How to Really Use LinkedIn to Market Your Freelance Business

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How to Really Use LinkedIn to Market Your Freelance Business

Posted November 2, 2010 in How-To

Should freelancers be using LinkedIn to promote their freelance business?

To answer that question, let’s take a closer look at LinkedIn:

LinkedIn at a Glance

It is the biggest social network of professionals with an estimated 66 million members. According to Quantcast, an average of five million people visit the site every day. Because LinkedIn is for “professionals,” most of its members have had more education and make a much higher income, on average, than those of other social networks.

LinkedIn has the reputation of being used by human resources people, headhunters and recruiters to find suitable candidates for their job openings. Executives from Fortune 500 companies, business owners, and professional service providers also use LinkedIn.

Your Freelancing Biz Could Benefit from LinkedIn

If your Ideal Client fits the profile of the typical LinkedIn user, then obviously it’s a good place for you to connect with, find and be found by them. For example, if you want to work for specific companies, you could find the right people to reach out to by doing a search in LinkedIn.

However, even if your Ideal Clients are hanging out somewhere else, you can still benefit from LinkedIn.

For one thing, LinkedIn could allow you to connect with others who could, in turn, connect you with your Ideal Clients. You could link up with thought leaders and other influential people in your industry, niche, or even geographical location.

At the very least, LinkedIn is good for your web presence. With it, you can build high-quality backlinks to your freelancing site. Your LinkedIn profile is also indexed by Google and will likely be on the first page of search engine results when somebody searches your name.

So You Wanna Use LinkedIn: Here’s How

As with any other tool, LinkedIn will give you results if you know how to use it. Below are some basic strategies for getting started and making the most of LinkedIn’s features to promote your freelance services.

1. Get the Most Out of Your LinkedIn Profile

Your profile is the most important part of marketing on LinkedIn. It shouldn’t read like the typical resume, which is formal and dry.

Instead, strive for a profile that is both compelling to humans and crawlable by search engines. You can accomplish this by doing the following

Use a personable photo. One with you smiling directly into the camera is best. Avoid using your company logo or other image. People prefer to connect with other people, so show your face.
Craft an interesting and keyword-rich headline. This is the 120-character field following your name. Put your target keywords in there and at the same time hint at what sets you apart from your competitors. Think of your headline as your elevator speech. It will determine whether your profile visitor will continue reading the rest of your profile or not.
Maximize your summary. Again, use your target keywords in the summary. However, make sure what you write is interesting to humans first of all. This is where you can go into more detail about what you do, whom you help, and how you help your clients. Strive for something complete and concise.
Fill up all other areas of your profile. Fill in the details about your past jobs, education, interests and so on. Even if you don’t think these are relevant to your current freelancing work, these details help other LinkedIn users find you. Other users may also be more inclined to connect with you (and eventually hire you) when they see that you have something in common with them, whether it’s going to the same university or having similar interests.
Maximize the website links. LinkedIn allows you to display and link to up to three websites. Use all three links, even if you only have one site. One link could be to your home page, another to your About Page, and still another to an opt-in page or even your services page. This is a good way to build high-quality backlinks to your site. Use your target keywords as your anchor texts when creating links to your web pages.

2. It’s All About Connections

It’s a social network, after all, so after you’ve got your profile up, start connecting!

The easiest way is to import email addresses you already have in your Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL accounts. You can also find people you already know by searching company names and schools. You can also invite other people by simply entering their email addresses in the “Add Connections” tab.

Eventually, you’ll find that people you’re already networking with on Twitter and Facebook will want to connect with you on LinkedIn as well. Should you? There’s no harm in doing so. In fact, connecting on LinkedIn gives you just one more way to reach them when you have an important message to share. After all, your followers and friends won’t always see your Twitter and Facebook updates.

3. Get Props with Recommendations

One feature you don’t get from Twitter or Facebook is the ability to collect and display recommendations or endorsements from other members of LinkedIn.

This is a powerful feature for freelancers, as it gives social proof of your skills and abilities. LinkedIn displays the number of recommendations you have on your profile, so the more you have, the more impressive it is.

The easiest way to populate the Recommendations section of your profile is to connect with your clients who are already on LinkedIn and ask if they can endorse you. If they have existing testimonials, they’ll be all too willing to use the same one on LinkedIn. It’s much less work for them.

Don’t be timid about approaching former employees and colleagues and asking them for recommendations as well.

Of course, it’s a good idea for you to pay it forward by giving recommendations of people you’ve worked with. Do so without being asked, and you will be richly rewarded.

4. In Summary

LinkedIn is another social media marketing tool you can use to become more easily found on the Internet, create connections that will bring opportunities, and reach your Ideal Clients.

