There are a lot of really valuable pieces of advice in this thread, but I would like to pay your attention to more practical tips.

In this answer, you can find a step-by-step strategy on how to build your personal brand on LinkedIn.

So here are 5 steps to build your brand on LinkedIn:

1. Research.
   Start by identifying the target audience. Your goal is to reshape the existing buyer persona into a set of characteristics that match LinkedIn search filters. That’s how you will be able to grow a relevant network.
2. LinkedIn Profile Optimization.
   The next step was polishing the profile. The texts, visuals and the overall structure need to be as tidy as possible. It will radically increase your chances to be accepted.
3. Outreach.
   Once the profile is all set, start connecting with the selected individuals who matched your search criteria.
   
   Forget about blindly pushing the “connect” button! Be sure to open one’s profile, make sure that person is worth connecting with (profile is not empty, shows some activity in the relevant industry). Then we’ve sent a connection request with a personalized note to increase our chances of being accepted.
4. Improvements.
   By this point, you should be able to see some changes on your profile. At this point, you should start a more active approach, which also includes engagement in the news feed.
   
   Read your feed and react to the most relevant/interesting updates. This will grant you more profile views, thus building a higher profile ranking.
5. Showcase expertise.
   As soon as you have your network growing - start building credibility around the profile and show your expertise.
   
   Share relevant updates and post some unique articles to get more attention to your profile. If the content is really interesting - people may share it, promoting your self-brand on their profiles.

By doing these 5 steps consistently, you will your LinkedIn profile will turn into an inbound lead-generation machine.

Have some doubts if it is even real? Check this Case Study to see how we helped Tommy Mello, an owner of $30 million company to leverage his self-brand.