Screenshot of a Good LinkedIn About Section

How to Write and Optimize Your About Section (aka LinkedIn Summary)

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Whether you’re a recent graduate, a newly-established freelancer who’s trying to generate leads, a job seeker in the market for a new job or position, or a seasoned sales professional, the strength of your LinkedIn profile can have a huge impact on your ability to attract and engage with the right audience. And your About Section formerly known as the LinkedIn summary is the key to developing a personal brand, landing your next job search, attracting hiring managers or providing you with the social proof needed to make it happen on your terms.

At the time of writing, there are 830 million people on LinkedIn spread across 200 countries and territories, and the site’s massive popularity doesn’t show any signs of waning. LinkedIn has become the defacto standard for the professional world, prospective employers to find job seekers and for an account executive to find potential customers.

LinkedIn is cutting-edge technology and is like a never-ending job and networking event with millions of attendees. If you don’t take the necessary steps to make your profile, specifically your LinkedIn Summary, stand out from the noise, you won’t be able to garner the interest and engagement you deserve.

In today’s post, we’ll run through how you can write and optimize one of the most important elements of your LinkedIn profile: the About. Throughout the text will use the phrase LinkedIn Summary and About interchangeably too.

Follow this guide on how to create a great LinkedIn Summary (About), and you’ll quickly enjoy greater visibility, more regular engagement, better business results, more job interviews or numerous opportunities through LinkedIn!

The strength of your #LinkedInprofile can have a huge impact on your ability to attract and #engage with the right #audience. 💡Learn where to find your About section in your #profile and more from @linkedinexpert Click To Tweet

Where is the About Located on a LinkedIn Profile?

The About (or LinkedIn Summary section) also commonly referred to as a ‘LinkedIn bio’, is the section of text that appears either above or below your Featured and Activity section (depending on if you have the Creator’s Profile enabled or not).

Most people think of their LinkedIn profile as a résumé and utilize this section as if it were a personal statement on their resume often times to attract hiring managers or potential employers. Others use it to summarize their job history, such as documenting their sales career. And it might make sense if you only ever used it as a job seeker or to be found in recruiter searches. But that would be a huge mistake to take that myopic focus.

A LinkedIn Summary is a Resource, Not Just a Resume

Your LinkedIn profile should be a RESOURCE for your audience, and “About” becomes the story of how you help your buyers, prospects, employers, candidates, or donors. I know it’s your LinkedIn Summary, but ironically, it really needs to focus more on your buyer and their needs and wants than your own.

Yes, even if you are a job seeker hoping to attract hiring managers and job interviews, you’ll want to use the LinkedIn About section to give just what your intended audience wants! You always want to focus on them (the prospect, the HR director, the client) and how you can help them be more successful. This is critical if you’re focused on a job search. Remember, the About is NOT just a regurgitation of all of your job descriptions summarized into one section.

A good LinkedIn Summary can also share some insights into your personal interests, fun facts, and possibly share insights into the company culture (if you’re a hiring leader).

Example of a Good LinkedIn About Section

How to Write a Powerful LinkedIn About Section

If you don’t have “About” yet, you’ll need to click on the “Add profile section” link in the Intro or top portion of your profile on desktop or mobile.

LinkedIn Profile Screenshot of How to add LinkedIn About Section

If you already have an About section, just scroll down and click on the edit pen to customize your own LinkedIn Summary.

6 Elements of a Powerful About Section

Here are the elements of a powerful About that will make your LinkedIn Summary great!

Remember – the focus should be on your audience – your prospect, client, candidate, employer or donor depending on what kind of business you have or work for.  Even though this is your profile, it should be focused on them!

1. Insert a Call to Read

Start with a Call to Read. When someone goes to your profile, they will only see the first 3-4 lines of text. We need them to click on “…see more” to open up the remaining 2600 characters. In order to do that, you have to write something intriguing or interesting to them.

Here’s an example of a LinkedIn Summary with an “intriguing” CTR. The goal of the first part of a great summary is to get the intended audience to click on “see more” to find out more of the story!

LinkedIn Summary Example of an Intriguing CTR

You can also see that I have done below. Not only have I shared a startling quote from a reputable company, it’s one that directly addresses my audience’s point of pain.

