When someone visits your LinkedIn profile, the first thing they see is the top banner, which includes your Background (also called cover image, cover photo, or banner), Headshot, and Headline, along with a few other details like your location, number of followers, etc. These profile elements are three of the four most important parts of your profile for making a strong, branded first impression. The fourth is your LinkedIn About.
These above-the-fold elements pretty much all people see when they’re looking at your profile on a laptop or their phone. They have to scroll down the see your About and the rest of your profile. That makes this space extremely valuable for engaging viewers and inspiring them to explore other parts of your profile. Yet, while most profiles have a headshot and headline, many don’t have a custom Background.
No LinkedIn Background? A Missed Opportunity.
I recently sifted through 100 random LinkedIn profiles. Almost one-third (31 out of 100) had the default greenish-grey LinkedIn background. That means the owners of these profiles haven’t yet taken the time to create a custom image. That’s a missed branding opportunity. Here’s why:
- It’s the first thing people see when they visit your profile.
- Visuals are powerful in our text-heavy digital world. As advertising executive Fred R. Barnard famously said, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
- It’s your best opportunity to brand your profile and make it stand out instantly.
Your LinkedIn Background makes your profile unique. As long as you don’t use a stock or overly common image, what you create says “one-of-a-kind” before anyone even reads a word.
Why People Skip the LinkedIn Background
So if your Background is so valuable and powerful, why do people stick with LinkedIn’s ho-hum, generic default?
- It feels like too much work. Words feel easier to create than visuals. It seems like a lot more work than pasting content into LinkedIn feature buckets, especially if design isn’t your comfort zone.
- They don’t know what to create. Some want to craft something that’s branded, but they just don’t know what to put there. It’s fairly straightforward to fill in an Experience section, but it’s less obvious to design a graphic that depicts you.
- They think it’s not important. Others think that it really just doesn’t matter. “People are there to read about me, not see a pretty picture.”
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The Good News: It’s Easy To Create A Branded LinkedIn Background
Thanks to many tools and resources, LinkedIn Backgrounds are relatively easy to create, and they’re the best way to make a major upgrade to your profile and to help it more fully exude your unique personal brand. Here are a few ways to create one:
1. Design it in Canva
Canva offers LinkedIn background templates you can customize with your colors, text, and images.
2. Use AI
AI can create personalized LinkedIn backgrounds in minutes. Here’s a sample prompt you can adapt (and you can also upload to AI links to LinkedIn Backgrounds that inspire you):
Please create a LinkedIn Background cover image (size: 1584 x 396 pixels) for my LinkedIn profile. Here’s a link to my profle (add link). Make the primary color (enter hex color) and secondary colors (hex color 2, hex color 3). Please include (quote, images, etc.). I’d like the final image to look (fun, professional, intriguing…).
3. Hire a Designer
Platforms like Fiverr, 99Designs, and Freelancer.com make it easy to find affordable design help.
4. Make It Part of Your Brand Package
Your LinkedIn background (and other social media banners) should align with your personal brand identity system. If you’re representing your employer, be sure to follow their brand guidelines. But when you’re communicating on your own behalf, use your brand identity. If you’re working with a designer for your website or other graphic images, be sure to include your LinkedIn background as one of the outputs.
Inspiration From Remarkable LinkedIn Backgrounds
- Oprah Winfrey uses a warm background that signals hope and possibility.
- Bree Groff promotes her book Today Was Fun with a playful image.
- Paul Gurney showcases the work of his company, BecomingX, with a collage of many of the famous people they work with.
- Nancy Preston incorporates her organization’s branding, integrating her headshot into the polka-dot motif.
- Christophe Ginisty draws you in with a beautiful sepia-toned image of a boy looking into a shop window at his book.
- DeAnne Aussem uses imagery and her logo to communicate growth and success.
- Richard Valazquez highlights community with a group pic of smiling Latinx MBA Association board members.
- Jack Chan created a nicely designed background that frames his headshot perfectly while making a bold statement.
- Patrice Tanaka created a background that’s as impressive as it is simple, using the branding of her company.
- Lexi Brill uses the bright colors and energy of graffiti. Not surprising for a creative director.
- Kristen Lisanti uses bold yellow and colorful butterflies to reinforce her message of transformation.
Go Further With A Dynamic LinkedIn Background
If you want to invest more in your personal brand, LinkedIn offers a dynamic carousel image feature for Premium Business accounts. One standout example comes from LinkedIn expert Anne Pryor, who even shares a collection of her backgrounds for free: Anne Pryor.
As Barnard said, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Add that visual power to your LinkedIn profile to grab attention, express your brand, and inspire people to learn more about you. To add even more wow to your profile, upgrade your Headline, Headshot, and About.
William Arruda is a keynote speaker, author, and personal branding pioneer. Join him for practical tips on using AI to uncover, express, and expand your personal brand in a free Maven Lightning Lesson. If you can’t make it live, register to get the replay.
