5 Tips for Finding Freelance Work on LinkedIn
If you don’t use LinkedIn as part of your marketing strategy you’re missing out on a rich source of new clients.
Admittedly, LinkedIn is a tough nut which many freelancers are still learning how to crack. In a FreelanceSwitch survey last year, only a few freelancers said they’d found work on the network.
Responding to the survey, many freelancers seemed doubtful LinkedIn was any help at all for finding new clients.
“Just seems kind of useless to me,” was a typical response.
In my experience, LinkedIn can be an extremely useful tool in finding freelance gigs, but only since I’ve learned how to use it.
LinkedIn is not the Yellow Pages
I think the cynicism surrounding LinkedIn in the freelance community is based on a mistaken view of how the network works. Many freelancers see it in one of the following ways:
- As a jobs board. In this case, freelancers scour LinkedIn (especially groups) looking for advertised work.
- As a “Yellow Pages” listing. These freelancers fill out their LinkedIn profile. They expect prospects to find their profile and contact them.
Let’s take these one at a time, and show why these views are mistaken.
First, it’s true that occasionally, gigs do come up in LinkedIn groups. However, they’re rare and usually low paid. I’ve yet to find one I’ve wanted.
Second, it’s true that prospects can check out your LinkedIn profile. But they’re unlikely to do so unless you’re actively involved in groups and you regularly update your profile page. What’s more, they have no way of getting in touch with you unless they add you as a contact.
The Right Way to View LinkedIn
The correct way to view LinkedIn is as a small component in your sales funnel. You may never get work directly from LinkedIn. However, you will be more likely to get work and find new clients if you use LinkedIn as part of your marketing strategy.
Here’s what LinkedIn is good for:
- Connecting with prospects and making them aware of your services.
- Staying top of mind for prospects and current clients.
- Showing you’re a trustworthy person to do business with.
All of these give you an advantage when your prospects are choosing which freelancer they’d like to work with.
In the following five tips, I show you exactly how I use LinkedIn as part of my marketing strategy.
LinkedIn Tips for Finding Clients
- Update your headline and summary. Every time you update your headline or summary, LinkedIn tells your network. Small tweaks once a month are a way to keep your name and face in front of prospects without having to write them a note.
- Add prospects to your LinkedIn network. When you meet a potential client in the real world, or through email, add them on LinkedIn. Even if they don’t need your services right away, you’ve reminded them of your meeting. What’s more, you’ve created a permanent connection.
- Ask for Recommendations. Recommendations are LinkedIn’s equivalent of testimonials. As they’re an integral part of the LinkedIn ecosystem, I find it less intimidating to ask for a LinkedIn recommendation than for a testimonial. I’ve yet to be turned down by anyone I’ve asked. Recommendations provide proof of your skills and experience to any prospects who view your profile.
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Write personal notes. Whenever someone adds you on LinkedIn, write them a message. Thank them for connecting with you, and ask what they’ve been up to lately. This only takes a couple of minutes, yet very few people do it, so you’ll stand out.
I recently started doing this, and in the past month I’ve been offered two gigs from contacts who added me, simply because I took the time to write them a message.
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Spend time in LinkedIn groups. Whoever your target market is, chances are there’s a group on LinkedIn where they hang out. To get noticed in a group, be active in posting questions, and replying to other people’s posts.
Being active in groups is the most time consuming of the five tips, and I’ve yet to directly find work this way. I have, however, expanded my network using groups, and some of the contacts I’ve made could become clients in the future.
Over to You
Do you use LinkedIn to find freelance gigs? If so, how? Has this article changed the way you view LinkedIn?
Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Enpleinair.
Leave a Comment
Hi there David,
LinkedIn is a priority for my freelance copywriting business–I go to LinkedIn prior to checking my professional and personal email.
I not only use LinkedIn for professional networking but for education and resources that enrich my career. It’s also a great way for me to give back by sharing marketing and copywriting suggestions.
Great tips. Many thanks for your post.
Here’s another suggestion: Freelancers optimize your LinkedIn profile for search. It will help increase your visibility with recruiters (of advertising and marketing agencies, etc), as well as put you front and center with potential clients and business partners.
See tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile here: http://bit.ly/QduFnd-MB
Cheers,
Sonya
Wow! LinkedIn before email is real dedication. Do you message people daily on LinkedIn? Or do you mainly use the updates feature?
I know I’ve learned a lot from LinkedIn groups. In what ways to do you use LinkedIn to educate yourself and enrich your career?
