10 Creative LinkedIn Cover Photo Ideas For Inspiration
Your LinkedIn cover photo is often the first impression potential connections get of you when they land on your profile. For LinkedIn content creators, this opens a world of possibilities to showcase your personality, highlight your expertise, and kickstart your professional narrative. If you’re looking for creative LinkedIn cover photo ideas for inspiration, you’ve come to the right place. This blog will explore unique ways to personalize your LinkedIn cover photo and offer insights for LinkedIn content creators.
Leveraging artificial intelligence is one way to think outside the box and develop unique cover photo ideas. Bluecast’s AI content tool for LinkedIn can help you achieve your goals and gain visibility on the platform.
What Makes a Great LinkedIn Cover Photo?
To create a crisp LinkedIn cover photo, use a high-resolution image of 1584 x 396 pixels for personal profiles and 1128 x 191 pixels for company pages. Using a high-resolution image (300 DPI) prevents pixelation, maintaining a polished look across devices.
Branding and Consistency: Align with Your Personal or Company Branding
Your cover photo should align with your personal or company branding. Incorporate your logo, tagline, or brand colors for a cohesive look.
If you use multiple platforms, keeping your branding consistent across LinkedIn, your website, and other social media accounts helps reinforce recognition and trust.
Industry Relevance and Professionalism: Communicate Your Expertise
Choose images that reflect your field of expertise. For example, a real estate agent might feature a skyline or properties, while a graphic designer could showcase snippets of their portfolio. Highlighting your skills, services, or workplace visually can enhance credibility and make your profile more engaging.
Creativity and Storytelling: Make Your Cover Photo Unique
Beyond professionalism, your cover photo can tell a story. A motivational quote, icons representing your career journey, or a visual of your achievements can make your profile more relatable and compelling.
Adding subtle personal touches like hobbies or interests can help build rapport with potential connections.
Call to Action and Engagement: Encourage Visitors to Connect with You
A well-placed call to action (CTA) can encourage visitors to engage with you. This might be a website URL, a simple "Let’s Connect" message, or an invitation to explore your services. Keep it subtle but effective to drive interaction without overwhelming the design.
Mobile Optimization: Ensure Your Photo Looks Good on All Devices
Since many users browse LinkedIn on mobile devices, check how your cover photo appears on different screen sizes. Avoid placing key elements where they could be obscured by the profile picture, which shifts depending on the device.
10 Creative LinkedIn Cover Photo Ideas
1. Showcase Yourself or Your Company
Select an image that immediately communicates what you or your organization does. For instance, a sleek tech-themed background for an engineering firm, a cozy home for a realtor, or a dynamic action shot for a fitness coach. A well-crafted image boosts your professional presence and reinforces your expertise.
2. Feature Your Workspace
A behind-the-scenes look at where the magic happens can add personality to your profile. A collaborative team environment, a neatly arranged desk, or a stylish office space helps authentically showcase your work culture or individual professionalism.
3. Highlight Your Products or Services
Using visuals of your products or services helps reinforce your brand. A LinkedIn cover photo showing a chef plating a gourmet dish, a designer sketching new concepts, or a personal trainer in action immediately conveys what you offer.
4. Use Landscape or Architectural Imagery
If your work is location-based, incorporating a city skyline, a scenic landscape, or a neighborhood you serve can emphasize your local connection. This is particularly effective for real estate agents, tourism businesses, and companies rooted in specific regions.
5. Put a Face to Your Brand
Images of employees, customers, or team members can add warmth and credibility to your profile. A welcoming team photo or client interactions can make your business more personable and relatable.
6. Showcase Your Mission or Cause
Whether you’re a nonprofit or a value-driven company, using your cover photo to highlight a mission statement, core values, or a social cause can add depth to your brand. Inspirational phrases or images reflecting sustainability education or community involvement work well here.
7. Display the Tools of Your Trade
An image of the equipment or tools you use daily, cameras for photographers, laptops for marketers, or medical instruments for healthcare professionals, can quickly communicate what you do in a visually engaging way.
8. Celebrate an Award or Achievement
If you or your company has received industry recognition displaying an award badge or a press feature in your cover photo can build credibility and showcase your accomplishments.
9. Feature an Inspiring Quote
A motivational or industry-related quote can set the tone for your brand. Whether it’s a phrase about leadership innovation or perseverance, a well-chosen quote can resonate with your audience and reflect your professional mindset.
10. Opt for an Abstract Design
If none of the above ideas fit your style, a clean abstract background with colors that match your brand can still make your profile stand out. Even a simple gradient or geometric pattern can add visual appeal and professionalism.
