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Your LinkedIn Summary is the most important white space on your entire LinkedIn Profile. What you choose to write here can make the difference between professional success or stagnation. I found 3 great examples which demonstrate the art of writing a powerful Summary.
Before I explain why I think the following 3 Summaries are stunningly good, I’ll let you read them first.
The right words can be incredibly effective. Kay, Paul and Mark waste no ink in getting their message across. They all do it in less than 250 words. All 3 end with a CTA (call to action). Endearing, engaging, smart, driven; their personalities leap off the page. I’m particularly impressed with Mark’s list of character statements. Very difficult to pull off, without seeming arrogant or self-absorbed. Yet he manages it. Do these Summaries inspire you? How does your Summary compare?
** ** **One Chance – First Impression
**The New LinkedIn Profile has several new bells and whistles and I’ll cover these in later posts but the Summary remains one of the most important sections on your Profile. Why? Because it’s the only area on the Profile where you get to define yourself from scratch, with a blank sheet unencumbered by dates, labels or other text boxes. Because it’s personal – it’s where people look to find out what makes you tick. Are you in command of your narrative? Does your Summary do you justice? Or have you just copied & pasted your 5 year old resume as a temporary measure? How long is temporary?
Tell Me Your Story
A Summary is precisely that – a short version of why you do what you do, in your own words. If you can come across as authentic; convince everyone that what you do is also who you are, you’re golden. It’s not enough these days to let your experience speak for itself. You need to be your own Brand Ambassador and you need to ensure that your professional online prospectus is unique, engaging and well written. Write it in the 1st person. Writing a Summary about yourself in the 3rd person is a theatrical gimmick which never worked. It doesn’t make you more polished, it makes you seem aloof, out of touch and stuffy. Your Summary is your chance to not only say what you’re good at, it’s also your opportunity to stand out from the crowd, to differentiate yourself, in a remarkable and memorable way.
Buzz Words Are So 2013
The following words, in this order, were identified as the top 10 most overused Buzz Words on LinkedIn in 2013: ‘responsible’ ‘strategic’ ‘creative’ ‘effective’ ‘patient’ ‘expert’ ‘organizational’ ‘driven’ ‘innovative’ ‘analytical’. What they all have in common, apart from being ‘tired’, is that they are all what we’d generally expect an employee to be, from time to time. Banish the beige work speak. Lose the lemming language. There are over 1 Million words in the English Language. Plenty of choice.
Less Is More
We’re all busy. We click, speed read and move on. A summary that is too wordy and uses all 2000 characters just because you can is not going to win you admirers or customers. I want you to show me, the reader, some consideration. Be considerate with time and I’ll reward you with mine. If you knew I had 10 seconds to read your Summary, what would you write? If what you write is interesting, original or makes me ponder – you may have just bought yourself another 10 seconds.
Above The Fold
It used to be in the days of print media, that positioning an article above the newspaper fold was vital in terms of captivating the reader. Though that no longer applies to web articles that are scrollable, there is something similar to a fold on the New LinkedIn Profile. The end of the Summary and the beginning of the Experience section could be regarded as a fold. The point at which a non-engaged reader may jump out of reading further and get on with more pressing business. My tip to squeeze 5 more seconds of attention out of that busy reader? Move your Skills & Expertise section (with all those rosy Endorsements) up and above the potentially boring Experience section. Why would this work? Because the reader may be curious to see how/what you’re doing with Endorsements and regardless of what you think of Endorsements, the Skills & Expertise section gives a lot of information in a very efficient, visually pleasing manner.
** ** **ROI (Return On Investment)
**LinkedIn shows all of its users how many times their Profile has been viewed and searched. I’ve written about the important difference between these two metrics and I’ve explained why you should be focusing on views rather than searches to measure your success in my recent blog post: “Measure Your LinkedIn ROI With Views Not Searches“
LINKEDIN CONSULTING
If you liked this article, you’ll love my customized consulting service. I’ve helped many professionals to achieve their full potential on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not somewhere you paste your resumé, sit back and wait for things to happen. It’s a complicated and nuanced website portal that requires action, consistency, insight, branding strategy and marketing know-how. What you don’t know – could hurt you.
Whether it’s getting more traffic on your Profile, engaging with a stunningly good Summary or refreshing your LinkedIn presence and brand – share your goals with me and I’ll help you to achieve all of them via LinkedIn.
Contact me now: linkedinsights@gmail.com / 773.469.6600 to find out how I can help you.
That’s all from me for this week. If you found this post useful, don’t keep it all to yourself. Go ahead and share this article with your own network (see those buttons on the sliding thing on the left?).
Warm regards, Andy
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Tags: Linkedin, New Profile, Summary
About The Author
ANDY FOOTE is a LinkedIn Management Consultant, Community Builder and Social Business Strategist. I enjoy teaching people how to squeeze the pips out of LinkedIn. I’m the proud Founder and Manager of 6 LinkedIn Groups with over 25,000 members. I blog at Linkedinsights.com* and I tweet at @linkedinsights1*. You can also find me on Facebook, Google+ and of course on LinkedIn.
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