Not only that, I also added a CTA to my CTR! My call to action it to click to read more…

LinkedIn Summary Example of an Interesting Fact

So even though you technically have 2600 characters to write your About, only the first several hundred characters are going to show.  You must start with an audience-focused statement or question that gets them to click on “See more”.  It just makes sense, right?

In order to create a powerful CTR (call to read), think about your ideal buyer or audience.  What are their points of pain? Their needs?  Their desires?  Their wants?  If you can address and speak to that in the first sentence or two, they are a lot more likely to click on “see more”.

For an example of this, check out my profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkedinexpert/

2. Address your Audience

Consider addressing your actual audience in the first few sentences as well.  Some people worry that if they narrow down the focus of their audience too much then they will miss out on potential new customers.

Ironically, the opposite is true.  The riches are in the niches!  The more you can speak to a specific audience, the more likely they are to recognize themselves in your copy.  And let’s face it, everyone’s favorite radio station is WIIFM (What’s In It For Me.)

Trying to be a generalist on LinkedIn means you’ll actually get fewer qualified individuals reaching out to you and reading your profile.

3. What is Your Intended Audience’s PoP (Point of Pain?)

Whoever you are trying to attract, your LinkedIn profile summary should clearly state the business pain you solve.  Spend a few sentences expanding on that CTR and explaining exactly how you solve your intended audiences problems.

If you’re in sales, make sure you DON’T focus on the features of your product or service. Speak to your SOLUTIONS!  No one cares about your gadget or your service.  What they want to know is how it is going to make their lives better.

Expand upon your solution, and include examples of other companies or clients that you have helped. (With their permission of course.)  You can even pull in some short (1 or 2 sentence) testimonials.

Write your About in first person and don’t be afraid to make the copy conversational and personal.  We want people to get a real sense of who you are.

Check out the copy in my profile after my intro CTR paragraph:

Is your sales team ready? Does your company have the brand and virtual selling skillset they need to dominate in this new world? The Digital Sales Transformation movement is in full swing. Today’s modern buyer has changed the rules.

Consider your answers to the questions below:
😞 What percentage of your sellers will make it this year?
😞 Out of 100 prospecting calls and emails, how many resulted in a conversation?
😞 How many sales meetings or conversations did your sellers schedule last month?

If you are not satisfied with the answers to these questions then keep reading!

Is it a goal of your (mostly remote and virtual) sales team to win more business for your B2B company through #SocialSelling Strategies? We can help!

Vengreso is committed to one thing and one thing only, your sales success!

VENGRESO HELPS B2B COMPANIES REACH THE 90% OF BUYERS THAT CAN’T BE ACCESSED THROUGH TRADITIONAL OUTREACH.

𝕎ℍ𝕆 𝕎𝔼 𝕊𝔼ℝ𝕍𝔼: Our approach has been customized for entrepreneurs and Fortune 50 companies alike.

Am I speaking to a jobseeker here? No. Am a speaking to a contractor? No. Am I speaking to small business owners? Possibly. Am I speaking to sales reps? Maaaybe? Am I speaking to a sales leader or sales manager who is concerned that her team is not achieving quota and is challenged with prospecting and filling their pipeline? Yes!

And by asking questions, I’m getting the sales leader to engage with my profile and potentially “emotionalizing” their responses. By getting them to emotionally engage, the struggle becomes more real and my solution(s) more necessary.

I also assure the sales leader that I have had massive success in helping sales teams like her.

Can you see how this might be more powerful than “Quota crushing sales guy with 18 years experience!”

4. Build Credibility

I then go on to share more stats that will speak to my company’s ability to help my Buyerm and well as addressing why they might want to work with us:

Let us help you achieve explosive revenue growth. Our clients have reported a:
 683% increase in won deals
 3579% or $15m Attributable Sales Pipeline growth

As modern sales professionals & leaders, we must connect with the modern buyer by aligning with their digitally connected, socially engaged, mobile attached, video-hungry preferences and needs. In order to connect with the modern buyer, you need the right technology with the the latest Digital Selling Skills.

5. Talk About What You Do

Now and only now, after I’ve addressed all the other things, have I earned the right to write about what we do specifically:

We teach, consult and practice modern omnichannel digital selling strategies to help their sales teams increase win rates through digital selling practices.