Bluecast: AI-Powered LinkedIn Content for B2B Growth
Bluecast empowers B2B professionals to amplify their LinkedIn presence through AI-powered content creation and management, helping them grow their audience and drive revenue without the typical content creation bottlenecks.
Whether you're repurposing existing content from various formats or crafting original posts that match successful writing styles, Bluecast's AI content tool for LinkedIn streamlines the entire process from ideation to scheduling. It is perfect for marketers, founders, and agencies looking to maintain a consistent, engaging LinkedIn presence that delivers business results.
Get started with a 7-day free trial today; no credit card is required.
How to Design The Perfect LinkedIn Cover Photo
There are many different ways you can create a LinkedIn banner:
- Photoshop
- Free stock image websites
- Templates from FreePik and Visme
But the easiest method is with Canva. It’s easy to use, free, and has plenty of eye-catching templates to help you create a professional and eye catching LinkedIn profile cover photo.
Here’s a Step-by-step Guide
1. Sign Up or Log In to Canva
If you haven’t already, go to Canva’s website and sign up for a free account or log in if you already have one. Alternatively, if you have a Plann account, you can design your LinkedIn banner directly in Canva without leaving your Plann workspace!
3. Explore the LinkedIn Photo Templates
Browse through the available templates to find one that suits your professional identity, or use the design tools to create your own. All the templates are customizable, so don’t let colors, imagery, or other design elements put you off. The key is to find an overall “structure” you want to emulate and then update it with your branding.
Here’s what you can change once you’ve found a template you like:
- Edit Text: Click on any text to edit it. You can change the font, size, color, and alignment to match your brand or preference.
- Upload Images: You can upload your images or choose from Canva’s vast library of free photos and graphics. To upload, go to the “Uploads” tab and select your file(s).
- Add Elements: Explore the “Elements” section to add icons, shapes, lines, or illustrations to your banner. These can help highlight specific aspects of your professional life or interests.
- Adjust Background: You can choose a solid color, a gradient, or a pattern. If you prefer, upload a custom image to use as the background.
4. Download Your LinkedIn Cover Photo
Once satisfied with your design, click the “Download” button and upload it to your LinkedIn profile.
6 Best Practices for Designing a LinkedIn Cover Photo Ideas
1. Use Strong Images and Impactful Designs
A banner must be visually striking to attract attention. Use robust, high-quality images that enhance your brand's visual representation. AI tools can help increase image quality.
Avoid images that are too busy. You can also start with a homemade design without using any photos.
2. Play with Colors to Create a Striking Contrast
It's a basic rule of marketing and communication: the most effective banners are those that play with color contrasts. Use complementary colors to create a striking visual effect, making your banner stand out according to your sales segmentation and appealing to your target audience.
3. Integrate Relevant Visual Elements (Logo, Slogan, Etc.)
A banner should be more than just an image. Include relevant elements like your logo, catchy slogan, or other resources. These elements will help Internet users remember your brand at a glance. Be careful to use only images that do not infringe on copyright.
Get Started with a 7-day Free Trial Today - No Credit Card Required
LinkedIn can feel like a different world compared to other social platforms. Its users are more serious. The content shared on LinkedIn is more business-oriented, and the overall vibe is less casual than on platforms like Facebook or Instagram.
Because of these differences, you can’t just share the identical posts you’re using on other platforms on LinkedIn and expect to get good results. Instead, you’ve got to tailor your posts for LinkedIn.
Enhance LinkedIn Posts with AI
This can involve rewriting posts with a more professional tone, repurposing posts to focus on business outcomes, and even creating entirely new posts based on existing content. This is easier said than done, but Bluecast can help.
Our AI content tool can analyze your existing posts and help you create new LinkedIn posts that match your desired tone and style. You can even use Bluecast to repurpose your existing content into LinkedIn articles, a long-form type allowing for more in-depth coverage of business topics.
Create Original LinkedIn Posts with AI
In addition to transforming your existing content for LinkedIn, Bluecast can help you generate original posts from scratch. With our AI tool, you can create LinkedIn posts optimized for engagement and tailored to your goals.
For example, you can get AI to help you write a post targeted towards a specific audience, focus on a particular business topic, and match your successful writing style. This customization allows you to generate unique content that will resonate with your audience and help you establish authority in your industry.
Schedule Your LinkedIn Content for Consistency
One of the best ways to improve on LinkedIn is to post regularly. Bluecast allows you to schedule your posts to stay consistent with your LinkedIn content strategy. You can even write several posts in one sitting and schedule them to go out over time.
This is a great way to maintain a consistent presence on LinkedIn without the pressure of creating new content on the spot.