And, lastly, thanks for the tips on optimization.
I message current Linkedin contacts as well as those who view my profile individually.
It’s important to reach back into your current connections and see if there is someone there that you can lend a hand to or build a deeper connection with.
That’s a great tip, Sonya, I need to start doing that.
I love your tips here David, and thanks for being honest with what tactics have been successful and what might be successful in the future. I’m still trying to figure LinkedIn out as it relates to my network and freelance business, but this gives me a much better idea.
Another great tip I learned, is to interact with the Q&A section. If you help answer people’s questions and or even become a good conversation starter yourself, other people will view you as a knowledgeable and valuable resource!
Thanks Carrie.
I noticed you’re a freelance writer/blogger, so you’ll likely be writing for blogs. I’ve found LinkedIn is useful for transitioning relationships with bloggers from informal to professional.
I tried Q&A, and I felt like it had potential, but had lots of catching up to do with Yahoo Answers & Quora. What do you answer questions on?
Great post, I truly enjoyed it & look forward to using your recommended strategies.
Thanks Kevin, delighted you found it helpful.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for this article. I’ve been wondering exactly how to approach Linkedin re sourcing work and networking (as a freelance graphic designer) and this article seems to have “hit the nail on the head” as they say.
I really appreciate how succinctly the topic was approached and explained.
You’re welcome. And, thank you for your kind words about my succinct writing.
Keep us updated on how things work out for you on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is the Facebook for business. On Facebook, the general idea is to add people who you know in real life and keep in contact with. LinkedIn is best approached in a similar fashion, but for business contacts.
Everyone who you do a job for, straight after you finish the work – ask for their LinkedIn profile and hook up on there. You can use it to gain repeat work from those who already know you and your ability to deliver. If they don’t have a profile recommend that they make one. When you start building up your own close circle of contacts and begin to develop recommendations from those who you’ve already come in contact with, you can then begin to see the rewards. The people who are part of your LinkedIn contacts network are more likely to check you out. When that happens you often see relationships develop via others recommendations.
The main benefit of having a LinkedIn profile is to use it as above, but to also let it act as your CV/Resume that your other network profiles can drive interest to your LinkedIn page. Putting your LinkedIn details on some of your promotion material, website, blogs and email signatures all adds towards getting peoples attention while making them aware you have a professional network account as well as personal ones, or business pages. There are many other people in the same boat as you – who are looking for professional contacts, work and recommendations. That mutual factor alone could be the start of something unexpected later down the line.
From my experience on LinkedIn is don’t expect instant results, be as active as you can in groups but focus mostly on adding people who you’ve already done work for, rather than trying to attract people to work with. You will also start to slowly see the benefits if you don’t treat it like Facebook, Myspace, Google+ or Twitter!
Use your client list and put it to work for you.
Thanks Marvin, these are great tips!
Broadly speaking, there are two approaches to LinkedIn, and I think both are good. One is, as you suggest, only adding contacts you’ve met in real life. The other is being an open networker, and connecting with anyone who chooses to add you as a contact.
I’m somewhere in the middle. And, truth be told, I’ve never met many of my clients in real life. That’s Internet-power!
Nearly everyone has a linkedin profile because they got an invite, but many people don’t use it like you suggest. I have just now started to use Linkedin like it should be. These tips are great.
It’s true, there are a few inactive people on LinkedIn. There are also many active people.
I wouldn’t say everyone I know is on LinkedIn. Probably around a quarter of my professional network is there.
Your tips are great. I implemented what you said and have gotten a lead already for a potential client.
I’ve just started using LinkedIn myself, after reading a small book on Tuts Premium about using it. I definitely recommend people taking a read of it:
https://tutsplus.com/ebook/linkedin-and-lovin-it/
Early days yet, but i’ve drummed up a few promising leads so far. Great article David, I’ll probably check out your book too!
Thanks for the book recommendation, Mike. What would you say was the most important thing you learned from reading it?
So far, it’d have to be the advice it gives on growing your network using the various tools available. Personalising invites to new contacts has worked well for me, and often leads to a discussion straight away. Rather than just asking to be a connection, I try to follow up on what was said when I last saw them face to face. Standard networking follow up stuff really, but something that I wasn’t previously doing on Linked in.
This is just banal advice. Give real advice, not 3rd grade level stuff. What’s next, “Make sure your name is spelled correctly?”
