Want a way to pitch yourself to recruiters before meeting them or sending them anything? Good, your summary on LinkedIn is the perfect way to do this – to blow people away. Unfortunately, not enough people on the platform understand this and overlook writing a captivating summary. In this blog you’ll be educated on why it is so important and how to optimise it.
What is the summary?
On many other social media platforms, the summary would be described as the “bio”, where you’re able to express yourself whilst trying to impress others. Leaving it blank is a huge miss, no matter what you are using LinkedIn for – whether it be marketing your own business or trying to find a new job.
Whilst other bio’s or summaries are extremely limited with characters, you’re able to use 2,000 on LinkedIn, which is a huge positive. Rather than having a short and sweet note, the possibilities you have to add personality to your profile as well as writing about your career are amazing.
What makes it so important?
Used for the search results –
While job titles and headlines do play a big part in being higher in the search results, having a good summary can strengthen your chances of a recruiter choosing to connect with you. By including specific terms, job titles and skills to you could make you the perfect candidate for them.
Boast your personality –
As I’m sure you’re aware, LinkedIn is known to be very professional and the expectation from most is to be deadly serious all the time on there. While elements of this are true, and you may need to be more professional if you are working in a certain industry, the summary is the best place to introduce you and your identity.
Prospective employers may look into summaries to see what you’re about and whether you’ll be a fit in their team. So rather than staying 100% professional, show people on your profile what you’d bring to the table and share accomplishments and motivations.
Writing a good LinkedIn summary
Strong beginning –
When looking at a profile on LinkedIn, you should notice how it only shows the first 3 lines of the summary, and if you wish to carry on reading, you have to click the ‘See More’ button. That means that those 3 lines are crucial in grabbing the attention of a user.
You have two options here: get your creative writing mind in use, or load all the attributes and skills you have that you’d want recruiters to know about you.
Using a creative hook will entice users into reading more, but you’ll have to be careful what you’re writing isn’t to ‘wishy-washy’. Recruiters may see a lot of gibberish on your page and decide you aren’t for them.
Placing all attributes and skills (or whatever you want a recruiter to see) at the very top of your summary will get them a better idea of who you are. By getting straight to the point in the summary you are increasing your chances of you being well noticed.
Go heavy on the keywords –
Your profile can be found from a number of ways, including job title and skills. You’ll be able to see on your current summary how users found your profile through certain keywords on their search.
This is found by clicking on ‘search appearances’ on your dashboard.
You should analyse your results and alter your summary accordingly. For example, if you don’t have any search appearances you should research other keywords using the search bar and see what comes up and how many users use it.
Final Thoughts
I hope this helps you create a summary worthy of the best recruiters finding you and giving you an amazing opportunity.
For further insights and guidance, we invite you to explore our blog at 07hm.co.uk/blog. Here, you’ll find a wealth of information tailored to the needs and challenges of SMEs navigating the digital landscape. Additionally, if you have specific questions or need personalised advice, don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email at info@07hm.co.uk or telephone on 01702 410663.
