LinkedIn is a hugely important marketing tool for freelance writers, but one that’s often overlooked. Recently, I did a complete overhaul of my profile, and immediately began getting good results. Here are the simple changes I made to optimize my profile…along with the results.

TARGETING MY CLIENTS’ “PAIN POINTS”

First, I rewrote the copy on my profile. I thought about the kind of clients I wanted to target, and I considered what their pain points might be. Then, I tried to speak to those pain points in my profile. Instead of having every sentence start with “I,” I made sure to direct the copy more towards my potential clients. I also tried to make the first three lines as compelling as possible since that’s all the text visitors to my profile can see unless they click “show more.”

REVAMPING MY RESUME

After fixing up my copy, I turned my attention to the “experience” section. I added a sub-section for every client that I’ve done long-term work for, putting the most impressive ones at the top. I didn’t go overboard writing the details of each job but I did add a few lines for each client, briefly explaining what I did. If I could, I added a link to some example work I’d done for that client.

REQUESTING CLIENT RECOMMENDATIONS

The next step was to get some recommendations. These are located at the very bottom of your profile in LinkedIn so they’re easy to overlook… but they’re important! If you have a former client or employer in mind that you’d like a recommendation from, go to their profile and click “more.” Then, “request a recommendation.”

After I finished optimizing my profile, I made a point of being active on the platform. Once a week, I post a status update, and I pop in every day to connect with a few new people, and answer any messages.

These small changes got me big results! After fixing up my profile, I landed two of my dream clients after connecting with them on LinkedIn. I’m also constantly growing my support network of marketing personnel who might have work for me in the future. And recently, a recruiter offered me a $3,000 per month writing job–which I had to turn down since I had just accepted a job with a similar time commitment from another company.

If it’s done right, your LinkedIn profile can be a huge source of success!

Do you have any advice or thoughts to share? Please leave a comment below! 🙂

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Hailey Hudson is a full-time freelance fitness, nutrition, and education writer based out of Atlanta. She is available for hire. Learn more at her website, The Hardworking Creative, or contact her on LinkedIn.

 

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