Not to mention LinkedIn groups are nothing more nowadays than a depository of spam. They’re not real discussion groups. Good luck ever getting noticed on them.
Jery, I agree the advice is simple, but I disagree it’s banal. And I’ve yet to meet a third-grader on LinkedIn!
Sometimes it’s useful to be reminded of the bread-and-butter stuff.
Some groups have spam problems, but some of them are excellent discussion forums. It’s about finding groups with active members.
What more in-depth tips would you recommend for finding work on LinkedIn?
I am a web designer and wordpress developer. I have question. For example my target group is hotels & as per the article I join a hotel group, but how do I market my services in the group?
Great question Murtaza! I’m hoping to answer this in more depth in a future Freelance Switch article. The most important thing is just to hang out in the group – answer questions, ask questions, make friends & build relationships. If people see you’re a web developer, they’ve come to trust you, and they need your services, chances are they’ll approach you.
Social media is about relationship marketing rather than *look at me* blasting it through a megaphone marketing.
Basically, it’s a way of expanding your network, and the bigger your network, the more opportunity you have to find clients.
Does that make sense? Let me know if you have a follow-up question.
Thanks David, I will give it a shot & wait for your article.
But I have another question. In your reply you said “Basically, it’s a way of expanding your network, and the bigger your network, the more opportunity you have to find clients.”
I am a web service provider & for me all business are good prospects because I have a service which every business needs to survive in these modern times. I have more than 1000 connections in my Linkedin acct. but I have still not created any business out of them. Some have approached but they were just inquiring. Can you suggest a way I could make use of these connections & create business. I thought of exporting the list and use MailChimp to send out a intro mails, but I am not sure whether that’ll workout or no. Please advice.
I’d say a couple of things:
1. Why not go back to the people who enquired and find out if they need any web design services? Seize the initative.
2. Your network is only partly about the number of contacts you have. It’s also about the quality of relationship you have with those contacts. Take some time to get to know the people who’ve already connected with you.
LinkedIn Answers! http://www.linkedin.com/answers
Here you can:
• Answer other’s questions (demonstrating your knowledge and authority; increasing your visibility; highlighting other knowledgable answerers) and
• Ask questions of the community (adding to your market research, increasing your visibility; highlighting other knowledgable answerers
I’m not crazy about adding people to my network if I’ve only just met them. Likewise, I don’t accept just any invitation to connect.
Anyone with connections is a “connector” and for me that has responsibilities. I strive to be fully comfortable referring anyone in my network to another professional. If I’ve met someone but haven’t yet worked with them, then I can’t yet vouch for them.
At the very least I have to know them over some period of time so I trust that they know what they’re talking about or doing.
Recommendations are the best!
If you have a few, providing your LinkedIn profile to a prospect early on in a relationship (in an email or letter footer; in other social profiles; on business card, etc.) makes it easy for a prospect to round out his/her impression of you when they see recommendations on your profile page.
Also, just this past week or so, LinkedIn rolled out Endorsements (of Skills). They don’t have the depth of a spelled-out recommendation, but they
• let someone get a snapshot of your sill set with the benefit of 3rd party approvals
• let you endorse others’ skills, so you’re appearing on your connection’s radar and staying relevant to them. it’s such a great and easy gift to give and to receive.
Murtaza. All those people who have contacted you – get them on a mailing list! If they are serious about wanting design they will join, if they’re not they wont. Once some join they will contact you if/when they need design in the future.
Social media is all good, but email marketing is still the biggest source for generating work. Use your social profiles to drive attention to your website and use your website/blog to get email subscribers. Those are the guys who are ‘worth’ your time. A lot of people like the idea of having a new design/website etc, but the majority don’t follow through.
Hi Marvin;
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I have tried mailers for about 2-3 months on a weekly basis, but there were just inquiries no business. May be because currently they did not require any web service, but with every weekly mail my open rate went down. I spoke to some of the subscribers about this & they said “we are busy guys we are not interested in what’s happening in the web world we are more concerned about things happening in our field of work.”
At the moment I have stopped my mailers and trying to look for new strategies on making my mailers interesting any tips buddy?
Regards
Murtaza Frosh
Maimoon Inc.
“The correct way to view LinkedIn is as a small component in your sales funnel.”
David,
I have to give you kudos for the way you presented this idea.
It’s so very basic and fundamental to using your time wisely as a freelancer. I see many people pour themselves into Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites without getting the results they want.
Freelancers have little budget for marketing R&D, so we need to know how NOT to waste time.
Thanks for this.