That said, it is yet another social networking site that can potentially eat up your time and drain your energy.

The key is to know what it can do for you, how to use it, and have a strategy. By being clear about who you want to connect with, and setting limits on the amount of time and energy you spend, you can avoid making it a time suck.

So is it necessary for freelancers to be on LinkedIn? Of course not.

At the very least, it doesn’t hurt to have a compelling, keyword-rich profile that links back to your site.

Are You Linked?

Do you have a LinkedIn profile? Have you found clients through LinkedIn? Please share your experience by commenting below.

Image by smi23le

About the author: Lexi Rodrigo is the creator of The Savvy Freelancer, a blog that's all about achieving creative and financial freedom through freelancing. Check out Lexi's free guide, 31 Days to Start Your Freelancing Business (or Make Yours A Better One).

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40 Comments

Jackie Jimenez
November 2nd, 2010 at 8:40 am

I’ve used LinkedIn since 2008 and it’s a great way to get connected with businesspeople not only in your area, but also in your field. It was a perfect database for me to organize my business contacts and grow my network. Follow me on LinkedIn at http://linkedin.com/in/jacquelinejimenez

Great article!
Stephen Tiano
November 2nd, 2010 at 8:48 am

I don’t see it. LinkedIn is first and foremost a collection of HR types filling out their rolodexes. It’s a big disappointment. On the other hand, Twitter, has surprised the daylights out of me, resulting in a number of good, paying book projects.
Chris Day
November 2nd, 2010 at 9:03 am

LinkedIn has been fantastic for me, I think it is brilliant. This is good advice and if you follow it I am sure potential clients will come your way.

It is far better than Twitter, because it is more human and shows a lot more information about yourself and the people contacting you. Contact requests received are far more professional, as opposed to “Yo, I iz lookin for a DOPE and CHEAP web deziner innit” that seems to pollute the appearance of any genuine opportunities on Twitter.
Lexi Rodrigo
November 2nd, 2010 at 9:18 am

It looks like you guys have had varying results with LinkedIn. I suppose it depends on who your Ideal Client is. If they’re in LinkedIn, then you’d better have a presence there, too.

On the other hand, as I mentioned in the post, there may be people in LI who, while they may never hire you, could connect you to potential clients and other opportunities.

If you have the time to at least create a profile, LinkedIn is a good way to be found on the Internet and build links back to your site.
renee
November 2nd, 2010 at 10:28 am

Lexi,
Do you have any tips on how privacy settings may affect a freelancer’s marketing?
I have updates turned off; I feel pushy blasting people with personal messages, but I’ve read that constant updates will keep a profile in front of potential clients.
Harvey
November 2nd, 2010 at 10:31 am

for graphic/web designers, behance has a plugin to display your portfolio on your linkedin profile. it’s pretty slick: http://blog.linkedin.com/2010/07/28/linkedin-behance/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/harveyshepard
Ari Herzog
November 2nd, 2010 at 10:44 am

Considering I have been offered paid assignments directly from having a LinkedIn profile, this entire article is preaching to my choir.

I’d add that everyone, once logged in, should click the “More” tab and then click the “Answers” link. This brings up a Yahoo Answers-clone where you can ask questions and answer questions. Your name, headline, and photo (and the number of answers of yours that the questioner marks as “best answer”) follow you around each time you ask/answer a new one. It’s an easy way to build up influence.
Lexi Rodrigo
November 2nd, 2010 at 10:46 am

@Harvey & @Ari Herzog – Thanks for those tips! Will definitely be helpful to freelancers :-D

@Renee – Sorry but I have no idea. Will try to get a LinkedIn expert to answer your question.
Florante Valdez
November 2nd, 2010 at 10:51 am

I’ve created a Linkedin profile which gathers dust like a book on a shelf because there’s just too many places to go, Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc. I know many have had great results with Linkedin but as they say, different strokes, for different folks. My Twitter experience is a bit better than with Linkedin. I was able to get a client through a connection’s recommendation. But bottomline, both platforms are useful and can very well complement each other in terms of our marketing strategy. The catch, you just have to be at the right place at the right time.
Stephen Tiano
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:12 am

I keep up with LinkedIn, despite my experience so far, because people I respect are there and believe in it. Still, my experience with it vs. Twitter is what it is.

When someone says LinkedIn’s been “fantastic” for them, I wonder just what that means. Did it secure employment for you? Was it that employment the kind you couldn’t have gotten an in on by just applying to the company directly?

