How to Write a Killer LinkedIn Summary

Nevo David

September 9, 2021

With over 57 million business accounts and 774 million individual profiles, a good LinkedIn summary will increase your chances of being spotted by businesses seeking a product or service you offer. Knowing how to write a LinkedIn summary will help you position yourself as the provider of choice among your peers in the industry.

According to HubSpot, only 0.69% and 0.77% of Twitter and Facebook traffic convert to leads as compared to an impressive 2.74% of LinkedIn traffic. Furthermore, B2B marketers indicate the Linkedin is effective for leads generation through either paid or organic activities. A visitor converts into a lead when they show interest in the service or product you offer. Visitors express such interest in the form of subscribing to your company’s newsletter, engaging in webinars, or any other positive response to your call to action (CTA). A lead converts to an opportunity when they reach out to a sales rep, and an opportunity converts to a customer once they decide to purchase your product or service. LinkedIn is a platform for professionals in different fields to connect, hence its effectiveness for lead generation. With LinkedIn, your clients can use filters to discover your product or service, thus the importance of having a sound LinkedIn summary.

Why A Good LinkedIn Summary Is Important

A LinkedIn about section provides an occasion to position yourself, tell your career story or define yourself within the context of your industry. The summary section allows you to communicate what and why you do what you do and provide insights into how you can support businesses to achieve their brand mission. It’s also a chance for you to articulate your value proposition and what sets you apart from the others in the field.

Therefore, use it as an opportunity to showcase your unique professional attributes. This article will highlight some of the best LinkedIn bios to inspire you as you craft your own.

How to Write a LinkedIn Summary

As a B2B marketer, your objective to use LinkedIn may include driving more sales or sending traffic to your business website. Data shows that LinkedIn increases buyers’ intent by up to 30%, demonstrating the platform’s efficacy in generating leads and supporting conversion. In this section, you will find three-pointers for writing a LinkedIn summary with examples.

1. Think Through an Objective for Your LinkedIn Profile

Your online persona and what you want to achieve on Linkedin should inform your decision to have a profile. You may consider targeting the 65 million corporate decision-makers directly on LinkedIn as part of your marketing strategy for your business.

According to Statista, 41% of B2B marketers prefer LinkedIn over Facebook owing to its effectiveness in generating leads that convert to sales. Marketers use LinkedIn to influence decision-makers to buy their products and services. The central theme of your summary should then indicate the value of your service offering.

According to his profile, Koray Serin is the creative strategist at Facebook. It is evident from his linkedin summary that he intends to communicate the value he brings to his work. In his summary, he outlines he seeks to support brands develop winning brand positioning and communication strategies. He indicates he develops plans for different brands to help position them at the top of their industry or as market challengers.

His about section skillfully appeals to brands struggling with marketing themselves through effective brand and communication strategies.

2. Communicate Your Skills, Career Highlights and Area of Expertise

Use the LinkedIn bio section to showcase your skills, career achievements and define your area of speciality. Mention specific industries of services you prefer to work in, academic qualifications including any soft and technical skills you have attained throughout your career.

In the example below, Shauna is the digital marketing manager at LinkedIn. She communicates her expertise as a digital marketer, indicating that she specialises in information technology and service industries. She also takes the time to list down her skills, including Microsoft Suite, Event Management, Digital Marketing with a working proficiency of Chinese, and mentions her area of academic training.

3. Write Using First-Person Perspective

There are two schools of thought when writing professional summaries: the use of first or third-person narration. We recommend using first-person narration in your summary LinkedIn because people expect you and not a distant third party wrote your profile and summary section.

4. Keywords

A keyword is a word or phrase that refers to a theme, issue, topic or concept people will use to search in the LinkedIn search bar. Employers, consumers, and other potential partners will use keywords to discover your profile. Research and use appropriate keywords to enable the LinkedIn algorithm to surface your business when someone searches LinkedIn using industry keywords.

In this example, Stephen McSweeney, the digital marketer for Kellogg Company, the food manufacturers behind products such as Pringles, extensively uses keywords in his LinkedIn summary.

