Creating and Improving Your LinkedIn: For Artists
LinkedIn is a great tool for making connections and getting your name out there, no matter what industry you are in, but it is important to create a strong profile to make sure you are getting the full value out of your LinkedIn networking experience.
I am going to walk you through the lessons I have learned in classes and through experience to help you build an A+ LinkedIn profile so you can start making connections and getting job leads. Below is an outline of this post, so you can jump to a specific location depending on what stage of the profile-building process you are on.
Why LinkedIn is Important for Artists
LinkedIn is a great social media platform for professional networking which allows businesses to create profiles, posts, and job listings for users like us to consume. As individuals, we can build profile pages that highlight our experience, our skills, and our personality which is why it is essential to create a strong LinkedIn profile when networking and job searching. You want to put your best foot forward when opening your profile to potential employers.
Not only is LinkedIn a hugely influential tool for businesses who are looking for their ideal candidate, it is also still a social media platform that allows you to network in groups with like-minded people, share your work, and have a voice on shared topics and within shared communities. Thoughtful networking here could help you land your next gig.
Create Your Profile
First things first, you need to create a strong profile that highlights everything you have to offer. Whether you are straight out of college with limited experience, looking for a new position, or trying to get your name out there, it is essential that you create a strong profile so that when you do drive traffic to your page, people want to stop and take in your hard work and information.
Choose Your Profile Picture
While there is flexibility here to show your personality, your profile picture should represent you in a professional way. Here are some considerations to have when choosing a profile picture:
You should be the focus of this image
Use a photo that features you from the shoulders up
Avoid using photos with other people in them
Avoid using photos that are too zoomed out, or zoomed in
Avoid busy backgrounds
Dress to Impress
Dressing up in your photo gives the viewer the idea that you can be professional and take yourself seriously
Take Care of Your Hair
Spend a little time doing your hair for your photo
If you need a haircut, beard trim, etc. get that done before you take a photo; this little effort makes a big difference in people’s perception of you at first glance
Take a New Photo
If you don’t already have a professional photo, consider snapping a new one or getting them professionally done
If you are unsure what to do for your profile photo, take a look at some existing LinkedIn profiles and consider what you like and don’t like about the headshots you see, and plan your picture around that.
Make Your Profile Public vs. Private
LinkedIn has a guide that will walk you through how to manage the Public/Private settings on your profile which I will link to this article, so I am not going to go into details on exactly how to do it. Instead, I want to explain what features are available here and what you should consider while setting it up.
It is required with any profile to show your name, the number of LinkedIn connections you have, and what region of the world you are in. After that, you have the flexibility to choose what people can see when they visit your profile.
You have the most control over who can see your profile photo, the most limited being only people who you are 1st-degree connections with (this is like being “friends” with someone on Facebook). The next option is people within your network, which will show your photo to 2nd-degree connections (friends of friends) and 3rd-degree connections (people directly connected to your 2nd-degree connections). From there you have all people who have a LinkedIn profile, and lastly, there is the Public option which means anyone on LinkedIn, as well as opening up your profile to search engines.
While there are clear pros and cons to being completely public and searchable on the internet, there are no real pros to keeping your profile available for only 1st-degree connections if you are trying to use your LinkedIn account to grow your personal network and professional audience. Employers and members are more likely to gloss over a profile that does not have a visible photo because it feels incomplete and impersonal.
At the end of the day, I recommend you choose the option you are most comfortable with that supports your goals and the reason you are choosing to create a LinkedIn profile in the first place.
Additionally, you have the option to toggle the visibility on and off for your background photo, headline, websites you list, personal summary, articles and activities you’ve interacted with or created, your current experience level, the details about that experience, your past experience and their details, educational history and the details, the languages you know, and if anyone has written recommendations for you.
Choosing Your Cover Image
Think of your LinkedIn cover image as your artist statement. This space is great if you have something of impact you want to say visually. It could be used for branding if you have a personal logo, or a space to highlight a piece of work you created that showcases what you have to offer. If you are unsure where to begin, I recommend looking at existing artist profiles to see what other professionals are doing and checking out Canva’s free LinkedIn banner templates. Just keep in mind that in the current iteration of LinkedIn’s profiles for web and mobile the profile photo covers some of your background picture. To avoid covering up important information, make sure your important content lives on the right side of the image.
Headline & About You
Similar to your cover image, your Headline and About are really important areas to make a statement about who you are and what kind of work you are looking for. You want to include keywords that are related to your expertise.
The Headline has a short character limit so you want to be precise. This section will show up under your name when recruiters are searching for candidates. Think of this like a one or two-line resume and consider including some or all of the following in your Headline:
Current job title
Key skills or expertise that you have (think keywords)
If you are openly seeking employment and what type of position you are looking for
An example of a headline that is effective and to the point may be something like:
Graphic Designer & Digital Content Specialist at XXXX Inc.
Here is an example that includes a title and two keyword proficiencies that businesses may look for when searching for a specialist:
Senior Graphic Designer | Software as a Service Marketing | B2B Experience
And finally, an example of a title that includes an indication that you are looking for a position:
Graphic Design Specialist @ ABC Business | Brand Design & Marketing | Seeking Full-Time Design Position on Marketing Team
All these examples are great headlines for a designer at different stages in their career. There is no exact formula for the perfect Headline so experiment, see what others in your preferred industry are doing, and create something fitting for yourself that expresses what you want people to know about you at first glance. Special characters like in the examples above are welcome and may be useful for catching attention, including emojis. Just be cautious not to get too carried away as this can sometimes look unprofessional to certain employers.
