The Summary on your LinkedIn Profile is your ‘hello’ and needs to showcase the best of you. Learn the best tips and 10 different approaches to craft your ‘About Me’ message and get inspired by lots of cool and diverse examples of LinkedIn Summaries.
If LinkedIn is your resume then your Summary is definitely its highlight!
Think of your Summary on LinkedIn info as the ‘tell us about you’ question in an interview. It’s a great place to introduce yourself, as well as encapsulate your work and accomplishments. Plus, you can add a little bit of flair to showcase your personality as well.
However, a lot of professionals and entrepreneurs struggle with writing theirs.
The common questions include – how to write my LinkedIn Summary, what content should I focus on, length, voice…
The good news is that there are no rules when you’re writing your Summary. But there are a few useful guidelines that can definitely help.
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How to blend the Professional with Impactful – top tips to create your LinkedIn Summary!
Use the space smartly
LinkedIn allows you 2000 characters in your Summary – that’s an average of 400 words. However, keep your Summary the length that’s right for your experience and skills. This means that you need to brag with brevity, and add context to your points.
E.g. If you have added lots of details in your experience section, use an overview to highlight your skills. On the other hand, if you are a recent graduate or a student, keep your Summary really short and crisp.
Looking for a job as a beginner? Try these 12 smart ways to find a job with no experience
Choose keywords
Keep in mind the searchability factor of your LinkedIn Profile, which works similar to keywords on resumes.
A lot of hirers, clients and collaborators might find you via searches or My Network, so adding the right keywords will help you show up in more search results. Keep in mind that LinkedIn’s search feature will pick up specific keywords or even phrases out of your Summary info too, so make sure you add words you want to be found for.
Break up the text
This is the most common oversight – not creating line or para breaks. A large block of text is always hard to absorb, and most readers will skim and actually miss out the details.
Add the white space when you want to break up a large block of text or to segue from one topic to another.
Share your personality and/ or a CTA
Open with a clever (but not overdone) phrase. Add interesting details – hobbies and volunteer work is always good. If you have a personal story or something that inspires your work, mention that.
Similarly, many entrepreneurs add a Call to Action (CTA) – a website or email address, or simply, a let’s connect message to close out the summary.
Add style elements
You can use fancy fonts as well as emojis or symbols to draw attention to headlines or key pointers. Just don’t overdo it. Use a free website like LingoJam to generate text in a special typography and then copy-paste it into your Summary.
Use hashtags
But add them judiciously.
Include either skill-based hashtags (#SocialMediaAdvertising or #ProjectManagement) or to mention your soft skills (#leadership), or as mini personal statements e.g. #GettingThingsDone.
Also read: Hashtag tips and the most popular ones on LinkedIn
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How can you craft an interesting, relevant and effective Summary?
Check out the different approaches of LinkedIn Summary examples for Entrepreneurs to inspire you
You can use any one of these 10 styles or a combo to share your work story.
- Keep it fact-based & informational
- Adopt a Storytelling format
- Focus on Keywords
- Make it Personality based
- Connect the dots
- Go conversational
- Launch with impact
- Lead with skills
- Treat it like a Pitch
- Use unique voice & text
Keep it fact-based & informational
This is the most popular style of writing the Summary. Since the goal of seeking connects and browsing profiles on Linkedin is professional, it follows to reason that most searchers are looking for job skills. So sharing yours in crisp, well-thought out ways can be very helpful.
This style also helps you keep the length manageable since not everyone loves long summaries 🙂
Here’s what you can share in brief
- Overview of experience (years and industry)
- Technical Skills and soft skills
- Metrics and numbers
- Personal Accomplishments
- Awards & certifications
- Soft skills
In these 2 examples of linkedin summaries, Nicole and Nirupama use facts and data to share their work.
Looking for ways to articulate your skills and achievements in succinct but effective ways?
Why not Power your Hireability with winning skill statements!
Use smart, succinct statements on your Pitches, Resumes, Interviews and LinkedIn to make an INSTANT IMPACT!
