“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”
The quote above is from French philosopher Blaise Pascal. Through these words, Pascal was trying to reflect both the value and the challenges of brevity, which forces us to cut excess — to distill a message to its core. This kind of matter is probably something that we’re also dealing with when it comes to writing a LinkedIn summary.
Through the LinkedIn summary section, we try to impress people by showing off our achievements, experiences, identities, missions, and passions for readers to shovel through. But the question is, are we already doing it the right way? Because no matter how great you are in a role, if you can’t articulate your value, it’s that much harder to gain the sponsorship you need to move into the leadership positions you seek.
With a good LinkedIn summary, you could tell the story of your professional progression, leading your audience to an interesting “story” that could get you this result: you get the meetings, leads, and interviews that you want.
Want to know how your LinkedIn summary could lead you to a new and better opportunity? Check these six tips from us!
1. Start with an outline
Creating an outline can help you get over any initial writer's block when starting a writing project, including your LinkedIn summary. An outline can also be used as a brainstorming tool, helping you develop your thoughts so you know just what you want to write, and it eventually enables you to clarify your thoughts.
While your LinkedIn profile isn't an academic essay, you should still outline the things you want to say and the order you want to tell them. Again, sticking to a pre-determined structure will help you communicate clearly and concisely.
Consider following a format similar to this:
Hook
Mission
Expertise and skills
Proof
Call to action
Following the steps above will help you to prevent the last thing your audience needs, a long, rambling paragraph with no apparent progression from sentence to sentence that will make them either uninterested or bored.
2. Get the attention (Hook)
The very first sentence of your LinkedIn summary has to get your audience to continue reading. That's why piquing their interest early and compelling them to keep reading is essential.
This part is called a hook.
Try opening a loop at your LinkedIn summary that can only be closed with further explanation or make an outlandish claim that makes the reader need further justification.
Example: “I've been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. In 2011, I got my first entrepreneur gig. I negotiated with the owner of a local swimming pool to get paid 10 dollars per beer bottle I brought back to the owner, as a way of cleaning up after people who were getting drunk by the pool.”
3. Show what you can do (Expertise and Skills)
People tend to empathize. That’s why you could create a story that can connect them with you. Try doing this by telling the “what” and the “why” about what you do, so people could “connect” with you and eventually understand why your profession makes you excited and what your mission is in your role.
Example: "Growing up near the Colorado River and watched it get clearer over time as manufacturing standards improved. Since then, I knew I wanted to spread the word about sustainability in business environments."
3. Show what you can do (Expertise and Skills)
People should know what you can do so they’re interested more in you. That's why your summary should speak to your expertise and your interest in helping people achieve results. And it does not have to be that long. Just try to describe your background and qualifications in two-to-three sentences.
Example: "Mid-level business consultant with experience in strategic planning and market analysis."
5. Strengthen your profile with data (Proof)
Backing up your “interesting” LinkedIn summary with data, it can be impactful to weave a few of your most impressive achievements/experiences into a short description.
Example: "Over the past six years, I've made it into the Sales of The Year four times and helped my company’s business grow up to 15% in the past three years.
6. How to reach you (Call to action)
So, people are already interested in your LinkedIn profile. Now they want to know more about you. Sure they could just press the “connect” button on your profile, but it would be even great if you let them know how to reach you faster (and maybe more personal) by including your email.
Example: “Feel free to reach me via at email@address.com”
7. Keep it short (bonus tips)
When viewing a profile, many people are scanning for high-level context. If your summary is too long, some of your notable highlights can get lost. So write only between 200-400 words and try breaking up large blocks of text to make it easier to read.
So that's the six steps (plus that optimize your LinkedIn summary. Now try to make one by following the steps above as a guideline and achieve more with it! If you would like to know more information about your career life, do a consultation with us! Also, don’t forget to follow our Instagram @baikgp and @ayureadypodcast for more details and extra insights!