What kind of LinkedIn background banner is right for you?
Whether you’re an individual, a personal brand, or a corporation, you have an immediate edge when you customize your LinkedIn banner image to make your profile stand out.
But while it’s easy for companies to use corporate branding in their LinkedIn header image, individuals marketing themselves to potential employers and peers must get a little creative. After all, it’s more nuanced to promote skills as a social media expert or graphic designer than the offerings from a fashion brand. However, it takes more than simply adding your job title to your header image. As with everything else around branding, the LinkedIn cover image you choose should reflect you, your industry, and your skills.
To help you begin to conceptualize what best represents you and your work, consider the following before creating your header image:
- Are you representing yourself as an individual or as your brand? If you’re an individual job seeker rather than a personal brand — such as an influencer — or a business, first make sure you have a clear, high-quality headshot for your profile picture.
- What would you most like to convey about yourself that can be shown through visuals? For example, a dog trainer can feature images of happy, obedient dogs. A graphic designer can make a collage of past works. A civil engineer can show blueprints.
- If your skill set isn’t easily represented through images, what kind of cool visual can you use to represent your skills? For example, if you’re a plumber, you can show tools or a clean, intricate plumbing system. A coder could show code. Or, think abstract: If you’re a customer service representative, you’re a brand ambassador and problem-solver, so maybe your services can be represented with a five-star customer rating or an image of a handshake.
Still not getting any ideas? Don’t worry. We’ll help you come up with some concepts based on various lines of work later in this article.