His LinkedIn profile summary keywords include digital marketing planning and optimisation, conversion rate optimisation, digital marketing, online content creation, and Google certification. If a prospective client searches any of these terms, his profile will likely be among those that Linkedin will surface.

What To Put in A LinkedIn Summary

Now that you understand how to write a good linked in summary, next, let’s look at what to put in your LinkedIn summary.

1. Hook [First Three Hundred Words Matter the Most]

While thinking through how to write an effective LinkedIn summary, the second most important consideration, after the keywords, is the hook. LinkedIn will show the first three hundred characters of your summary and a ‘read more’ button that your readers may click if they’re interested in reading the rest of your bio.

Therefore, the first three hundred words of your summary must capture the attention and imagination of your reader. You may use facts, statistics or descriptive words about yourself, your career achievements or the impact of your work as a hook.

2. Use White Space

Here is an unexpected LinkedIn summary tip: use white space! White space dramatically improves the readability of your text. The general rule is to use 4 – 5 lines per paragraph. White spaces enable readers to maintain attention and comprehension. It makes it easy for the reader to trace where they left off without sifting through a large block of text.

3. Call to Action

Your call to action should be specific to the objective of your LinkedIn profile, appealing to either consumers or investors. You may invite people to register to your mailing list for more information about your projects or engage with you and your ideas as a thought leader.

What Not to Put in a LinkedIn Summary

1. Do Not Make Comparisons Between Yourself and Others

While crafting your summary for LinkedIn, avoid comparing any aspect of your career to others in the field, even if it is a general comparison. Comparisons may only work with ads, and even then, a lot of care and creativity goes into conceptualisation and execution. Strictly focus on articulating your expertise, career highlights and value proposition.

2. Political or Religious Affiliations

Avoid mentioning your political or religious affiliations. Unless, of course, you work in a political or religious space, and such associations are integral to communicating your expertise and level of experience.

3. Fluff and Jargon

A good LinkedIn summary is devoid of fluff and jargon. With a 2000 character limit, edit out your summary to only include what is relevant and necessary. Avoid giving unnecessary information, details about yourself or using words the typical person will find incomprehensible known only to industry experts.

LinkedIn Summary Examples

This section highlights tips using examples of good LinkedIn summaries written by individuals working with some of the leading brands. You’ll see how the individuals use their bios to position themselves or their business on LinkedIn.

1. Articulate your Mission and Have a Call to Action.

You may consider reflecting on your mission in your LinkedIn summary that communicates what your brand is all about. Your target audience will use your mission to determine if your brand aligns with their needs and values.

The co-founder of Scalefusion, which owns the fintech startup NuovoPay, is an example of one of the best LinkedIn summary that is mission-oriented. He articulates that his company’s mission is to create products that address unfulfilled customer needs.

He then rallies support around his mission with a call to action, which appeals to a wide range of audiences, including prospective customers, product designers, developers, investors and marketers.

2. Showcase Your Goals and Achievements

In this LinkedIn summary example, Kasey Kaplan is the founder of Kwik Studio, whose products include the website builder Quuie. He takes the time to present his leadership style and achievements in his bio by stating that he is ‘an energetic and forward-thinking leader,’ giving the impression that he is driven and enthusiastic. He also outlines the industries he has worked in including, ‘payments, blockchain, insurance, retail, marketing and events.’ Though he writes his summary in the third person point of view, it serves as an excellent introduction to the individual

and the solution provided by the company he has founded. He states that his company, “KWK Studio, focuses on helping unleash the potential of every business by providing simple to use marketing, product and strategy services.”

True to his forward-thinking attribute, Kasey also lets his personality shine through. He tells us about his hobbies, noting that his ‘adventurous spirit has taken him all over the world.’ He implies his sense of adventure energises his creativity in business by stating that he has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua and has managed to visit every continent. Kasey does a splendid job of telling us personal details about his life relevant to his career without oversharing.

