How to Write the Perfect LinkedIn About
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞, 2022.
Your LinkedIn About (formerly called Summary) is quickly becoming your most important tool for expressing your personal brand, advancing your career and building relationships. That’s because first impressions have gone digital: people are learning about you online before they ever meet you. As soon as they know they’re going to have a Zoom meeting with you, they’ll start their online research.
LinkedIn is often the starting point for that research. And even if they begin their digi-sleuthing with Google, they’ll likely end up at your LinkedIn profile because it shows up at the top of your results – usually in one of the top three spots. We know from a Chitika study that the top three results from a Google search get nearly two-thirds of all the clicks. Note how my LinkedIn profile shows up in the third spot.
Out of all the elements in your profile, your About is the most important one (I'm assuming you have a quality headshot and compelling headline!), yet many people leave it blank and merely list their experience. That’s like trying to build a website without a home page. Your LinkedIn About will likely be the most read version of your bio; it receives a prominent position on the screen in LinkedIn, so it’s the ultimate place to tell your story. To make the most of this opportunity, you must be able to express your personal brand in 3,000 characters (that's a thousand more characters than before!) and glorious 3D, creating a dazzling picture of who you are and what makes you great.
For more than a decade, I've helped executives at many of the world’s top global corporations uncover their personal brands and build stellar LinkedIn Abouts. My approach is part of a comprehensive daylong workshop - which I’ve simplified here into three basic steps to get you started.
But before you start, evaluate your current LinkedIn profile on two important measures (likability and credibility) with the LinkedIn Profile Type Indicator that my company (that I cofounded with the amazing Ora Shtull), CareerBlast.TV created. You can use your About to amp up the credibility and likability of your profile.
I updated this post (June, 2022) to take into account the most recent changes to the LinkedIn format and interface. Here are the five simple steps:
Step 1: Know your audience
Write your profile specifically for the decision makers you would like to impress and influence.
Personal branding is not about being famous, it's about being selectively famous.
That means you need to focus your content and message on your specific target audience. Know who they are (by name, job title, etc.) and don’t start writing your About until you have the answers to these critical questions:
- What do you want them to know about you?
- What do you want them to do?
- How do you want them to feel?
When you’re clear about your audience and you have assessed the current state of your LinkedIn profile, it’s time to pull together the content for your About.
Step 2: Prepare the raw content
You may feel overwhelmed by the different options for presenting your info. I recommend arranging your raw content into the following six buckets:
Victories: Write a sentence for each of your significant accomplishments in terms of the value you create/created (for example, “increased revenue with key small businesses through relationship-building and networking; hired, trained and led our company’s first inside sales organization to support revenue growth objectives”).
VPs (values and passions): List your operating principles and the things that energize or inspire you (for example, “creativity, diversity, and building win-win relationships” along with “windsurfing, astronomy and UNICEF”).
Valiant superpowers: Describe the things you do better than anyone else – the skills that enable you to be a hero for your colleagues and your team (for example, “I can review reams of financial data to find the million-dollar error; I make team meetings fun and productive, getting everyone involved; I love to listen – not only to what's being said, but to what is not being said. I have been told I am the best listener”). Strong personal brands demonstrate their superpowers in all that they do.
Vital statistics: Provide a few quantifiable facts – interesting figures and things you can count (for example, “I participated in five triathlons on three continents; I saved the company $3M through the ‘Go Green’ initiative that I created and executed; I have held six different roles in various finance functions, giving me a comprehensive understanding of the field”).
Verve: Capture the quirky things that make you YOU and differentiate you from your peers (for example, “Being a night owl, I get a lot of my best writing done in the late evening; I like to use my humor to defuse tense situations and keep the team focused on results; I love TV commercials and start every team meeting with one of my favorites to get the creative energy flowing”).
Validation: This could include quotes from others and encompasses all the awards and accolades bestowed upon you (for example, “graduated Suma Cum Laude from UCLA; was named one of the top ten social media executives to watch by The Financial Times.”).
Make sure you have content in all six buckets because a truly compelling About will paint a 3D picture of you. Remember, your About is YOU when you aren’t there, so you want your personality to shine through.
Step 3: Write your About
I strongly recommend using first-person. First-person is more intimate. It’s like having a conversation with the reader – making it easier to build an emotional connection. Also, let's be real - people know you've written your own LinkedIn About. So, it seems a bit disingenuous to write about yourself in the third-person.
There was a time where the purpose of your first sentence was to tell people what you do, but the new LinkedIn format requires something more compelling. Only the first two to three lines of your About are visible to those looking at your profile. To get the viewer to click "see more," you need to be truly interesting or even provocative. Your first line could be a quote, question, statement or even a few words with punctuation, like: High-Energy. Results-Driven. Focused.
Next, let the story unfold by weaving elements from the various categories above. This is a writing exercise, so it’s OK to go through several drafts. Don’t give yourself a time limit, just keep adding to your draft, editing and refining as you go.
It's important for your About to be authentic; it must also be aspirational - positioning you for what you want to do more of or what you want to do next.
Now, it's time to close. Do so with what you want the readers to do or where they can go to learn more about you.
And one more thing (well, OK, two): While you’re writing, save some of your 3,000 characters for two additional sections that are really important to being found:
- Include a section called Specialties. This gives you the opportunity to add those all-important keywords you want to be associated with one more time.
- Include a section called AKA/Common Misspellings so people can find you with a Google search even if they don’t know how to spell your name/nickname or weren’t aware that you were married or divorced and changed your name. Here’s what rapper and entrepreneur Sean Combs’ (a man with many names!) might look like:
AKA/Common Misspellings: Sean Jean Combs, Puff Daddy, P. Daddy, Diddy, P. Diddy, Sean John (yours likely won't be as long as that!). Here's what the end of my About looks like.
That's it. Once you've written your About, let me know so I can check it out! And feel free to connect with me here on LinkedIn.
William Arruda is a Partner in CareerBlast - The Personal Branding Company that helps for organizations engage and elevate their talent through the power of authentic personal branding. Check out the BrandBoost Personal Branding Experience and the 360Reach Personal Brand Survey.
content reviewer | customer service | Digital marketing enthusiastic
3moInspiring. Thanks
I freeze time; I photograph. RETIRED Software Engineer (C#, .Net), 50++ years experience; still active for personal projects. Also, I am “the enemy within”.
1yI always find it disconcerting when people write their profiles in the third person. It's your profile! Own it! Great suggestions for improvements
Helping the world, one person at a time...
1yInspiring thank you for the gift of "how to write the perfect LinkedIn 'about".
Independent Consultant at Mary Kay Idependent Consultant
2yExcellent share. Thank you William!
Louisiana State University | Commercial Lines Associate Account Manager #blackwomenininsurance
2yThis is a great article that I will use to my aid.