Why should you have a LinkedIn profile as a freelancer? And how to create the perfect LinkedIn profile for freelancers are the main things I will be covering in this blog, as well as the important information you should write in your LinkedIn profile. It might be completely different from what you thought you should be writing.
So let’s get started!
Title
Your LinkedIn profile title needs to clearly specify exactly what it is that you do. If you are a Social Media Manager, you will want to write in there “Social Media Manager” or “Social Media Strategist”. LinkedIn works highly with SEO, so don’t use any fancy names as people will search exactly what they are looking for, and if you don’t specify the known term for your role, you will not appear in the search to your ideal client.
About Page
People often get this page so wrong, and it’s where I always see the biggest mistakes happening on freelancers LinkedIn profiles. Your about page needs to have as many keywords as possible, such as Social Media, Social Media Manager, Social Media Strategist, Social Media consultant etc., as many as you can possibly fit in.
You want to open your introduction with WHO you are; WHAT you do and WHO is your target audience, WHO are you helping?, for example, “I am Nadine, a Social Media Manager Expert and Coach, I help businesses and coaches scale their business and get more clients with social media marketing”. If you don’t know your target audience yet, head over to my YouTube channel and check out my video on How To Find Your Niche.
After the opening sentence/introduction, you can then go deeper and speak about your services and again make it super clear and SEO rich. Some keywords that are good to use for social media managers are; Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, content creation, strategy, Facebook Ads. It doesn’t need to be so “stiff” so you can add in some of your own personality because, at the end of the day, you are not applying for corporate roles; you are attracting your ideal client who aligns with you and your business.
It’s not needed, but you can also go ahead and insert your official bio, which is a bit more professional and helps to show more of your experiences, journey and allows adding more keywords. You can add results that you have generated for previous clients and a section that shows your areas of expertise. In this part, you can add all of the things you have experience but use it to add extra keywords.
Experience
In this section, you want to add yourself and your business to make it super clear that you are working as a Social Media Manager adding the services you are providing and the target audience you are working with.
It doesn’t really matter what other work experience you add because your potential client will not benefit from knowing you may have worked in a bar in your gap year or used to work in insurance, and now you are a social media manager; however if there are any jobs that you have previously done no matter how big or small, where you worked within social media or marketing then add that in also because it coincides with what you are doing now.
Success Stories and Testimonials
Adding success stories and testimonials provides your viewers with social proof that you can actually do what you are claiming. Don’t worry if you don’t have any success stories or testimonials yet because you can quickly and easily get them by reaching out to previous employers for character references and also friends and family another great way to start to get testimonials is to have a testimonial client if you’d like to know more about how to get a testimonial client then watch my video here.
Services
LinkedIn has a great new feature (AUGUST 2021) where you can tag in the services you provide. Make sure you add in all of the services and relating services that you provide, as you will rank higher when these are searched by your potential clients. You can find this feature under your profile picture and title in “Open to” and then Selecting “Providing Services”.
If you are unsure of what services to offer or you’d like to know if there are more services out there for you to offer, then I created a video just for you; watch it here!
Profile Picture
Your profile picture should be a picture of YOU. You are a creative, not a corporate professional, so it doesn’t need to be you in a suit. You can show your personality but definitely not a selfie with your friends! Make sure you are looking at the camera and smiling! If you leave your logo in here or an image of something not related to you, this will turn people away and make your profile less inviting and personable.
To Recap:
Make it super clear on:
The services you are providing?
Who are you providing your services to?
The results you have generated for previous clients
Always use KEYWORDS wherever possible
BONUS TIP:
If you haven’t already gone full-time as a social media manager, then check out my FREE MASTERCLASS, where I walk you through how to do just that, but you may be worried that your boss or co-workers might see all the new changes to your profile. Some of my students have created new profiles and started afresh, using a different last name or just the first letter of their last name where they can connect with new people in their niche and not be worried about letting their current workplace realise they are heading out on their own!
Now you know how to optimise your LinkedIn profile, you can see a video walkthrough of exactly how to do that HERE. You can also SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel, where we post weekly FREE trainings.