The LinkedIn summary section is an opportunity for you to describe yourself and what you do.
Note that you have barely thirty seconds to do this.
So, the question now is, can you?
Unfortunately, when it boils down to LinkedIn summary, that is how long you have to convince your visitors because no one cares about spending the entire day reading your work history.
That is why you need to take this category seriously.
You should also know that the summary section requires brevity and deep thinking to compose.
It is a chance for you to express yourself and convince your prospects.
So you need to explain what you do and the impact that your brand will have on others.
In this article, we will discuss every step you need to know about the LinkedIn summary.
Most of the time, this section is under-utilized and often neglected by LinkedIn users.
On the LinkedIn platform, you should know that every section or category is an integral part that will help you push your brand forward.
Remember, the summary section is not the same as your headline.
Whether you're searching for a job, marketing your business, or trying to build a reputable brand, this section is significant in determining how strongly your brand will be to your target audience.
While LinkedIn headline gives you 120 characters to convince your audience, the summary section avails you 2,000 characters to do the same.
You can strengthen your about section in the first 300-350 words by including some of your personality traits, optimizing the terms that people will search, tell a bit of your career story and encourage a call to action from your prospects.
By writing a quality LinkedIn summary section, you have easily made your profile stand out from countless profiles on the platform?
For a second, do not think that it is enough to leave this section blank just because you have uploaded a professional profile picture, customized your LinkedIn headline, and detailed your education and work history.
No way, you will only be missing out on several opportunities if you think in this manner.
Remember that you'll never get a second chance to correct the first impression.
Therefore you must have in mind that LinkedIn summary is another way of making an excellent first impression.
Your summary section one crucial section that introduces what your brand is all about at the top of your profile.
It is also part of your introductory business card that includes your name, headline, a professional photo, education, contact, where you worked, and so on.
Whether your prospects are browsing the site with a desktop or mobile phone, this section will be so glaring to them. And this is because it is at the top of your profile.
When your target audience scrolls through your LinkedIn profile, the first three hundred characters of your summary is what they will see.
But then again, LinkedIn Recruiter, by default, will display your entire LinkedIn summary to your visitors.
Both views are your chance to say "hello" and make a good impression in thirty seconds.
And when compared to other social media platforms, you should know that there is a high level of decorum and professionalism that your visitors expect when they click on your profile.
Though, the level of expectancy varies on the industry.
Regardless of this fact, your LinkedIn summary is an excellent opportunity to give your prospects a heads up of your personality.
Here, you can also let your prospective employers know little of you are and what interests you
The LinkedIn summary section provides a better opportunity for you to directly address your visitors and share different versions of yourself with them.
You can reveal different versions of yourself by sharing your professional accomplishments, hobbies, life motivations, and so on.
When potential customers, employers or recruiters search for your LinkedIn profile, your about section's content will display in the results.
Though, they might not give it as much relevance as they would with your job titles and descriptions, work experience, and so on.
However, it will generate enough attention and traffic to your page. It will equally set you apart from users and help rise above them.
By including keywords in your LinkedIn summary, a potential buyer may locate and hire you.
Adding keywords in your summary section increases visibility and presents opportunities to your doorstep.
Search for optimization tools that will help you analyze your LinkedIn profile for job opportunities.
Optimization tools will also reveal which keywords are missing.
Like we stated above, there are a few things that you need to include in your summary section to make it more discoverable to prospective employers.
Some of these things form an attractive hook, a well-constructed personal story, and optimized keywords.
Below are other tips that you need to follow to improve your LinkedIn summary.
Judging by LinkedIn's default settings, only the first lines of your summary will be presented to your profile visitors.
It will just take seconds for them to click on the 'more' option to read your full summary.
The first three lines have about 290-310 characters, and that is all you have to make an impression on your profile.
If you can think and write creatively, you have to put in your skill to work by writing a catchy hook that calls your visitors to action.
If you can convince your reader enough to click the "see more" option, that will be okay.
Else, fill your summary with something vital that you will want your recruiters to know about you when they come around.
They say everything that you don't know is a secret.
When potential prospects or employers come on LinkedIn to search for capable hands, most of them start by searching for a specific combination of job titles, skills, and other keywords to find the right people.
Treasure this piece of information because it will help you get a clear idea of what is required.
When writing your summary, LinkedIn will show you some search queries that recruiters use to find your profile.
Go to your profile and look underneath your summary section.
There, you will see "search appearances" as one of its statistics.
When you find it, click on it to see a detailed report of your searches.
For instance, let us say this week alone, people found your profile after using a combination of keywords.
What this means is that the summary section is well optimized with relevant keywords.
But in case you cannot find any search appearance on your profile, then it means that your profile keywords are not optimized enough for your recruiter to see your profile.
You can use various optimization tools to help you compare your profile to other relevant job descriptions.
It will help you out with keywords that are missing to make your summary fully optimized.
So, whether you are a writer or not, use your summary to list your vital skills and leave the rest for technology to handle the rest.
One mistake that most users make is uploading their entire history on the LinkedIn summary at once.
While this may work for other social media platforms, you should know that LinkedIn summary is not a place for such practice.
However, it is the right place to show off your skills, accomplishments, and what makes you a professional in your industry.
People willing to hire will be more interested in this.
It's the perfect place to add context to your career path, show off your expertise, as well as dig into what makes you remarkable at your job.
Never fall into the temptation of misusing this privilege.
Always keep it brief as well as straight to the point.
If you frequently moved from one company to another, drop some hints on why you had to make such moves.
Your prospective employers will be curious about this.
They will also be curious to see what job titles and companies you worked have work for in the past.
They may do this to get get a glimpse of how far you have progressed in your career.
Again, you must do this because they will be curious to know why you switched from one company to another.
You can utilize the power underneath your profile by sharing your area of interest in a specific discipline within your field.
You can use it to motivate your prospective colleagues if you are moving into a managerial position.
By adding these ideas into your summary, you will create a colourful flying start.
The LinkedIn summary is a place to polish your career and make it shine to the world.
For more impact, use your summary section to spotlight the accomplishments you have gotten over the year.
Let us imagine that you're a sales manager that has worked for two different brands or organizations.
You can say something like, "As a sales manager, I was able to increase sales by an average of 80% in my first year of working for two different organizations."
Below are some samples of what a powerful LinkedIn summary should be. With these examples, you will have a better mental picture of what a LinkedIn summary is all about.
Note: these examples are only to inspire you to create something similar or better. You are advised not to copy them word for word.
Here, you can see how the owner of this summary contextualized his personal experiences and used them to show off an entrepreneurial spirit.
In the second summary example, we should note how the writer opened the summary with a confident tone.
We can also see how passionate the writer is about their work.
Pay close attention to how each character was utilized correctly.
But once again, remember that it is not advisable to use up many special characters while writing your summary.
It will make your page come across as childish.
In this example, the writer essentially displayed his or her core interests and a little of their personality.
The takeaway point here is that the writer was demonstrated progress in his or her career while giving prospective recruiters a chance to view their work attitude.
Conclusion
One point you should know is that not everybody is a writer.
Again, not everyone will care if your summary is well narrated or not. Nonetheless, to be on the risk-free side, use your summary section to outline your skills, expertise, and certifications.
It will definitely help improve your career on LinkedIn.