I do a lot of speaking about LinkedIn. I love to go to conferences and speak with groups who are just ready and willing to see social media change their business. During these breakout sessions I try to make my information “real” by doing some on-the-spot mini profile reviews as I am speaking.
What I find is so interesting!
More than 50% of the time these mini reviews reveal that the LinkedIn profile is missing a summary.
Your summary section IS one of the top reasons that makes LinkedIn so powerful and so helpful for you and your business, whether you are trying to find a job or find clients.
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Your summary section is what makes LinkedIn NOT a boring old resume filled with facts and dates and figures.
Your summary section is where you tell people:
- Who you are
- Who you help
- How you help them
And you tell people all of this in YOUR voice.
It’s a way to be interviewed without being interviewed. It’s a handy way to show your personality along with all of your skills, to bring your uniqueness across the computer screen, which all leads to a 100% stronger connection with your viewers every time.
But the biggest reason the summary section is so powerful?
Every word is searchable by Google. Every word!
We all know what it means to “rank” in a random search. Being able to rank is like free advertising every minute of the day. In short, if you skip out on your LinkedIn summary you are missing out on valuable Google real estate that is just waiting to find you the career or the client of your dreams.
So let’s get crackin’ shall we!
Tips to Make Your Summary Section Shine
Use first person.
You want to start the conversation with your audience whether it’s a prospect boss or a prospect customer, and the best way to start the conversation is to be natural, be normal and just be YOU engaged with the reader.
Make sure to use every character allowed.
LinkedIn allows a 2000 character count for the summary section. Every time I write one for my clients I try my hardest to hit the mark, 1999 characters if I can. Again, not using this space is like leaving money on the table, so re-write until you can craft those sentences to fit the space!
Use keywords of your business niche, market, client or career.
What is your target market? Who are you an expert to? What business niche do you want to stand out in? What company or client do you want to be seen by? Keywords are what Google will focus on, as well as internal LinkedIn searches, so make sure you aren’t just telling the story of that “time in life you overcame failure”. Great story to be sure, but distill it down to one sentence, and make sure the rest is filled with keywords your audience cares to read.
Take a look at my LinkedIn summary here:
Look at all the keywords I have (arrows and underlines) as well as the proof that what I do works. Yet my summary still tells a story and I am still having a conversation with my customer.
Save some room for your specialties/skills section. Highlight where you are an expert in now and also where you would like to be an expert in the future! Think of at least 5-10 specialties or skills to add here. Sprinkle in some aspects of your professional character that potential clients or bosses would want to know you possess, especially if they are traits you are solidly known for in your current field. All of this adds to your personality profile and is also a keyword pot of gold.
Here is mine:
See how I showcase who my client is (corporate, individual), what I want to do more of (training, speaking, workshops), and what I am really good at (marketing, webinars, LinkedIn, social media design, branding etc).
Your summary is one place you can truly brag about what you do well, and I sincerely hope you do. Your future boss and your future customers NEED to know.
If I had only one piece of advice to give you? I’d say: write your LinkedIn summary section and get it up on your profile TODAY.
Need help getting started on your LinkedIn summary? Join me here in my LinkedIn group and together we can get the keywords flowing!
I definitely need to go update my summary! Thanks for the reminder through these simple to implement tools. Your redundancy with key terms is noticeable but obviously needed to describe what you do and who you are to do it.