The cover photo on LinkedIn is definitely not appreciated enough. As every photo tells a story, it complements the profile.
Just as the press no longer publishes newspapers or information on websites without photos, one should not leave a large empty space at the very top of the professional profile. It is really not complicated and a good investment in career profile. Use this place to visually tell your story and distinguish yourself from the crowd. That’s about half a billion LinkedIn users.
General guidelines:
- JPG, GIF, PNG files.
- Not bigger than 8MB.
- The recommended size is 1584 x 396 pixels – you do not need to trim it, you can just reposition it.
- The background image is editable only on the computer – on the phone, this option is not available in the application.
A cover photo on LinkedIn can have 3 functions.
1. A pretty cover photo
It should attract attention, be clear. It can be a picture you like, which appeals to your hobby and passion. It’s nice and it does not really matter, except showing that you took care of your profile … Such a cover photo can provoke the so-called. „small talk” – that’s also a good reason.
Dominika, as a translator, wants to be associated with travels and the wide horizon – checked!
At first glance, this is a photo from the category: nice. In the further part of the profile, we learn that Natalia is a veterinarian.
2. A complementary cover photo
The most popular effective in use. It is complementary for all other information on your profile.
- It may contain the company logo in which you work – then you help build the employer’s brand.
- It can be a neat graphics of keywords that are associated with your industry: you build it thanks to Wordle.net
- Supplements information about the industry in which you work – at first glance, it explains what you are doing.
- Clarifies the experience – if you are involved in a particular industry, your cover photo can help recruiters understand what you are an expert in.
- Eg IT and specializations such as: developer, architect system, machine learning. Each of them can be assigned a picture immediately associated with a given topic: a piece of code, cables, a robot …
- Healthcare: specialization medical devices, nursing … – without reading the profile, and having snapped at the photo, we can understand in which direction the professional career of the person is going.
- The pharmacist may have a photo of an old pharmacy locker. I think a handful of spilt pills could be too literal.
- For a nutritionist, a colourful picture of vegetables at the market will be appropriate.
- Foo someone who deals professionally with sports – a photo showing the silhouettes of runners, the finish line, the markings of the field.
- A sales person may have, for example, the region he or she shows or the products he sells.
Monika’s photo is consistent with her and the marketing guidelines of the company for which she is recruiting.
Kamal’s photo refers to the industry of the company for which he works.
3. An informational cover photo
My favourite option. This is especially useful for those who already work on their own account and do not get under the logo of a larger corporation. Although I imagine that people working in sales, having more contact with the client could also use such a banner.
I am talking about a photo with contact details. Link to the blog, by e-mail, phone number.
Justyna, apart from her contact details, also gave the topics of her expertise. All information is provided immediately. Details can be found in the profile.
Grzegorz very clearly pointed out where to find him and at what address.
Where to find great pictures for free?
Unsplash & Pexels – these are my favourite sources of photos, although I warn you: I see that it’s not just mine. After entering the „business” password, I find photos that I have already seen appearing in posts on Facebook etc. Do not use images that are too obvious. :)
Pixabay, PicJumbo, LibreStock, Burst – I used them much less often, maybe you will like them :)
How to make a simple graphic?
Do not hesitate to ask me directly for help, but if you have a fuss and want to do simple graphics, I give links to websites that will help here:
Canva – I absolutely love this tool!
Snappa, Piktochart – I tried, they are ok :)
Do you know the saying that a photo is worth more than 1000 words? Because we have only 2000 characters to write a summary on LinkedIn, use the photo in the background to say even more!
One more thing! Stand out from the crowd of solid blue photos on your profile. Show that you take care of details, use all available LinkedIn tools that you want to tell a story.
