Personal Website vs LinkedIn for Building a Personal Brand in Tech?
Posted by Head-Praline9270@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 16 comments
Hello,
I work as a fintech systems administrator at a large company. Recently, I’ve been thinking about creating a personal website to build my personal brand, become more visible in the industry, and share the work I do.
However, I’m not sure about one thing:
Does having a personal website really make sense nowadays, or would consistently posting technical content on LinkedIn provide better visibility and engagement?
Has anyone here actively used a personal website/blog for this purpose, or focused only on LinkedIn and seen good results?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences and seeing any examples if possible.
Thanks in advance.
Gullible-Surround486@reddit
I’d do both, honestly. LinkedIn for eyes, personal site for the stuff you actually want people to find later (and not just scroll past).
Only-An-Egg@reddit
Both. I have a Hugo blog in Azure Static Web Apps free tier and post on LinkedIn.
sembee2@reddit
I built my brand over a number of years. That was built largely on Experts Exchange, backed up by my blog. These days add in LinkedIn and Github.
There is no one size fits all. LinkedIn for networking, maybe posting news snippets or something you have done. Blog for longer writeup, maybe with links from LinkedIn. Github to hold scripts etc, with links to the blog. Remember to keep both sides up to date - so if the script changes, update the readme and also the blog post.
The web site is then basically about you, career highlights, what you do etc. Everything need to be consistent, linked together. If you have your own domain, use that for contact details.
Reddit and other forums help, but you have to genuinely help. Turn up and splatter your blog etc everywhere will not go down well. Then also remember that the brand follows you. So have two identities, a professional one and personal one. Don't link the two. A recruiter or potential employer will Google you and you want the professional stuff to come up - basically proving your knowledge. The different sites have different purposes - forums, git and blogs are you peers, showing what you know, LinkedIn is managers and contacts to get you a job.
It does work - years ago when MS Exchange was at its height I would get contracts on name alone. Put my cv in and the recruiter would call and say the client offered me the contract without even seeing me, purely based on my reputation - which they couldn't believe. I was that prolific that between 2004 and about 2011 if you were working with MS Exchange I could guarantee you read something I wrote, either on a forum or a blog.
It takes time - for me about 18 months before I started to get approached to work on stuff and was able to go freelance. Earning more in a week than I got in a month at my job was a great feeling.
Google my username (without the 2) and see the results. I have pages of results either written by me, about me, mentioning me.
Wario_world@reddit
I was just reading this post and saw your reply. I’m certain a few of your EE responses helped me out a few years ago. My thanks! 🙏
SevaraB@reddit
Branding strategies usually involve a mix.
ExceptionEX@reddit
If you think your "personal brand" is something that will helpful in this field, you probably are on the wrong side of the industry.
Having a personal website that points to repos and examples of work are good for your resume, but the language you are using will almost certainly hurt you with anyone who actually hires for this industry.
We want people who do the work, not people who use the work to promote themselves.
For clarity, you should have both, but you should steer away from this marketing language that offends more engineering minded people than it helps.
titlrequired@reddit
I had a personal site along side posting in technical forums.
Small_Editor_3693@reddit
You need both
qwertydiy@reddit
I advise having both but if you can code the frontend most if your stuff should be on your website with your LinkedIn acting closer to X and more as a social channel (Reddit and X are great for this too).
Coops07@reddit
This is the way
qwertydiy@reddit
This is largely from a digital marketing perspective too as I am starting to learn it. X, Bluesy, Mastodon and Reddit (and even Quora or for us Stack Exchange (when done right), daily.dev, Hacker News etc.) are really underrated as channels especially to show your expertise. They just need to be done properly and most brands don't.
PippaKelly62@reddit
i honestly think linkedin is better for getting noticed, but having your own site still matters because it gives you a place that’s actually yours instead of rented algorithm space.
most people i see doing this successfully use both. short-form thoughts/content on linkedin, then deeper writeups/projects on their personal site.
also personal sites are way easier to maintain now than they used to be. a simple static site hosted on netlify, surge, or tiiny host is honestly enough for most tech portfolios/blogs.
SpareAmbition@reddit
I feel like a personal website gives more legitimacy to a brand. I'm sure you could probably make it in the LinkedIn circle jerk if you put the work in
sonofabullet@reddit
Who are the visible people in your specific subfield and what do they do?
Head-Praline9270@reddit (OP)
Mostly infrastructure, security, and platform engineers who regularly share real production experiences, troubleshooting stories, and technical write-ups — especially around networking, virtualization, SIEM, cloud, and security operations.
I’m trying to figure out whether a personal website adds value on top of LinkedIn for that kind of visibility.
sonofabullet@reddit
What do they do in terms of visibility?