Hello fellow freelancer!

As I began to dip my toes back into marketing and self-promotion last month, I realized my LinkedIn profile was in severe need of an update. My banner had publication logos I hadn’t written for in years, my Featured section was not strategic at all, and my About section, frankly, still needs an update.

But I’ve tackled 2/3 of those areas and thought I’d share my changes to inspire your own LinkedIn makeover! After all, the social media platform can be a great resource for prospects and over the years I’ve found that when I’m active both in posts and in profile edits, I usually see a spike in my inbound leads.

Let’s jump in, shall we?

The banner is a quick and easy way to communicate your experience and expertise to prospective clients. It does take a little graphic design, but you can find free templates on Canva that make it so easy to simply type in your text details and call it a day.

For the last few years, my banner included logos of some of the larger publications I wrote for. But since then, my business has shifted away from publications into service- and product-based businesses. It was time for my LI profile to reflect that at first glance.

I decided to simply list out four of my most common services (and the ones I want to promote to clients). Here’s how it turned out:

Your takeaway? Check your banner and see if it’s focusing on the areas YOU want to focus on in your business. Who’s your dream client? What projects do you want more of? Drop those details in Canva for a quick profile upgrade. And if you don’t have a customized banner, spend 10 minutes making one this week!

A couple of weeks ago, I attended an online workshop from Rachel Meltzer on leveraging LinkedIn’s Featured section. The biggest idea I walked away with was to treat the Featured section as a series of calls-to-action and NOT a mini-portfolio.

Before, I simply had links to several “recent” writing samples (as in, I stopped updating them, making those links a year+ old). Now, I’ve condensed that section to just three Features and none are direct links to client work. Instead, they go to a free discovery call, a Services page, and my portfolio.

The free discovery call promo is an experiment. I already had a free Calendly scheduling link because sometimes clients and leads have requested this to get on my schedule without a lot of back and forth. On LinkedIn, my client activity normally happens in the DMs. But I thought I’d try something new, so we’ll see if it’s worth it.

Linking to my website’s Services page also made me realize my site is baaaasic. So I rewrote the Services section to reflect those four project areas I want to focus on with clients. I like how it turned out, but it did turn into a little bit of a detour from what started off as “just” a LinkedIn makeover. 😂

Anyway, here’s how my final Featured section turned out. Notice I made matching Canva graphics for each section.

I still have other basic housekeeping to work on in my About section and my website, but these two profile updates were fairly quick wins.

How is your own LinkedIn profile looking these days? Hit reply and let me know if you regularly update your social media presence or if you need to take a few minutes for a makeover!

Happy freelancing,

Lauren