Or was it contract work, freelance creative publishing work like I do? I think Twitter, despite your contention that 140 characters tends to result in less professional results, forces people to be concise and get to the point. I’m not a fan of cutesy abbreviations, either, but I really believe there’s something about the cut-to-the-chase possibility of Twitter that makes more sense to working pros. I know that, generally, when I’m busy juggling two or three book projects, it’s far easier and quicker for me to find info that’s up my alley in Twitter than in all of LinkedIn’s various departments. And, too, LinkedIn hasn’t cornered the market on good and lucid writing.

But I realize it takes all kinds to make a world, and so I’m pleased for those who have found paying work or otherwise fulfilling contact on LinkedIn.
benedetta.s
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:14 am

Interesting post. I think LinkedIn is a good tool to meet people in different fields and to expand business as well. it’s the most professional social network!
Issa @ Ajeva
November 2nd, 2010 at 11:51 am

I’d love to give more attention now to LinkedIn, thanks to your advice here. I think that it is the perfect place to get prospects for any freelancers out there and I might as well try joining LinkedIn Answers to showcase my expertise. The only problem right now is time as I’m up to my neck with work. But compared to Twitter and Facebook, it only makes sense that you’ll get more business connections that matter in LinkedIn.
Christopher Gronlund
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:42 pm

I think so much of the success of LinkedIn depends on the kind of freelancing you do.

Stephen asks how LinkedIn has worked for some of us. Since he’s a book designer, I can see how it may not be the place for him. As a freelance technical writer and editor, it’s worked for me.

I’m freelancing full time (at least for the next few months), because of a connection made through LinkedIn. I had another group contact me this week about a short project through LinkedIn. And this morning, I had an offer for full time work that came through LinkedIn in a roundabout way (a person I’ve worked with in the past thinking about how I’d be perfect for an editing position and finding my contact information through LinkedIn).

Like Ari, I’ve had success through answering question on LinkedIn. I noticed an increase in attention to what I do when I started answering more questions; that may be a great place to start for anybody wanting to expand their presence on LinkedIn.
Lexi Rodrigo
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:31 pm

@Christopher Gronlund – Those are awesome results! Looks like using LinkedIn has really paid off for you :-D
Stephen Tiano
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:48 pm

Christopher, you may have hit on something, as to LinkedIn being better for some kinds of freelancers and Twitter for others. I must admit, I discovered LinkedIn before Twitter. In fact, I actually resisted Twitter, thinking of it as a nonstop “opportunity” to dicuss my and others’ lunch menus.

But I found that by engaging people, I got myself into running conversations about book design, as well as a whole host of things–some of which I disagree strenuously with–that reveal me as both a person and a book designer. Through this I cultivated some seriously paying project last year.

I still try to get involved in discussions and answer questions on LinkedIn. But precious few address areas that demonstrate how I can be of use to potential clients there.
Freelance FactFile
November 2nd, 2010 at 1:54 pm

I find LinkedIn is a useful way of reminding your contacts that you’re still around. I always fill in the status updates with current projects I’m working on and get quite a few comments about them, so my contacts clearly read them.

It’s also useful to show the breadth of work I do. I posted something in my status recently about the fact I was doing a naming project for some software. Another client (who I do web writing for) also hired me to do a naming project on the strength of seeing that status update.

Another tip to add to Lexi’s: change the name of your LinkedIn web links from ‘My website’ and ‘My blog’ to something benefits-led and compelling – to encourage people to click on them.
Ophelia Maynard
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:24 pm

I really liked the idea about maximizing the website links on LinkedIn. I used my links for my company website and blog. After reading this post, I added a third link to the Services Offered page of my website.

http://www.freelanceassistance.biz
Christopher Gronlund
November 2nd, 2010 at 2:35 pm

Lexi and Stephen,

I think because I do something specialized (aviation technical writing and editing), that LinkedIn is a good place for me. People in the industry tend to view social networks like this: Facebook is for chatting with actual friends, LinkedIn is a place to accumulate connections and little more, and Twitter is a foreign thought.

As people in aviation have become more active with social networks, they seem to have warmed up to LinkedIn, first, because it’s familiar to them. They see the success Southwest Airlines has had with social networking, so they’re looking for people comfortable with blogging and other ways of communicating, and a few places are starting to look to LinkedIn for help. Not many, but a few–and I’ve lucked into a couple things.

I do other writing on the side, but I’ve had no luck finding projects through LinkedIn, there. So my experience is that for certain industries, LinkedIn can be great, it can be worth staying active on the network in case your industry wakes up, or it can be like yelling down an empty well.
Christina Wilkinson
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:27 pm

I find it fascinating that no one here mentions that Twitter and Facebook can all be linked together and utilized as one unit. Whenever I update my Facebook business page, it sends it to Twitter as well as Linkedin. This keeps me from having to visit all of these websites to update them.

