While Snapchat, Instagram, and other social-media platforms certainly have their place in business and marketing, the platform you should be focused on as a freelancer, is LinkedIn. Whether it’s a new client, job opportunity, or collaboration, LinkedIn is the platform that can help your career the most.
Here are some quick tips on ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile to dazzle potential clients: Build A Profile After you become a seller on Fiverr, it’s a smart idea to subsequently create or update your profile on LinkedIn. Did you know you can link your LinkedIn profile to your Fiverr seller page?
Establishing a presence on LinkedIn not only makes you look more professional, but it will draw more business to you. In order for that to work, though, your LinkedIn profile has to be top-notch. Here’s how to design it.
Your Headshot Your headshot sits atop your entire profile, making it the first thing that prospective clients, partners, and collaborators see. It’s an influential factor in helping people form their first impression of you, so make it count.
Too often, you’ll see people’s headshots being too casual, low-quality, or otherwise inappropriate, which is a pity. You only get to form a first impression once; you wouldn’t go into a job interview looking less than presentable, so why not make your headshot count? Your headshot should be:
Your headshot shouldn’t be:
Once you’ve chosen the perfect picture, and dazzled potential clients with your professionalism, the real work begins. Your Headline & Summary These two go hand-in-hand right below your headshot. These are the first pieces of information that prospects will read about you, so you’ll want to grab their attention in a powerful way. Your headline is the description of who you are and what you do.
It should tell people immediately and clearly what industry you’re working in and what your specialty is. Your summary is the place for you to impress and shine. This provides a breakdown of what your skillset is and why you should be hired. Introduce yourself to your prospects in this section: Talk about your career history, what’s different about your services and qualifications, and how they can get in touch with you.
Your Experience Experience is so important when freelancing, and this LinkedIn section is a rundown of what you’ve done professionally over the course of your career. Naturally, you won’t want to put everything you’ve ever done over your professional life here, as some jobs you’ve had may not be relevant for getting new clients in your current industry.
On the other hand, if you’re brand new to freelancing, you won’t have clients to list in this section, so just list the jobs you’ve had in the past that complement your new role as a freelancer. For example, if you used to sell software in your previous life, and you’re now marketing yourself as a B2B/enterprise copywriter, then by all means list your old job selling software!
LinkedIn: A Strategic Approach to Getting More Clients Make your LinkedIn profile really work for you. Don’t just use an old, grainy picture of yourself, or leave many of the important areas—like your summary and experience—sparsely filled out or even blank. Put time and effort into selling your freelancing services and you on your profile, and you’ll eventually get leads contacting you because they found you on LinkedIn.
With all the tools available to you to help you become a star seller, such as the Fiverr Academy, using LinkedIn can be a great complement to drumming up even more business.
Do you have LinkedIn profile? If so, have you been thorough in designing it to its maximum potential? Tell us in the comments!
