Positive First Impressions with a LinkedIn Profile Background Image

Welcome to this weeks issue of LinkedIn for Entrepreneurs where I focus on the LinkedIn Profile Background Image.

Do you use a background image or do you know what it is?

Today I’ll tell you all about it, the dimensions to use, why you should use one and how to do this.

A LinkedIn Background Image is the main image behind your small headshot photo on your LinkedIn profile, represented by a pale blue space as in the image below.

LinkedIn Background Image

The background image represents a large part of your LinkedIn Profile ‘real estate’ as many refer to it as.

It provides a fantastic opportunity to communicate visually what you and your business is all about.

Dimensions For LinkedIn Background Image

The dimensions for the LinkedIn Background image are 1584 pixels wide x 396 pixels tall.

Examples of LinkedIn Background Images

Think about how you can use this space with imagery – e.g. a photographer could have an image of themselves on a photo shoot, a fantastic action shot.

A coach or consultant can show an image of themselves talking to a client, showing a supportive expression.

Generating Ideas For LinkedIn Background Image

Do a 15 minute brainstorm on ideas that would best represent you and your business here and choose one.  You can change it later.

My philosophy is get an image up that’s good and improve over time.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I’ve had to leave my perfectionist tendencies behind to make progress, and would advise you to do the same.

I’ve shared an example of my LinkedIn background image below.

These photos were taken when I was filming for my digital course in City Quarter, Cork and I love the ‘action’ element to them as well as the video cameras in the shots. Not to everyone’s taste but I always love looking at behind the scenes shots.

Adding a Logo

I’ve included my logo on the image above, so immediately visitors know I’m involved in the social media area and can search to find out more.

Canva

To create the above background image,  I used a tool called Canva.

Canva is a fantastic tool for creating background and social media images, especially for non techy people like me!

I created this image by using their template ‘LinkedIn Banner’.  I added a grid to hold the 3 images, dropped the images on the template and then added my logo.

If you’re just starting out and adding a LinkedIn background image for the first time, upload one image to your profile and see how it looks.

How To Upload Your Background Image

On the top corner on my background image above, there is a pencil icon – click on this to upload your photo and choose ‘apply’ when you are happy with it.

View On Different Devices

A tip is to look at the background image on different devices as the positioning of your smaller headshot image is different on mobile, ipad and desktop.

I hope you found today’s issue valuable – Have a great week!

Marian