The Vengreso Sales Mastery offering includes topics such as:
Social Selling to Engage More Buyers
✅ Sales Messaging Mastery with FlyMSG™ (👆productivity 👇admin time)
✅ Video to Prospect & Book More Meetings

You can see I have given my potential prospects a very clear idea about what we do and I draw attention to the elements of my profile and business I need them to know about. This is called building a common ground.

6. Don’t Forget a CTA

As you wrap up your profile, make sure to direct people to take action with a CTA.  Ask them to “Check out the resources below” or “Click on Contact Me above to book some time on my calendar” or “Call or Email me at the contact info below.”

If you don’t tell them what to do, they won’t do it. But clearly guide potential clients to take action, and you will be getting more emails, phone calls and engagement on your content.

And to that point – make sure you add your contact info to your About section.

Don’t take my word for it. Keep scrolling down to read 100+ client testimonials on topics including Social Selling, Content For Sales, Content For Sales Enablement, LinkedInTraining LinkedIn Speaking, Lead Generation, Content Marketing, and LinkedIn Tips

Got questions?
Contact us ✆ 877-4vengreso
viveka@vengreso.com

Specific Examples of About Sections

Ok – obviously we walk our talk – but what about our clients. Below we have some well-written examples of good LinkedIn Summaries and Summary Examples that you can use to model your own profiles. These examples should give you a bigger picture view of how LinkedIn summaries should look.

If you don’t take the necessary steps to make your profile stand out from the noise, you won’t be able to garner the engagement you deserve. 😱 Check out some examples of About sections on #linkedinprofiles and more @linkedinexpert Click To Tweet

3 LinkedIn Summary Examples

An Entrepreneurs and Thought Leaders LinkedIn Summary Example

Jeffrey Reeves starts his About with a strong CTR that focuses on a common pain point his clients experience: how to clearly deal with problems in the depth of confusion, uncertainty and doubt. He then expands upon that thought to let his readers know they are not alone.

After clicking on read more, his audience will be able to see how Jeffrey can help them – he literally “reveals” how he uncovers their uniqueness and uses that as fuel for decision making.

Only after he has addressed the challenges of his clients does he expand upon his own experience, the people and companies he has helped, and how he has a different perspective from most: “I don’t think outside the box – I just don’t have one!”

He dives deeper on his unique abilities – and again, how he has helped others by utilizing those skills.

He begins to wrap up this section with a little more information about who he is as a person. (By the bottom of About, he has earned the right to talk about himself a bit.) After all, people do business with people, H2H, so you also want to show your human side.

And he wraps the whole thing up perfectly with a CTA, his contact info, and some keywords for findability.

LinkedIn Summary Example - Adressing your Audience

A Business Development LinkedIn Summary Example

Ann Marie Gallagher starts with a CTR that asks a question, “Are you charitable inclined? Do you want to make a difference? Create a lasting legacy?” Talk about going right for someone’s WHY! This is a great way to start this section – and so much more effective than a job description would be!

She immediately addresses her target audience: communities such as the military, veterans, women, & people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, and addresses career concerns they might be up against.

Only after addressing her audience and their point of pain does she move into an explanation of how she and her company can help.

As with Jeffrey above, she wraps it up nicely with a CTA (call to action) to email her, and some specialties as keywords.

BDR LinkedIn Summary Example - Asking a Question

A Sales Account Executive LinkedIn About Example

Juan Diaz has, what I consider to be, a perfect About section for someone in sales.

His CTR both addresses his buyer and their point of pain:

Two problems that every sales leader wakes up to are:
😞 Ensuring their sellers get more “at-bats” (a.k.a. prospect better)
😢 Building a healthier sales pipeline so they can sell more

If this applies to you or your sales team then keep reading!

You can’t get any more clear than that!

He addresses the challenges of sales leaders when it comes to virtual selling, the pandemic, changes in buyer preferences and the need for modern B2B sellers to improve their digital selling skillsets

He demonstrates the need to for sales teams to upskill their sales capabilities by leveraging channels like video, social, and even text messaging. And to appeal to the buyer’s digitally connected, socially engaged, mobile attached, and video-hungry preferences.

He makes it clear that sellers must leverage the omni-channel for effective sales prospecting.

