LinkedIn As a Freelance Platform

LinkedIn is one of the most powerful business-focused platforms for professionals. LinkedIn has a strong influence as a social network. It enables millions of people to find their dream internship or job, learn or obtain, master professional skills, and become a public persona.

From small businesses to the largest, LinkedIn is for anyone and everyone looking to deepen their career and looking for new opportunities to advance their careers and connect with other professionals.

LinkedIn is the best place, especially for freelancers, to start and grow careers. LinkedIn, as a giant network for promoting freelance work, helps build and strengthen professional connections. It's a ladder to climb higher and higher.

LinkedIn as a Freelance Marketplace

Recently LinkedIn has launched its own Freelancing Services Marketplace. During its beta version, LinkedIn has already enrolled over 2 million users, and now it's going live worldwide with more than 700 million users. This brand-new service supports those who want to hire freelancers. 

On the new LinkedIn Freelance Platform, freelancers have more possibilities to get hired, as a huge number of companies or individuals got their projects ready to start. 

LinkedIn Freelance Services Marketplace is targeting clients, as they aim to escape clients from a bunch of various offers to review and then not take any action. They want the clients themselves to reach out to the certain freelancer that best matches their requirements.

Simple steps to connect with the specific freelancer through LinkedIn:

1. the client needs to go on LinkedIn Freelance Marketplace
2. write in the search bar needed professional, e.g., Data Scientist
3. this brings up a list of different professionals (in our case, Data Scientists) who’ve created a service on LinkedIn Freelance Marketplace
4. then the client reaches out to the specialist with a description of the project: the client may ask to view the project, submit the request, and after they’ll have an entire line of communication
    

The most fantastic part about this service platform is being free of charge (without any commissions), but on the other hand, the platform doesn’t build a complete marketplace such as invoicing options, etc.

LinkedIn Freelance Services

LinkedIn Services Marketplace works like a search engine offering people qualified professionals to work on short-period projects: it offers to build a service profile that works as a service page (more professional than the LinkedIn profile) for clients who are looking for freelancers. 

Here, freelancers cannot directly bid on a project, as only clients have the feature to send a request to the most suited freelancer. But, on the other hand, the freelancer can reach the clients by sharing a kind of ‘#OpenforBusiness’ short info (listing your services catalog) on social media platforms and, also on the LinkedIn page, where clients, if interested can click on the ‘View services’ button. 

LinkedIn Freelance Service Marketplace lets you set a freelance profile directly via your LinkedIn profile. 

By visiting freelancers’ service pages, clients will be able to see mutual connections, reviews, and provided services. Clients can already use the ‘Services’ filter.

How can LinkedIn freelancers boost their service pages for getting more job requests on LinkedIn Freelance Service Marketplace?

Here are mentioned the top needed freelancer key tools to help raise your professional rate through the gig economy. 

• build a strong profile – upload your real high-quality photo, write your real name and surname, insert an interesting background photo to better match your profile picture. 
• create a unique headline – write a curious headline using keywords for better display in searches.
• make a powerful portfolio – put forward your best work samples with a brief description of the scope including your responsibilities, outcomes, results, and more details about the company/individual. 
• put a competitive cost – before setting the rate of your work, combine these tips: desired money to do your best, the market average, and per hour of work. 
• advertise yourself – even with LinkedIn Freelance Marketplace, you still have a connection to other social media platforms: you can use this opportunity to market yourself, your skills, experience, and knowledge by sharing tips and tricks and teaching videos, talking about your career path, etc. This will help you as a freelancer gain a large audience. You can also ask your previous companies or partners to rate and leave a review under your account.  

Noticing the huge growth of the sharing economy, also called the gig economy, today LinkedIn Services Marketplace competes with giants like ITHire, Fiverr, Upwork, and others in a short time.