The next example we’ll feature in this category is Breanun Dunn. His summary is concise and structured in bullet points indicating his achievements over the years. Breanun career started successfully in 2008 with a web agency he existed after scaling it to 11 employees to focus on a Software as a Service (SaaS) business.

The famous author and economists Ray Dalio is another individual with a LinkedIn bio written in the third person. Noting his stature as a billionaire investor and hedge fund manager, it is likely that the person of Ray Dalio is an institution by itself; thus, the third person point of view adopted. His summary communicates not only his achievements but also his life philosophy, stating, “Ray believes that reality works like a machine and that principles for dealing with reality are required to be successful.”

3. Exclusively Feature Your Product or Service.

In this sample LinkedIn summary, Mikael Bourdon is the co-founder of Soundsuit, a music streaming service. He uses his LinkedIn summary section to showcase his product and the problem they solve. He states, “soundsuit is a digital music assistant that helps thousands of brick-and-mortar businesses better engage their customers and motivate their employees; through smarter music.”

4. Showcase a Multifaceted Capacity

Entrepreneurs are, by nature, multitalented and multifaceted. For instance, entrepreneurs solve pressing societal challenges and are also thought leaders in their field. As thought leaders, entrepreneurs may write books or are invited to speaking engagements to share ideas about the future or their expertise.

An excellent example in this category is the Banner Bear CEO and founder. He describes himself as a seasoned entrepreneur and states that he has been recognised as a thought leader in various spheres, including ‘digital head growth, user experience and disruptive technologies.’ He also articulates his speaking engagements and names a book that he has authored.

5. Anchor on a Past Achievement

Some professional bios on LinkedIn highlight significant past achievements that demonstrate their ability to exit their startups profitably.

For instance, Ryan Shank is the founder and former CEO of PhoneWagon, a bootstrap company valued at over a million dollars by the time of its acquisition. He uses his LinkedIn summary to seek out investment opportunities stating, ‘we are looking to invest in 3 – 5 companies per year with $ 2k – 50k checks and start one company per year.’

6. Tell Us Your Why

As an entrepreneur, your summary LinkedIn may entail the story of how you set up and financed your business. Authenticity is an essential aspect of compelling LinkedIn summaries, and telling the story behind your brand is a good way of connecting your target audience.

Tyler King, CEO and Co-founder of the Less Annoying CRM, takes the opportunity to tell the story of why and how they set up the business. His hook is simple, “I love building easy-to-use software,” and proceeds to inform the reader how such an interest led to a thriving business enterprise.

He finishes his summary with a call to action, inviting his readers to listen to a podcast he co-hosts with another entrepreneur.

Founders are at times the primary marketers of their businesses, and most of them, when considering what to include in a LinkedIn summary, opt to tell us how and why they started their business.

Scott Flear also uses the LinkedIn summary section to feature his brand and tell its story. He is the founder of Rugby Warefare and uses his LinkedIn bio to tell us how he combined his love for rugby, health and fitness to start a successful business. Scott then communicates the achievement of his brand Rugby Warefare since its inception.

Simon Sinek is a renowned author and motivational speaker. He strongly believes discovering and communicating why you do what you do as a leader will inspire your team or community to action. True to his belief, he starts off his professional bio on LinkedIn by telling us his WHY and the vision he has for his work. The summary records, “Simon’s WHY is to inspire people to do what inspires them so that, together, each of us can change our world for the better.” Sinek is among the personalities whose bio is written in the third person point of view.

He ends his summary with a call to action, asking his audience to engage with him on his website.

Final Thoughts and Recap

The ideas and examples shared in this article will help you figure out how to write a LinkedIn summary for your profile. As stated before, the summary section allows you to introduce yourself and pitch your product or service to prospective clients. Therefore, start with a captivating opening statement, use industry keywords or search terms and tell your career story. Remember to articulate critical accomplishments of your career, business, product or service and connect them to a stated mission.

Longer LinkedIn summaries always tend to do well; therefore, utilise as much of the 2000 character limit as possible, but be sure to keep your paragraphs short and avoid the use of jargon. At the end of it, have a call to action, directing your readers to your blog, website, podcast or social media platform for further engagement.