Your About section should be a quick paragraph that explains who you are, what value you bring to an employer, and what history and experience you have. It’s a great location to add keywords and the space is not limited to a certain amount of characters. But the most important thing here is to think outside the box and highlight your personality. Consider that an employer who has received 30+ applications for a job on LinkedIn has to go through and read all of these for potential candidates, you want to make sure that what you are saying is memorable and stands out above the others.
Add Your Education & Work History
One of the great things about LinkedIn is it doubles as a resume when applying for jobs and there aren’t as many limitations with how much content you put into your work history description. These sections together tell a story to potential employers or clients and are great for automated resume scanners that are looking for keywords before your profile is even seen by a living person. Here are some considerations you should have when building out your education and work history section on LinkedIn:
Where possible, connect your school and job locations to existing company portfolios. Most mid to large companies and colleges will have a profile on LinkedIn which will allow a viewer to click on a place of business to learn more about the company you worked for, or the location you got your education.
If you are self-taught and do not have an education section to fill out, that’s fine! You will have the opportunity to do skill checks which I will cover in a later section.
Be consistent with what tense you are writing in for your bullet points. In general, you want to start your bullet points with unique past-tense verbs that lead into a description of a responsibility that you carried out.
Be consistent with punctuation. If you end your sentence with a period in one bullet, you should do that in all of them. If you would rather leave the bullet points open-ended, make sure it is consistent across all the bullet points on your profile.
Incorporate important keywords into the type of work you want to find. I will elaborate on this more in another article, but you want to make sure you are highlighting your experience in areas that employers are searching for. One way to find out what keywords to use is to review existing job applications for positions you aspire to apply to now or in the future.
Make sure you add those same keywords to the “Skills” section in your profile. These are available to bots and people that scan your profile when you submit a job application through LinkedIn.
Adding as much detail now as you can will save you time in the future. When you use your LinkedIn profile to apply for jobs on LinkedIn’s job tab, it will sometimes ask you to fill in the missing information it couldn’t find when uploading your profile.
To summarize, you want to make sure your descriptions are rich in keywords and that you are taking advantage of the different features LinkedIn provides while setting up these sections so that when you share your profile during job searches you are more likely to get seen.
Add a Digital Portfolio
As an artist and/or designer it is essential that you include a portfolio of your work on your website, and have a digital copy at hand in general when applying for jobs. Every application I have filled out has requested one; some positions won’t even look at an applicant if they have not submitted a portfolio.
You have two main options for this: to create a website where you post your best work or to create a pdf of your pieces and add that to the Featured Content section of your profile.
You don’t have to be a programmer or know HTML and CSS to build a website. There are a lot of great tools out there that allow you to easily build beautiful websites without knowing a lick of code. I recommend that if you are looking for a job that requires skills in HTML and CSS that you are creating your website from scratch as a portfolio piece itself, or if you are applying for jobs because a background in a certain software like Wordpress that you use Wordpress as your website’s foundation. Otherwise, Wix and SquareSpace are great WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website builders and hosts, among many others. I personally chose Wix to host this site and my personal portfolio I use for LinkedIn so if you have any questions please leave me a comment below.
If you are creating a digital portfolio, make sure you consider the layout of your portfolio as much as you would approach any design project. The portfolio itself should be a piece of art. Remember, you want to make a statement and be remembered. Choose your best pieces of work, add short descriptions, and be sure to include a contact sheet at the beginning or the end so people can follow up with you and reference it if they need to share it internally or look back later.
Featured Content
At a minimum, your Featured Content section should include a copy of your resume and a link to your portfolio website or digital portfolio. Do note, you may want to modify what contact information you make available on this digital resume if you don’t want people to have access to your email and phone number without requesting that information directly from you. You also have the ability to attach posts, articles, website links, and media files here. This would be a good place to feature any links to locations where you or your work have been published or additional information you want to make sure people see that relates back to you.
Job Preferences
When you are looking for a job you have the ability to select whether you want all LinkedIn members to be able to see that you are open for work, or limit it to just recruiters in the Job Preferences section. This is really helpful when you are currently holding a position but ready to explore other opportunities without all your connections knowing.
In this section, you also get to choose up to 5 titles that match the job titles you are interested in. When recruiters are looking, this allows the algorithm to see what titles to match you up with (along with other details it is reading like your experience and skill proficiencies vs. the skill proficiencies and titles of the positions posted). You also get to choose whether you are looking for positions that are on-site, hybrid, or fully remote, where you are looking for your next position to be, and if you are looking for immediate work or casually browsing. It also has a final section about the types of jobs you are seeking from full-time to contract work, internships, or even temporary jobs.
Make sure you set up your job preferences when your profile is complete and you are ready for recruiters to start finding you.
Skill Quizzes
The last section I want to cover here is the Skill Quiz section. LinkedIn has tons of skills quizzes or Skill Assessments that upon successful completion will show up in your Skills section with a special LinkedIn badge that says you have passed their skill assessment for that item. Don’t worry if you don’t pass on the first try. These skill assessments don’t have a limit to the number of times you can take them so after a period of time, it does let you come back and take the test again until you pass.
Right now there is an additional component to this that is in Beta that allows you to “Demonstrate Transferable Skills” like sales, marketing, and project management that thus far have not been available on the Skill Assessments.
These assessments are important to fill out because job postings are set up to look for these skills and tell you and the lister how many of the required skills you have successfully passed.
For example, if you are looking for a job that lists out that they are looking for someone who can work in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Microsoft PowerPoint and you have passed three out of 4 of these, you might get a notification saying “Your profile matches this job” and “3/4 skills match your profile, you may be a good fit”. The more you can match with a job, the better chances you have of getting looked at.
What Makes an Appealing Profile?
To summarize what we have discussed in this post: Your goal when creating a profile is to put your best foot forward, elaborate on your skills and experience, and showcase your work and your personality, all with professionalism.
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