is essential.  But the second key element is engagement — and therefore comments — which provide valuable insight into your content. Likes tell you nothing about your content; on the other hand, if you are running out of ideas for your posts, read your comments and create content accordingly.

"To win over the algorithm, do what you would in real life! Build yourself a network of people who always have your back, and just be yourself!"

Caroline Mignaux

Drawing on her experience in the US and her entrepreneurial ventures, Caroline encouraged us to embrace the quintessentially American mindset of: you have to show up.   Even if you feel like the world is against you, don't close doors on yourself. "If one day you are feeling down and don't feel like coming to class or seeing your boss, come anyway — you have to show up!" 

Before leaving, Caroline shared a few more invaluable tips: 

  • Continuously follow the personalities and creators you admire. This says a lot about your interests and passions, and shows that you want to do the same thing. 
  • Keep dedicated time slots for content creation to find inspiration and get into your flow. When writing, develop your personal style — use AI to find ideas, proofread or translate your content, but not to replace you! 
  • Never think small. Impostor syndrome is part of the game! It will accompany you throughout your life — even with success, you will never feel quite good enough. That is precisely the moment to be perseverant, dare to push further, and keep going.