Only after thoroughly addressing the needs of his audience does Juan share some information about himself and Vengreso, (tucking in a few nice keywords while he is at it) “I am thrilled to work at Vengreso, the leading Modern Sales Training, Coaching and Technology company, providing sales leaders a path to more pipeline.”

He also demonstrates the USP and credibility of our company…. why you should work with us: “🏅In 2019, 2020 and 2021 Vengreso received the Gold Stevie® Award for Best Sales Training Product of the Year 🏅”

He further engages the reader by asking the following questions:

Consider your answers to the questions below:
1️⃣ What percentage of your sellers made quota last year and will make it this year?
2️⃣ Out of 100 prospecting calls, how many result in a conversation?
3️⃣ Out of 100 emails sent, how many result in a response?
4️⃣ How many sales meetings or conversations did your sellers schedule last month?
If you are not satisfied with the answers to these questions, we can help your team prospect better and sell more.

He has certainly earned the right to share a bit more about himself, and his work life balance, as he nears the end of the about section: “When not working, I love to consume new knowledge such as books, podcasts, and blogs to grow. I love to spend time with my family going out and enjoying life with them.”

And, as we recommend, ends with the Call to Action to email or call him, shares his contact info and invites the reader to”review some of our resources and client testimonials below.”

Just in case it’s needed, he also adds a few keywords, important skills, as specialties: “Specialties: Sales Prospecting | Business Development | Digital Sales | Social Selling Training | Digital Selling”

Now I call that an excellent example of this section!

Excellent LinkedIn Sumary Example for Sales

Who Can See Your About Section on LinkedIn?

By default, any user on LinkedIn will be able to see your full profile except for the elements you’ve specifically chosen to hide.  “About” is one you should leave visible.

Just be aware, anyone with access to the web will be able to see it, whether they are on LinkedIn or not.  If you are concerned about having your contact info so accessible, consider sharing just a web address, or create an email address just for your social interactions.

LinkedIn Profile Summary Visibility Options

Why is Writing a Great LinkedIn Summary or About Important?

When searching for a job or a new business opportunity on LinkedIn, you’ll have some tough competition and a short window of time to set yourself apart from the millions of other users who use the network. As social media agency KAU Media Group says, social is “an environment where consumption is fast and time spent interacting with content is typically short”. With this in mind, you’ll need to ensure every feature of your LinkedIn profile is as optimized as possible to maximize its potential.

First Impressions and Algorithms

Aside from the opportunity to make a great first impression, the words used in your LinkedIn profile also carry some weight in the LinkedIn search algorithm and where your profile will appear in relation to competing candidates.

Though the keywords in your summary aren’t as important as those in your LinkedIn headline or work experience, if you don’t give your summary its due diligence, it won’t have any impact at all.

#LinkedIn is like a never-ending job and #networking event with millions of attendees. Learn how to properly edit your About section of your #profile with @Linkedinexpert 👏 Click To Tweet

How Long Should a LinkedIn Summary Be?

Summaries have a character limit of 2600, allowing you to play with around 350-400 words.

As we’ve seen in our examples, a good LinkedIn summary can vary greatly in terms of length, and the only straight answer to this question is this: As long as it needs to be!

Just remember to start with a strong CTA, stick to what’s relevant for your audience, and use a logical, readable structure to avoid overwhelming your viewers with massive blocks of text.

Should You Include Keywords In Your LinkedIn Summary?

Just like Google, LinkedIn will crawl your profile for various relevance signals to determine where to rank your profile in a given page of results.

You already know there are people on LinkedIn looking for companies and individuals like you. That is why there is what’s called a search bar! It’s designed to help you be found. You just have to make LinkedIn’s job of putting you together easier by keyword-optimizing your LinkedIn Summary so that your profile shows up in the search results.

Finding Keywords to SEO Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

To start, we recommend checking out the kinds of search terms that you’re already appearing under. You can see this by heading to your LinkedIn profile, scrolling down to the “Analytics” header, and clicking on the “search appearances” value, which will show the number of times you appeared in search queries over the past week.

Clicking on this value will open up a more detailed view of how you’re appearing in searches, including some of the companies that the searchers work at, and most importantly, the keywords that you’re showing up for.

As you search for your keywords, pay close attention to terms that will highlight your specialties, and frame yourself as a specific person suited to a specific job, rather than a jack of all trades, master of none.

