LinkedIn Profile Summary
by Sandra Long
Your summary in LinkedIn is one of the most strategic sections of your profile. This is a 2000 character golden opportunity that you don’t want to waste!
Your Strategy: LinkedIn calls it a summary but I like to think of it more as a friendly introduction and use language to reflect that. The LinkedIn Profile Summary is the best chance to tell your story and highlight your capabilities in an interesting way. Think about all your “profile viewers” such as current colleagues, past co-workers, future employers or customers, neighbors, and friends. Think about how you can help them. What will make the reader want to read all of your profile and to contact you for more? Try to weave together your story in an interesting way.
Questions you may want to answer in your LinkedIn Summary: ( Pick one approach)
* What got you to this point? What has contributed to your career path?
* If you are doing multiple things how do they all work together or how do you prioritize?
* What key learnings from your experience or education influenced you the most? What is your passion? What client problems do you solve? Where are you headed now? What have you learned? Why are you changing course? and most importantly....How can you help someone? You want your summary to be "
* What is your passion? What client problems do you solve? Where are you headed now? What have you learned? Why are you changing course? and most importantly....How can you help someone? You want your summary to be "
* What client problems do you solve? Where are you headed now? What have you learned? Why are you changing course? and most importantly....How can you help someone? You want your summary to be "
* Where are you headed now? What have you learned? Why are you changing course? and most importantly....How can you help someone? You want your summary to be "
* What have you learned? Why are you changing course? and most importantly....How can you help someone? You want your summary to be "
* Why are you changing course?
* How do you help people?
Client Oriented and Not Boastful: You want your summary to be interesting and "client-oriented" as much as possible, so put yourself in the other person's shoes. At Post Road Consulting, we want you to have the most impressive Summary and profile without looking like you are bragging or boastful. Read this blog article about how to keep your profile humble.
Format: LinkedIn profile summaries can be written in either first or third person. If you are not sure, we recommend using the first person tense. We suggest that you create a few paragraphs and also include a short list of your specialties or expertise followed by your contact information. You may want to use symbols. Also, since you are not yet able to bold or italicize, consider using capital letters to distinguish a special section such as:
MY BACKGROUND or WHY CUSTOMERS HIRE ME or PROBLEMS THAT I LOVE TO SOLVE
What not to put on your LinkedIn Summary: The summary should not just be a rehashing or repeating of your work experience or other sections of LinkedIn. The summary is not your company description. That type of information goes on a LinkedIn Company page.
EXAMPLES: Below you will find several samples of well written LinkedIn summaries. Most of these are from our Post Road Consulting customer roster. Take note of the formats they are using and see which ones appeal to you the most.
Non-profit marketing leader Tara describes her career path.
Financial executive Amanda shines on LinkedIn
Auto exec Michaell tells his professional story
Local government leader Mark talks about his plans for the town.
Real estate pro Barbara talks about her client focus.
Entrepreneur and Kitchen expert Maria has an interesting background and beautiful images.
Consultant and Senior executive leader Howard
Senior HR leader Dee
Consultant & Entrepreneur Bill describes his professional background and his new business focus in his LinkedIn summary.
HR pro and entrepreneur Amy weaves her story together in her summary.
Corporate Executive Lisa organizes her summary by key themes.
Equipment asset executive Casey describes his unique background.
Marketing leader Jason
Sales and Marketing pro and consultant Alan
Read about Sales Pro and "Sports Guy" from NYC Neil
LinkedIn Speaker & Consultant Sandra Long starts with her own personal story and then describes her professional areas of focus.
AUTHORS AND SPEAKERS:
Author Dan weaves together all of his life activities such as author, speaker, activist, historian.
Author Helen lets you find out what makes her tick in her creatively written summary.
Author Stephen tells his story and how he came to be an expert in international security.
VETERAN:
Charles is a recent veteran who attended our LinkedIn Boot Camp. You will love his summary.
Summary Symbols you can borrow: Use copy & paste
►
►
◙
❖
◈
✆ ☎ ☏
✉ ✍ ✎ ✏ ✑ ⌨
✪ ✯ ✰
✔ ✘
For many more prompts and examples, please consider reading Sandra Long's book. Her book has an extensive chapter about LinkedIn Summaries with many more ideas.
LinkedIn For Personal Branding: The Ultimate Guide.
