LinkedIn - How to Stand Out from the Crowd

The Linkedin Profile Photo

Have a go at searching for people on a Linkedin page, the profile pictures are tiny – about the size of a 5 pence coin. It’s even smaller on a mobile phone!

So how do you stand out from the crowd?

Well you decide, scroll through and see which profiles stand out.

I bet it’s not the ones with no pic, then not far behind the selfies and half -length shots.

My personal choice are the close up ones, where you can really see peoples expressions and make eye-contact with them.

I also notice that black and white images really seem to grab my attention as well.

The About Me Section.

To finish my trilogy of how to use photographs on a Linkedin page we are going to look at the About Section. This is a great place to enhance your profile with some visual imagery.

Could be photographs, documents, videos even presentations. On my profile I include a short slideshow showcasing some of the brands I have worked with.

For the sake of speed and being a Mac user I tend to use iMovie to construct them. It’s stripped down interface means I can’t overcomplicate matters but still add some glitzy transitions and alter the frame rate.

Hurrah!

The Skinny Photo at the Top.

In this section we are going to look at maximising your brand with the important but sometimes challenging banner photo. Known as header, background or cover photo!

The recommended size is 1584x396 pixels (which has got to be the most random set of numbers ever!) and this translates as long and skinny – think panoramic for best results.

It's an important image and I notice that a lot of people don’t bother and rely on the stock (molecular?) image. Come on, this is important real estate to get across what you or your company is about.

Don’t waste it!

I love shooting in this panoramic style, it’s very cinematic.

Do any of my photography friends remember the Fuji 617, which used 3 frames of 120 per shot, brilliant for billboard advertising campaigns. So a couple of clues there how to create a great cover shot – use the panoramic setting on your phone and think like a movie director.

Here’s a shot I did for the lovely folks at Water2Business using that very style.