The 3 Most Important Elements of Your LinkedIn Profile

Many people don't know where they should focus their efforts on LinkedIn. Should they post content? Connect with others? Or should they start commenting on the posts of others? All of these are important. But before you do any of this, I believe your priority should be to get your profile completed with impactful information. You want to do this first. If you start with these other actions, you will likely have a confused audience. When they look at your profile (which is what you want) and see nothing, or a half-hearted attempt to complete the profile sections, they will wonder about you and why you haven't provided any information. That is not the impression you want to leave. Trust me.

Below I talk about the three most important sections of your profile to focus your attention. Spend the time to make these sections interesting and full of content. Your audience will appreciate your efforts and will want to engage with you to learn more. 

Headline

<Job Title> at <Employer>. That is what most people have as their headline because LinkedIn makes it the default. But aren't you more than a title? I hope so. Do you want your "personal brand" to be connected with one employer? Probably not. So make sure you customize your headline.

LinkedIn gives you 220 characters to tailor this most visible aspect of your profile to tell the reader about you. Think of all the places where your headline is seen.

• When you comment on a post

• When you post content

• In search results

• In the People You May Know section

• When you apply for a job on LinkedIn

That is a lot of places. Why should a person click on your profile or look at your content? Because you have hooked them in by having a compelling headline.

So how do you get a reader's attention? Tell the reader what they need to know about you. Interest the reader in you.

• Tell them about your skill sets

• Tell them your areas of expertise

• Tell them what you have and can accomplish

• Tell them how you help your target audience

Lastly, do not forget about keywords. Keywords will get the attention of your audience and help you come up in search results. To do this, make sure your headline and other parts of your LinkedIn profile have the appropriate keywords that will be searched for by your intended audience. If you are an Accountant whose practice focuses on tax issues, you should have "tax" somewhere in your headline. If you are a Software Developer and have sought after programming languages, add them to your headline.

Your headline is often the first impression that people will have of you on LinkedIn. You can do better than have it be a title and an employer.

Here are examples of headlines that talk more about the person than their title and employer.

Business Development Leader | Market Research | B2B | Sales | Account Management | Innovation | Strategy | Former Owner of Successful Wholesale Start-Up With Double-Digit Yearly Sales Growth

Or this one.

Vice President, Design and Product Development | Product Design | User Experience Design | Strategy | Project Management | Takes Diverse Ideas and Integrates Them Into Products That Wow Consumers

Experience

Of all the sections of your LinkedIn profile, the Experience area is the most important one for recruiters and hiring managers. When I was a recruiter, I went straight to the Experience section to get a sense of the roles and employers the person experienced. If I found that information of interest, I then would look at other areas of the profile.

Yet, this section is a lost opportunity for many LinkedIn users. Why? People only put a title, employer, and dates of employment. Nothing else is there to explain the role or any accomplishments. Don't be that person.

Two areas of focus should be Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and differentiating yourself from the competition.

SEO

People do searches based on specific criteria. Don't you want your profile to show up high in the search results for those terms that showcase your expertise or interests? You need to have these search terms or keywords appear in your profile. In the Experience section, you can add these terms as part of your title or in the text. Here is a hint: Feel free to change your title from something uncommon, like Director of People Development to Director of Talent Management, if "Talent Management" is a common search term. Also, add important keywords to explain your responsibilities and accomplishments.

Differentiate Yourself

People want to see more than just a list of job duties in this section. Provide additional information about your job title or the work that you do/did. Don't forget that you can also add media, so take advantage of the opportunity if you have work that you want to showcase. Remember, always add information about how you have provided value to your employer. This will interest potential employers.

 Here is an example of how you might want to talk about a position in your Experience section.

Manager, Organizational Learning (Learning and Development Manager) 8/2018- present

Acme Healthcare, Chicago, IL

 Health system with 14,000 employees. Supervises 6. Focus on assessing training needs, building relationships with key stakeholders, analyzing data and reporting, and designing and executing training programs.

