Why Designers Still Need a LinkedIn Profile

If you’re any kind of designer, you need a LinkedIn profile. If you’ve never used it, LinkedIn is a social media platform for professionals to connect with others, network, and support each other through personalized recommendations. Even if you don’t plan on growing your network or reaching out to people for connections, there are several big benefits to simply having a profile.

 

LinkedIn can legitimize you to the public

 

Online, it’s hard to tell who is legitimate and who might just be posing and/or scamming a given niche. People can publish anything they want on their website, whether or not it’s true, but getting LinkedIn recommendations isn’t easy to fake. If you are a good designer, you’ll probably be able to find former coworkers and clients on the platform, and you can ask them for a recommendation. The more recommendations you get, the more legitimate you’ll seem to other people who view your profile.

 

A great example of this in action is seen with the National Police Association (NPA). The NPA is an organization that works hard to reduce and eliminate anti-police sentiment throughout society, and supports both the public and law enforcement in legal matters. If anyone is wondering if they’re a legitimate organization, their LinkedIn profile will confirm such.

 

LinkedIn profiles look more professional

 

While many business owners and entrepreneurs have profiles on a variety of social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, nothing makes you look more professional than LinkedIn. Even when you’re not interested in engaging other people on the platform, simply having a presence will make you look good.

 

Sometimes people research businesses and individuals they’re thinking about working with and consider them to be authentic after seeing them on LinkedIn with a large network and plenty of recommendations. They may never reach out to you on the platform, but the fact that you exist will be enough.

 

LinkedIn still ranks in the search engines

 

LinkedIn has been around for a long time. Just like other social media platforms, you can publish blogs, photos, and comment on other people’s posts. Because it’s been around for so long, articles can rank in the search engines pretty easily. Granted, results from LinkedIn are not going to be at the top of every search, but for more niche searches, articles do rank.

 

Since articles can rank on LinkedIn, it makes sense to at least publish a few pieces of content to your profile to potentially capture some of that traffic. It’s not the best lead generation strategy, but since there are plenty of other reasons to have a LinkedIn profile, you might as well publish a few articles.

 

You can reach out to potential clients

 

Although there is a known spam problem across the site, that doesn’t mean it’s totally useless for making connections. There are plenty of people who still use LinkedIn for business purposes, and connecting with new people. It’s entirely possible that you might find a good business connection, partnership, or client on the platform. You could even find employment opportunities.

 

Since you need a LinkedIn account to contact others, it’s worth creating a profile and taking the time to fill it out properly. Don’t create a simple profile just to contact others. They’ll be scrutinizing your profile to see if they even want to respond, so make it good from the start.

 

Potential employers will look for you on LinkedIn

 

When employers receive a job application, they often search for the applicant on social media sites, like Facebook and LinkedIn. They want to know what kind of person is applying for the job, and even though it would be illegal for them to make hiring decisions based on certain things they might see on someone’s social media page, it happens frequently.

 

Always assume that anytime you apply for a job, the company will try to find you online. When you have a LinkedIn profile, it can work in your favor to show potential employers that you are not only professional, but employable. It might even help balance things out if they happen to see some unprofessional photos on Facebook.

 

LinkedIn is still valuable today

 

Although LinkedIn shouldn’t be your only social media account, it will help with your career as a professional designer. You don’t need to use it to reach out to people, but at the very least, you’ll have a profile that others can see when they’re trying to verify your credibility.