I also think these websites work as well as you use them. We’ve gotten several clients on Facebook but they’re all free to use, so why not take advantage of the ability to use all three. Makes sense to me.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/sabredesign
Ari Herzog
November 2nd, 2010 at 3:44 pm

Christina: Every time I see someone’s tweet, Facebook wall update, and/or LinkedIn update, I can immediately tell if it was written there or cross-posted from elsewhere. And because I can tell that, so can other people — which is why it’s bad policy.

While your intent is meaningful and time productive, your action is anything but. People who voluntarily click a button and want to be your friend on one or more social networks strive for sociability — but sending the same message to multiple places is indicative of anything but sociability.
Ian Nock
November 2nd, 2010 at 7:23 pm

Linkedin is multiple things that I believe the commenters have missed. This is its usefulness, it is not just a Rolodex, not just a companies database, not just a resume/CV, not just a communications platform, not just a recommendations engine. It is all of these things and more.

In other words, do not just expect business or jobs to come to you, you go to it. Use it to actively engage in peers and potential customers and also use it to gather intelligence on your industry (a swear word with some)… as in why is the net movement of staff in company X negative? Where are the growth areas? Which companies are incredibly successful in your area (as I see when 99% of the time, Google has new roles advertised but almost no-one leaves).
Mark McClure
November 2nd, 2010 at 9:55 pm

It’s also a useful service for keeping track of a tech copywriter’s marketing contacts as they change companies, voluntarily or otherwise.
Christina Wilkinson
November 3rd, 2010 at 12:56 am

Ari … I understand what you are saying, but all of my clients are so different; some older in age (using FB), some younger (on FB and Twitter) and some just professionals who only use LI. So I utilize each of these networks as cross-platforms because I know and understand how my clientele work. As a matter-of-fact, many Fortune 500 companies are doing the same with social networks.

I’ve determined, even in this economy, that because my company thinks differently, we’ve had a record year for earnings. If it’s free and popular, there’s an audience for everyone. You just have to know how to utilize the platform you’ve been presented.
Ari Herzog
November 4th, 2010 at 6:19 pm

I’m curious why you support your actions with those of Fortune 500 firms. Because they do something, that makes it right? Most Fortune 500 firms with Twitter accounts are broadcasting only, not being social about it.
Christina Wilkinson
November 5th, 2010 at 3:24 am

Fortune 500 companies aren’t being social when using social media? I’m not sure I understand the question. They are exchanging dialog with their customers and learning from them. This keeps them on top of trends and upcoming areas to market to and this in-turn brings them customers. It’s really just a form of marketing and utilizing direct dialog in lieu of focus groups.

As for why I think it’s right; if there is an audience of millions of possible clientele using just one fork of the social media network, why not utilize it? Social media is a viable and valuable platform just like newspapers and magazines except the exposure is free. I currently have several contracts where my company is paid to maintain, update and research new trends in social media. If this is wrong then I’d be very surprised.
Kathrin P. Ivanovic
November 5th, 2010 at 10:01 am

@Stephen Tiano – when I say my LinkedIn experience has been great, what I mean is that:

1) I have received referrals from some of my contacts

2) I have been able to build my network in Atlanta before relocating there (May 2011)

3) I have connected with previous employers and colleagues and have begun discussions about possible future collaborations and/or referrals

4) I have been able to refer clients to a few of my contacts

5) I have been able to share knowledge (two way street) with people in my niche and beyond

I haven’t had that much success doing any of these things on twitter or facebook, even though those two platforms serve other purposes.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you want to chat about ways to make your LinkedIn experience more fruitful. I can share more of what has and hasn’t worked for me. Feel free to linkup with me – http://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrinpivanovic

ALSO – having read this post, I have been able to tweak my profile even more….I have thought more intentionally about my header. I recently changed it from “Writer | Consultant | Social Justice Advocate” to “Advocate | Consultant – Collaborating for a Cause, Bringing Ideas to Life and Building Bridges for Social Change” which more closely reflects what I am about. So, thank you Lexi! :-)

Cheers,
Kathrin
Denise Grier
August 5th, 2011 at 11:57 am

Great article! Here are a few current jobs for freelancers http://learnwebwriting.info/2011/08/05/freelance-writing-jobs-for-friday-aug-5-2011/
Edward Franklin
October 21st, 2011 at 8:17 am

I’ve been using Linkedin since 2009 and have found it great to stay in touch with contacts. Add me to your network at http://pk.linkedin.com/in/franklinedward

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