by Darren Baguley
07 October 2016
Updated January 2023
In the last ‘Show Me the Money’ survey the majority of Rachel’s Listers (86 percent) said that LinkedIn is the most important social media platform workwise. It generates the most income for 25 percent of respondents although 56 percent said no social media platform brought them work.
So if some freelancers are attracting work – lots of work in some cases – on LinkedIn and others are not, then the question is why?
Just as any good freelance writer needs to understand the audience of the outlet they’re writing for, the key to attracting clients on LinkedIn is understanding what your audience is looking for. Hint: what they’re not looking for is an online version of your standard resume.
Potential clients want to know quickly who you are, the services you provide and how that service can solve a business problem or help them achieve a business goal. Once you’ve got their attention, you need to make sure they can find your contact information easily if they decide they want to work with you.
Upload a great photo. Part of attracting potential clients’ attention is having a good photo. Not everyone has hundreds of dollars to spend on a professional portfolio but try and find someone – partner, friend, family member – who can use a camera to take a good photo of you.
Personalise your job title and summary. Super-important. This section is likely to be the most viewed section of your profile. Don’t be lazy and use the default job title; think up one that describes what you do. Then customise your summary with keywords that your ideal clients will be looking for while highlighting your activities.
Break it down clearly. LinkedIn expert John Nemo suggests starting with the following using caps to stand out:
WHAT I DO: Pretty basic, what sort of services do you offer but also include how you help your target audience
WHO I WORK WITH: Include here a Bulleted List of Publishing titles, Industry sectors, Client types, etc.
WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT: Is it your experience? Professional qualifications? Sell yourself; tell the prospect why they should engage you.
WHAT OTHERS SAY: Include a couple of LinkedIn testimonials here.
READY TO TALK? Make it easy for people to engage you by putting your contact details in plain sight: website, email, phone number.
Whatever approach you use, what you’re trying to do is make the reader think, “this person is someone whom I need to talk to.”
Don’t forget to finish the job At the risk of stating the obvious, while it’s important to get the title and summary just right, it’s also important to complete your LinkedIn profile 100 percent. What would your reaction be if you came across the profile of someone you were interested in working with only to find it wasn’t complete?
Include recent work. Increasingly freelancers are turning to platforms such as LinkedIn to showcase what they’ve done. Not only does regularly posting content on your LinkedIn profile keep it fresh, it also shows clients what you can do.
Customise your URL. You can customise your public profile URL so that it resembles your name. This makes it easier to find you and if you include it on your email signature and your website – or get a ‘Connect with me on LinkedIn’ badge for your site.
One of the downsides of LinkedIn is getting regularly bombarded with offers to upgrade to one of the deluxe services. Somewhat disappointingly, LinkedIn uses the trick of dodgy businesses everywhere by insisting on your credit card details before you get your 30-day ‘free’ trial. It’s a pity. The Premium version costs from $29.95 per month.
This would be a substantial financial commitment for many freelancers and you’d definitely need to be prepared to commit the time and resources needed to make the investment worthwhile. If you, or someone or you know, has done this successfully we’d love to hear from you.
Lastly, there are a lot of articles on the web with suggestions on how to pimp your LinkedIn profile and use it as a marketing tool. Some good people to follow include:
This episode of The Content Byte with LinkedIn expert John Espirian is a really useful listen on leveraging LinkedIn as a writer:
Good luck!
Do you get a lot of work through LinkedIn? Or have you pimped your LinkedIn profile recently and started to get more work? We’d love to hear your experiences below.
I believe in the power of LinkedIn and updating my profile every once in a while plus posting articles I’ve written on it has definitely landed me 2-3 ongoing clients. I’m glad I came across this article and have used Darren’s tips to make my profile a lot more succinct. I’m sure there are more clients on the way!
I know when I changed my title on LinkedIn to reflect all the things I do (journalist, digital producer etc) I started getting a lot more work offers as well Rashida. I know some people don’t think much of LinkedIn but I love it.
I’m finding that LinkedIn is the place to be, too, but here’s a couple of questions – what’s the best way to publish examples of your work to the site?
Is it by ‘sharing an update’ (which I feel can’t be found in an easy place) or ‘publishing an article’, OR simply attaching it to your profile page under media? Where is the best place for others to see your work?
I’ve wondered this too, Leigh! A few people have mentioned we should post RL blogs to LinkedIn but I’m not sure where or how… to be honest though I haven’t looked THAT hard 🙂
If you use the ‘Write an Article’ function whatever you post comes in right at the top of your LinkedIn profile. This is fine for the equivalent of a blog post but if you wanted to share an existing article it looks like you would have to cut and paste the whole article into LinkedIn. If you want to just share the link to your latest story then I think you’d just use the ‘Share an Update’ but it’s less visible as you say Leigh. Ditto for Media, it comes in below experience.
Rachel, you should at least share your latest post as an update 🙂