LinkedIn remains the leader in professional networking and will continue to have a tremendous impact on personal branding in 2024. Your LinkedIn profile should reflect your brand … and it begins with the profile summary (the About section).
Before spilling secrets about how to create a LinkedIn profile summary, let’s get clear on the difference between using LinkedIn to build your brand over another social media platform like TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram. Each platform draws a different audience. YouTube and TikTok are video-based platforms with a clear distinction: YouTube is primarily long-form videos with in-depth explanations of a topic. YouTube attracts users in all age groups who want detailed information, particularly in tech, gaming, and health and wellness. TikTok hosts short videos (or shorts), which are videos under 60 seconds. TikTok videos are summaries or highlights of a topic, and two-thirds of users are between 18 and 34. Instagram is image-based, with a predominant user base under 35.
LinkedIn is geared toward business-to-business (B2B) and professional marketing. More than half of its members have at least a bachelor’s degree and an annual household income greater than $75,000. LinkedIn users reach 180 million senior-level influencers. Additionally, LinkedIn members have twice the buying power compared to other online audiences.
If building a professional personal brand is on your to-do list, LinkedIn is the platform to use. Here are three tips to create a stand-out About section to grow your brand.
1. Tell a good story.
This section lets you define yourself and your brand in your own words. You’re free to include career highlights, stores, achievements, or showcase your personality.
The most important part of this section is to tell a good story. It’s the first glimpse of who you are for LinkedIn users, so don’t forget to let your personality shine — it can be the difference between someone wanting to work with you or not. Let’s face it: no one wants to work with someone who doesn’t have a personality!
Just like any good story, you need a beginning, middle, and end.
Set the stage early in the summary. Give some context as to why you do what you do. What life events shaped your brand? Are you a communication expert because you were a talkative preschooler? Is diversity important to you because of your heritage, where you grew up, and where you went to college? Do you like research because of some event from your childhood? Finish these sentences to help you uncover your start:
- One of my first memories [in school / on the playground / at my first job / etc.] is ….
- I love [selling, baking, writing, etc.]
- I was born [in a foreign country], grew up [in a big city], went to school [in the mountains]
2. Skip the details.
Save the juicy details of each role for the Experience section of your profile. Stick to the highlights in this section and weave those into the story.
If you travelled a winding path to fully blossom into who you are, tell the story to show the skills you picked up along the way that shape your uniqueness — your signature brand. Here’s an example:
I joined the debate in high school as a way to meet new people. I learned to argue well, which is what sent me to law school. By chance, I took a design class as an elective and at that moment, I knew I found my calling.
This example highlights communication and problem-solving skills, shows that they like to meet new people, and finishes by connecting the dots to their career in design. Plus, it’s quick (bonus!).
3. Finish strong with a call to action.
You have options for how you choose your ending, and those should be based on what you want from your LinkedIn profile. Most successful summaries finish with a call to action or a list of skills or experiences.
The most important aspect of your closing is to maintain a focus on your brand. Use tone and words consistent with how you want to be perceived: Give me a shout via LinkedIn. I’d love to connect over a latte where we can polish our high school debate skills for old times’ sake.
If you decide to include your skillset, give it personality: My biggest fans tell me I’m pretty good at web development, and I would have to agree! I’m a bit of a tech nerd with a passion for HTML, CSS, Python, SQL, and JavaScript.
A captivating profile summary is just the beginning, give your entire profile a lift and learn how to use the platform to build your LinkedIn network. LinkedIn is a powerful platform to build your professional personal brand and, if done well, can open doors to lasting connections to help you grow in your career.
Source: Forbes
