Open Thread: Are you getting clients on LinkedIn?

I’ve gotten a few e-mails about full-time gigs but nothing freelance related, sadly.

Yes! I’m a designer and I had a local agency in need of freelancers find me through LinkedIn. I’m currently working on my second project through them and it’s been great. I also enjoy being a member of numerous design related groups and often read many of the discussions posted on LinkedIn.

I’ve also found it very helpful to have clients write recommendations through LinkedIn. It’s such a simple process and great to have.

I think LinkedIn is an important tool for freelancers as it has been very helpful to me.

I would love to know how to get good reputable freelance positions from LinkedIn

Not yet. I connect with existing clients through LinkedIn to keep in touch, but I haven’t actually found any new clients with it.

Of course, that could be due to lack of trying. I’ve only poked around on LinkedIn looking for jobs once or twice for only a few minutes each.

Not at all. Their oh so goody-good “network” is unusable to me (and to possible customers as well). Same counts for search engines etc.

Most clients come via Xing, by clicking on one of the “developed by Usability Idealist” / “designed by …” links on sites I developed or thanks to mouth-to-mouth propaganda.

cu, w0lf.

Yeah I have been spammed for full time work but no freelance stuff, had more contacts through here at Freelance Switch =)

I get a lot of head-hunters, but no clients. I’m not exactly marketing myself on LinkedIn, though.

I’ve had a LinkedIn profile up for several years. Number of clients gotten through LinkedIn? None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

And, I suspect, this is a typical ROI for LinkedIn. It reminds me of one of those car dealerships where the sales people stand around and talk to each other instead of (gasp!) going over to meet those scary strangers who’ve come in the door.

Methinks that a lot of people would rather chit-chat on LinkedIn than do the hard work of contacting strangers and asking them for their business. Or pound the pavements to look for a job. Or post flyers around the neighborhood offering to clean yards, walk dogs, wash cars, sit with the kids, or do whatever they can to bring money in.

I just started building my network on LinkedIn and just after a week I got my first prospective client. It’s still a long way to go, but at least it’s something.

I think LinkedIn is not a marketing tool or a job board. It’s a networking tool. If used right, it can be beneficial in the long run.

I’m afraid the same as above goes for me, having run my web, graphics, video and photo business for just over a year now I haven’t had anything through LinkedIN. I have, however, had clients direct through Twitter (maybe Facebook too but nothing measurable).

That’s a negative ghostrider.
I’m not sure I understand the point of it. Some kind of generic background check maybe? I’m confused when people I don’t know or work with try to add me to the network.

Just seems kind of useless to me.

I’ve made a few re-connections with people I already knew but had lost touch with, which turned into paying work. Also found an RFP to bid on which came down to me and one other firm, lost as the other firm did a bunch of spec work (lame).

So, more profitable than Twitter or Facebook, but e-mail and word of mouth still win.

Using linkedin groups forum is ok but like any social network can suck up your time. Basically everyone is trying to sell their wares.

I’ve been on linked in for 3 years and sadly I’ve gotten nothing from LinkedIn. I’ve read articles about utilizing it, leveraging it, and improving it. Notta.

I’ve had more luck getting gigs faster with Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth.

I’ve heard there are freelancers who find tons of work, but every one I’ve seen claiming this is usually a big fish who get gigs with other big fish.

Now, my wife who is a government contractor had a lot of luck with LinkedIn leading to her landing a job 2 months after finishing school with her Masters.

I get a lot of full time offers but no freelance work. Most people that contacts me are HR people who wants you to be back in the cubicle!

LinkedIn is good at recommending connections with people that are doing the exactly the same thing I am doing.
Yes it connects people, but it connects the wrong type of people.
Business people are not going to run off to LinkedIn to find someone for a project. There are so many better platforms for finding talented people.

JC

I’ve been getting a lot of connections from LinkedIn since I started freelancing a couple years ago. I know for some it doesn’t work but for me I have to admit it’s helped out quite a bit.

The few potential customers I got from Linkedin were extremely unreliable.
I saw these points in common:

-Lack of commitment
-No way of establishing and maintain agreements.

-Usually the work is used like a hook to get an advice

Maybe Linkedin is good to spread the news, but not for finding new clients.
It seems to be like a Facebook for people with degrees…did you find any luck on that social network?

The thing I’ve mostly noticed is linkedin tends to be people in between jobs (or maybe it’s just all my friends whom are unemployed). Everyone seems to have their current position and then list their own company and call themselves a CEO or owner. The majority of these are “companies” are projects they never really followed through with. Sorry for being negative.

I just completed my profile recently and was on the verge of “going all out” with linkedin. But a few things have stood out to me.

1. it’s extremely complicated to do anything on that site. So far with a lot of common sense type things I had to google for an answer– and I wasn’t the only one who had to question how. These were simple things like creating a profile badge, etc.

2. privacy settings. So I spent all that time setting up my profile and what do I find out? I can’t exclude certain people from viewing my profile. I don’t want certain people (like my current boss) knowing that I’m freelancing on the side because it may look like I’m looking for a different job, or that I’m not committed anymore.

The only thing I can do is change the privacy setting so non-connected people can’t view my profile. But that would pretty much render my profile useless because no potential leads, clients, and employers would be able to view my profile/portfolio (I was going to use the behance plugin) without connecting.

So after reading lot of the comments I may just delete it.

Nope. I’ve been on linkedin for a long time but never got any takers or even any interest from it. But something must be going right for the site to still be around.

I can’t say that I have any exciting stories to share but yes I have gotten many clients from LinkedIn. Mostly it has been from people I have worked with in the past at other companies or from those same people telling others about what I do. I wont say that I get most of my work from LinkedIn but I get enough that I actively maintain my LinkedIn profile.

-Chris

Freelance writing and translating for over 6 years- got maybe 1 client from LinkedIn back in the day, but it was someone I already knew, they just CONTACTED me through LI.

It is not all that effective nowadays with the other social networking platforms coming up, though people do contact me to add up with their networks, and if the profile is good, I do the same.

However, it is mainly through the other social networks that I connect up with more people, and later add them to my LinkedIn profile as well. That works better!

Thanks for sharing

Man I haven’t received any leads from LinkedIn. I have a complete profile, good background, linked Behance portfolio and great recommendations. And I do get work regularly, just nothing through LinkedIn.

I’ve only ever gotten work through referrals — luckily it’s been enough to keep me afloat so far. I keep up on most social media just for the “with it” factor, though given the responses here I’m wondering if I should scrap my biz/dba profile and just stick with my personal one…

In my experience and that of my friends, LinkedIn has worked better in reverse; finding people in real life and then being on a short list when they’re looking for a designer.

Agreed Natalie

Can’t say that LinkedIn has proven to be worth it for me in any business endeavors.

Nothing at all to be honest.