Adopt a Storytelling format
Share your journey to create interest, display passion as well as underscore why you bring more than your professional credentials. This is great to build your personal brand as well. Where possible, make the narrative about your audience to foster better engagement with your LinkedIn Profile like invites, follows and posts likes.
Win with storytelling, like these 4 examples of LinkedIn summaries – Allison, Tracey, Sheri and Deborah share their work with personal stories and anecdotes.
Learn 8 amazing ways to let your personal brand persona shines!
Focus on Keywords
Given the search impact of Keywords, many entrepreneurs choose to list their skills in depth and detail. This is also important in certain industries and functions, where specific job skills are important.
In these 3 keyword-rich examples of LinkedIn Summaries, Andreas, Allison and Maria communicate their professional skills effectively.
Personality based
When you are adding different aspects of your persona, make sure your LinkedIn headline is powerful and has the right keywords. You can see that in action in Linkedin Profile.
Connect the dots
If you bring diverse skill sets to the table, start by making sure your Headline covers this. See tips on writing a strong LinkedIn headline with examples.
Following the headline, the Summary is a great place to elaborate on them. Share all that you have done and how that adds value to your current job or role. In these next three Entrepreneurs’ LinkedIn Profiles, Alex, Jenny and Toye can show you how.
Make it conversational
With the right use of words, and rigorous editing to remove redundancies, this method is a great way to start a dialog with your audience even before you connect.
Here is 2 Linkedin Summaries, where Saniya and Miranda do just that.
Launch with impact
An opening line or a ‘Summary statement in your Summary’ can be a powerful tool in building interest, even if they jump to the other sections.
The most effective opening lines will combine professional skills with interpersonal traits as well as other elements like emotion, humor or excitement.
Melissa shares this with flair on her Linkedin Profile!
Lead with skills
The maximum hiring-based searches on LinkedIn are related to skills.
If you are multi-skilled and believe that it adds to your professional worth or brand, then highlight a bigger list which you can’t necessarily refer to in your experience section.
Explore how Evi, Cassandra, Gillian, Helen and Janelle showcase skills in these examples of LinkedIn Summaries.
Do you possess these soft skills? Let your profile reflect that!
Treat it like a Pitch
You can outline your business proposition – what you do or offer, and importantly, how it helps your consumers. Do ensure that it’s worded such that it’s easy for your users to understand, not overly sales-y either.
Check out these 3 ways that Entrepreneurs can craft their Linkedin Summaries
8 leading entrepreneurs their tips for pitching effectively and authentically!
Use unique voice & text
You can set aside established ‘rules’ and write your LinkedIn Summary in your own voice. Play with grammar, use puns deftly, and craft your narrative your way. Make sure that you don’t forget the keywords and your style aligns with your audience’s sensibilities.
Check out this example of a Linkedin Profile to understand how.
Final word
In the end, your LinkedIn Summary is about YOU. As an opening statement, it sets the stage for what clients, peers, hirers, collaborators or readers can expect from you.
Write yours with clarity, style and skill…
Pooja Krishna is an Entrepreneur, Business Mentor and Mom. She has worked both in large corporates and managed startups over the last 20+ years.
She’s a co-founder at Maroon Oak, and is founded Win Thinks, where she writes, speaks and teaches about Digital Media, Brand Building and Future Ready Businesses. A day trader for over a decade, Pooja launched Trading Paces to educate amateur and pro stock traders. As a classroom mentor, Pooja loves teaching students across the U.S. about job skills and entrepreneurship. Read about her on Huffington Post and Forbes.
A trivia buff and yoga & hula hoop enthusiast, she’s discovering the pleasure of drawing Zentangle patterns for ‘creative mindfulness.’
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Thank you for these tips! I created a LinkedIn profile and will go through and touch it up now. I recently changed the banner and found that helpful, too.
These are great points! Very timely since I am optimizing my LinkedIn account. And it is my first time knowing about the LingoJam. Will definitely try this on my profile! Thank you so much!