How to Use the New LinkedIn Premium Image Features

Now I know it's my birthday later this month but really LinkedIn shouldn't have bothered ... I mean ... finally Premium features that I really like!

Enhanced profile viewer stats, key word suggestion and the one that I like the most because it enables profiles to really pop off the page is the LinkedIn Profile Background.

Of course this being LinkedIn the new features have arrived without them actually telling you how to use them ... it's a bit like getting an unwrapped birthday present but hey ho at least the gift is good and it gives me something to share with you.

So here is a step by step guide to installing a nice shiny graphic right behind the top of your LinkedIn profile.

NOTE: This is a PREMIUM ONLY feature

I will cover the basics first then explain some of the more advanced points of it.

• Step One

Go to PROFILE and EDIT PROFILE and then click on the pencil that is in the top right corner - as shown above

• Step Two

This will bring up the above selection panel. To learn what the difference is click the Question Mark and the menu shown below will be shown:

Now it appears that you can have both options active so you can have a Premium Profile that is also Open. This would appear to be the case but to be absolutely sure I am checking directly with LinkedIn. When they give me an accurate answer I will let you know.

• Step Three

Select the Premium Option (plus Open Profile as well if you want) and you will then get the following:

You are seeing the default background that comes up when someone has a premium account.

A slightly odd thing is that I think that if you own a premium account everyone else viewing your profile automatically see's the above but you only see it once you have changed your setting to Premium!

That's either an odd design choice or a quirk of the new system that will resolve itself.

What it does mean is that if you have a Premium LinkedIn Account then you really should upload a specific image - just in case you are tarting around the above blue background without realising it!

• Step Four

Click the edit button which will then bring up and edit background button right in the middle of the background thus ...

• Step Five

They then offer you five pages of pre-designed backgrounds but honestly that held no interest for me - this is a great chance to put your company brand all over the top of your profile - who isn't going to do that?

Simply click on upload to load a file of your choosing

Now pay heed to their size recommendations. The images are automatically expanded to fit and they will look rubbish unless you have sized them properly. Now I'm a busy chap and I do my own image manipulation but with several proposals to get out today and several days with clients to prep for I don't have masses of time to go back and resize my original logo's.

(Naturally if you have a marketing department hand it over to them - I'm sure they weren't busy!)

So I cheated and took my existing website header which is 1100 x 250 pixels and expanded the canvass size (which leaves the original image intact and adds space around it) to 1400 x 425 (the recommended dimensions from LinkedIn) and uploaded it.

I used the free image manipulation software Paint.net which is available at [embed]http://www.getpaint.net/[/embed]

Which gave me this result - my company logo and imagery from my website on my LinkedIn Profile - I like it!

Advanced Points

Okay so a few things to bear in mind:

1) The top part of your profile intrudes into the image space so you might want to mess about a bit with your image so that it looks right. To be helpful I can tell you how much free space you have to work with - 210 pixels by approximately 975 pixels. I'm eye balling those measurements but that's what I got and it is close enough that no one will notice if you are a pixel out!

Or in other words - an image sized at 975 x 210 pixels should sit ontop of your profile quite neatly - the purple circle below represents an image that size and how it would sit if you place in a frame, at the top centre, with the dimensions 1400 by 425.

So you if you want a neater look with the whole image being possible that's what you need to do.

2) The header image is slightly transparent so if you do have an image that goes behind your profile then it is going to show through slightly which might or might not look okay. As you can see from my examples above the playing card stands out a little. Going forward I might rework the image but I'm leaving it for now.

In Conclusion

So this is a marvellous opportunity to enhance your personal profiles with the company brand. I've used the images from my website but of course you could do a composite picture with product pictures, happy clients or fluffy bunnies ... okay that last one was a joke.

Seriously this is something that everyone with a premium account should do and I'll be adding it to the profile review reports immediately.

Other changes for LinkedIn Premium users are a 20% larger profile picture and greater abilities to see who viewed your profile - something that anyone interested in business development should be using ...

Enough from me though I have some training to prep for if you have found this article useful then do please share it with your friends and network - and comments are always welcome.

Until next time, be successful;