How to Create a Custom LinkedIn Cover for Your Personal Page
A person with a fully optimized LinkedIn profile is 40x more likely to receive job opportunities via LinkedIn than those who don’t. So, if you’re actively looking for a job or are open to additional opportunities coming your way, now is the time to get your LinkedIn profile looking on-point. If there’s one key area of your profile you need to pay attention to, however, it’s the often-overlooked cover photo. You see, this takes up prime real estate on your profile page, and therefore creates the first impression a potential employer will have about you – for better or for worse.
Thankfully, BeFunky’s Graphic Designer has the perfect LinkedIn Cover template to help make the best first impression and help land the job of your dreams. It’s customizable to suit any personality, industry, or job type. In fact, you can be as creative or as corporate as you want! Keep reading to find out more.
LinkedIn Cover Inspiration
Remember how we mentioned your cover photo was one of the most important elements of your LinkedIn profile? Well, don’t just take our word for it! Data also shows that profiles with custom cover photos and profile photos attract up to 21x more profile views, 9x more connection requests, and 36x more messages than people using the default images.
Ready to start thinking about your own customized cover photo? Here’s some inspiration to get those ideas flowing!
Creative
If you’re someone working in a visually creative career, such as an artist or graphic designer, then a creative custom LinkedIn cover is for you.
This example features creative elements such as abstract shapes, organic lines, brushstrokes, and more, which you can use to not only highlight your artistic skills, but also offer a glimpse into the style of work you create.
Bold
If simple, striking, and straight to the point is more your thing, then that’s completely fine too! This example uses contrasting colors, bold text, and a straightforward graphic to quickly and easily demonstrate exactly what it is that this person does.
It might look easy (and thanks to our templates, it is!), but it’s also incredibly effective and eye-catching.
Photo Quote
Is there a powerful quote you live by? Or perhaps a quote that sums-up what you do, how you do it, or why you’ve chosen that particular career? Share this intriguing and inspiring insight with potential employers by using your custom LinkedIn cover to showcase this.
Simply team your chosen quote with a relevant photo and you’re good to go!
Headshot
Here’s a helpful tip for those wanting to display their brand’s logo on their LinkedIn profile. Use your profile photo space to display this instead, then take advantage of a headshot cover to showcase a professional looking photo of yourself.
This is particularly helpful for freelancers, small business owners, or solopreneurs who aren’t applying for jobs, but are mainly using the platform for networking and marketing purposes.
Photo Collage
Are you a photographer, photojournalist, travel blogger, or anyone else who largely relies on capturing imagery for your job? If so, then a photo collage style LinkedIn cover would serve you best, as it can be used to showcase your work, photography style, previous experience, or depth of travel.
Try to choose images with a cohesive and complementary color scheme to keep your cover looking aesthetically on-point.
How to Create a Custom LinkedIn Cover
Now that you’re feeling inspired, it’s time to create your own custom LinkedIn cover! To get started, head to BeFunky’s Graphic Designer. In the Start a Design menu that appears, type ‘LinkedIn Covers’ into the search bar, then choose a template that takes your fancy.
Simply click Use This Template to begin editing.
For the first half of this tutorial, we’ll be using the same LinkedIn cover template from the Bold example in the section above. Later on, we’ll also show you how to create an image-driven cover using your own headshot.
To begin, we’re going to change the background color of our template. To do this, navigate to Customize in the main menu to the left and select a color swatch that takes your fancy. Want a different color entirely? Just click on the first color swatch (the one with the dropdown arrow on it) to open the Color Palette. From here, you can select a color from the palette, use the Eyedropper tool to choose a color already present in your design, or type in the specific color’s HEX Code if you know it.
Next up, let’s change the template’s existing text to reflect your own name and job title. To do this, just double-click on the text box you wish to change and type in your new text. You’ll also notice when you select a text box with your mouse, a Text Properties toolbar appears. From here, you can change things such as the Font, Size, Color, Spacing, and more.
In the Text Properties menu, there are tons of fonts to choose from, including many which offer additional options, such as Regular, Bold, Semi-Bold, etc. Additionally, you can add your own fonts from your computer or Google Fonts by clicking on the ‘+’ symbol.
If you have any graphics or shapes present on your template (such as the rectangle featured here), you can also change the color of their Fill or Stroke, as well as adjust how round or square the corners are. To do this, just click on the shape with your mouse and a toolbar will appear.
Speaking of graphics, you can also add additional graphics into your design, whether it be a symbol, social media logo, line, or so much more. Access our huge graphics library by navigating to Graphics in the main menu to the left. Then, just click Search Graphics.
Clicking the Search Graphics button will open the Graphic Library, where you can search hundreds of customizable vector graphics. Use the search bar, popular tags, and filters to narrow down your results. Click on any that you love and they'll be automatically added to the Your Graphics section of the Graphics tab.
Once you've chosen your graphics and closed out of the Graphic Library, simply drag and drop them onto your design using your mouse. To resize, just click on the graphic, then drag its corners inwards or outwards to make it smaller or larger.
Once you’ve finished editing your LinkedIn Cover template, it’s time to save it to your Computer, Dropbox, Google Drive, or more, so it’s ready to upload to your profile. Click on Save at the top of the screen, then select your desired save location.
Easy? We thought so too!
Now, let’s show you how to edit a LinkedIn Cover template containing an image. For this tutorial, we’re using the ‘Modern Portrait Photo’ template we used as an example above.
To start, you’ll want to change the template’s existing image for one featuring a professional photo of yourself. To do this, click on the existing image, then from the Image Properties toolbar, click Replace. Simply upload your desired photo from your computer.
With your photo in place, it’s then time to edit the existing text so it reflects your own details. Double-click the text box you wish to edit, then type your information. Just as in the previous section, you’ll also notice the Text Properties toolbar which appears. From here, you can edit Font, Size, Color, Spacing, and more.
Next, we’re going to change the template’s background color. Navigate to Customize in the main menu to the left, and from here you can choose a featured color, or click on the first color swatch to open the Color Palette and choose your own.
You can also change the Fill Color of any graphics, such as shapes, in your design. Just click on them once and a toolbar will appear. Simply click on the square next to Fill, then choose your desired color.
Additionally, you can add in some new graphics by navigating to Graphics in the main menu and following the same instructions for adding graphics as shown above on the previous LinkedIn Cover template.
Drag and drop your selected graphics into place, change their Fill Colors if desired, and then you’re done!
Finally, click Save at the top of the screen and choose your save location. Just as simple, right?!
Final Results
All that’s left to do is to upload your personal LinkedIn Cover to your profile and admire its totally new look!
Professional, engaging, and eye-catching; there’s no denying your LinkedIn profile now ticks all of the boxes. Best of luck with the job hunt!