  Accomplishments·    

• Reduced nursing support personnel turnover by 50% through creating a new orientation with a focus on professional skills, communication, safety, and resiliency education.

• Developed School at Work program to retain diverse staff and created a pipeline for hard-to-fill positions. The curriculum had 12 content areas (medical terminology, communication skills, basic math, etc.) and included job shadowing and guest speakers. 100% graduation rate, 60% growth into different roles.·     

• Developed LGBTQ+ and Asian-American Employee Resource Group. Current Co-Chair.

 Key Skills and Responsibilities: ADDIE | Analytics | Articulate Storyline | Asynchronous Learning | Blended Learning | Camtasia | eLearning | Experiential Learning | Instructional Designer | Instructor-Led Training (ILT) | Leadership | Learning Management Systems (LMS)/SumTotal | Needs Assessment | People Management | Photoshop | Presentation | Strategy | Written Communications

 About Section

Too many About sections have nothing in them or are boring. I read the first few sentences, and my eyes glaze over. It is such a wasted opportunity. When I ask why the person hasn't focused on this section, they tell me they don't know what to say. So here is my advice. First, who is your audience? What do they need to know about you? Write it for them, not yourself. If you are a job seeker, what would an employer find of value about you? Focus on that.

Likely, they will want to know about your knowledge, abilities, experiences, and accomplishments. The About section is not your resume, though. You want to tell a story about what you have done but also who you are. What motivates you? What makes you stand apart from your peers? This is an opportunity to give a glimpse of the person behind the results.

It would be best to have SEO in mind as you write, so the search engine selects your profile as relevant. Ensure you sprinkle this section with keywords used to search for someone in your field or industry.

Make sure your about section is concise. Every word you choose is important. Does it bring value and tell your story in the best way? Likely you will need to edit your About section a few times to get it right. I have. And if it makes it easier to read, feel free to use emojis if your audience appreciates them.

Lastly, do not think that the About section is written once and never touched again. You should once a quarter review your LinkedIn profile and make updates as needed. That may mean adding or deleting information from your About section, depending on the changing needs of your audience.

Here is an example of a starting paragraph that hooks the reader.

I love closing deals and developing win-win relationships. It is what gets me out of bed in the morning and raring to go. Whether working as the Executive Director of a hospitality business or with large media organizations, I have been an award-winning top producer for my employers by challenging the prevailing way of doing things. I find better ways to benefit both my clients and build business for my organization.

 Here is an example of how you can talk about your accomplishments and your soft skills that made those possible.

 Besides my creativity, I am also a good people manager and deliver projects on time and on budget. With my staff, I stress personal growth. I help them continuously learn and challenge them to make sure their work is designed well, and they are consistently applying design thinking to their work. I meet with my team members, even when they are not local, several times a week. This helps me manage the pipeline of new products and reprioritize projects. People on my team have clarity with what to focus on, which brings less stress and a higher level of creativity.

I am immensely proud of the following accomplishments:

 -Working with limited budgets, I have been able to deliver results that have surpassed expectations. I was given by the CEO the Impact Makers Award in 2020 for delivering on a design project that gained us a major new client in the consumer package industry.

-Started from scratch a design studio that has resulted in reducing costs for outside design services by 62%,

-Developed our sustainability practices and have incorporated them into our manufacturing process that has reduced greenhouse emissions by 8%. 

Conclusion

 Spend the time to make your LinkedIn profile elements, especially your Headline, Experience, And About sections compelling. If your goal on LinkedIn is to build your network, getting people interested in you and what you do is important. If your goal is to find a new job, then your goal is the same, getting people to want to reach out to you and connect with you to discover new opportunities. The best way to do this? Write a compelling LinkedIn profile.

I was a contributor to three articles by Bob McIntosh about the LinkedIn About, Experience, and Headline Sections. The links to them are below.

Things Career Related - The LinkedIn Headline Section

Things Career Related - The LinkedIn Experience Section

 Things Career Related - The LinkedIn About Section

Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.