For example, if you already rank for the low-resolution term “content,” try optimizing your summary for terms like “writer”, “designer”, or “manager” depending on what’s most relevant.

LinkedIn Search Appearances

LinkedIn Summary Template

As you’ve probably realized by now, there’s no one “right” format for a LinkedIn summary, although the guidelines we mentioned above will help.

The one that works for you is going to depend heavily on things like your industry, your audience, your level of experience, and goals for the future.

Follow @Linkedinexpert´s guidance on how to create a great LinkedIn #Summary (About) section, and you’ll quickly enjoy greater visibility, more regular #engagement, and numerous opportunities through #LinkedIn! 🤩 Click To Tweet

Review these Questions Prior to Writing Your LinkedIn Summary

Here are some of the questions you should answer before starting to write your best possible profile:

  1. Who is your buyer persona or target audience?
  2. Who are you trying to target with this profile? List by the industries, titles, product lines, etc. that you focus on.
  3. What business challenges does your targeted prospect face?  What are their challenges? Points of Pain? Needs? Wants?
  4. How can your product or service help them? What industry problem(s) do you solve for clients?  Provide examples with company names if possible.
  5. What differentiates you and/or your company from others in your industry? What is your value proposition?
  6. If you are a job searching, who are your potential employers? What skills do you have that will help them be more successful?
  7. Do you have examples from others in the same industry that you’ve helped?
  8. What is your WHY?
  9. What is a favorite inspirational quote and who said it?

The 8 MUST-Have Elements for Any LinkedIn Summary

Write the LinkedIn Summary by incorporating all 8 elements from the graphic below. As previously mentioned, you have 2600 characters to work with.

  1. Use multiple paragraphs
  2. USE Emoji’s (especially for contact information)
  3. Regarding the CALL TO READ
    • Your objective is to get their buyer to click “see more” in the About
    • You have less than 70 characters on mobile & 200 on desktop
    • Can be a:

i.  Emotion grabber like: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mthreejr/

ii. A question that captures attention and ties to the customer problem they solve like:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/linkedinexpert/

  1. State your buyer persona’s point of pain, need, desire. They may not know what they don’t know. So you need to tell them!
  2. Share other individuals or companies that you have helped, and how.
  3. Bring in some personality: “When not working, I love to consume new knowledge such as books, podcasts, and blogs to grow. I love to spend time with my family going out and enjoying life with them.”
  4. Include a CTA to contact you, check out the media below, and book time with me on my calendar in My Contact Info: “Please call or email me to learn how we can help. ✆  xxx-xxx-xxxx
    xxxx@company.com
  5. Make sure to embed keywords or search terms where relevant. “Specialties: Sales Prospecting | Marketing | Digital Sales | Social Selling Training | Digital Selling”

8 Steps to Write Your About Section

What About a Company About?

A LinkedIn Company Page is SEO-friendly, just like an individual LinkedIn profile. Google indexes 156 characters of your page text, so be sure that your description leads with a powerful, keyword-rich copy, that way you will do SEO for a LinkedIn business page. LinkedIn members can search for companies by keyword, so include words and phrases that describe your business, expertise, and industry focus, that way you will leverage LinkedIn SEO.

Here are some keys to remember:

  • You have 2000 characters to engage your readers and share a part of your company story.
  • Many of your employees might go to the LinkedIn business page to grab information for their own profiles, so make sure you have the best branded copy possible.
  • Be very clear on your Buyer Persona. Who do you usually work with? What are their issues? How can you help?
  • Provided there is enough room, you could even put a testimonial, a very short one, from a happy client in this section.
  • At the bottom of your description, add your contact information. I suggest adding both a unique email address and phone number so you can track where your business is coming from.

Check out our LinkedIn Company About or Description section here.

How Do I Receive LinkedIn Advice or Help?

I know it seems like a LOT of work. But you have three options:

  1. Do nothing and continue to miss out on opportunities.
  2. Use the guidelines we have shared above
  3. Hire us to do your profile for you!

I would highly recommend choice three, whether you’re trying to get a promotion at your current job, developing the entrepreneurial spirit and starting your own small business, looking to find more customers, or you’re on a job search.

We hope these specific examples have inspired you in an engaging way to take action! Once you have, make sure to share your profile link in the comments below.

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