The Art of Creating a Powerful LinkedIn Summary: 5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts

But here’s the thing: Your summary shouldn’t be an afterthought. Rather, it’s an opportunity to shape your story and how you’re perceived. The words you put in the 2,000-character (max) allotted space make a difference. You know your career better than anyone — that’s why understanding how to encapsulate that story succinctly and effectively with a professional, punchy, power-packed paragraph is essential… and why it never hurts to have a little help.

Enter: us.

The best summaries will ingratiate you to clients, cement your brand, and inspire smiles and follow-up’s. The bad ones can trigger apathy, lack of confidence, even hard passes. Given the increased usage and reliance on LinkedIn for industry professionals, it can’t be overstated how important it is to make best possible use of the summary space.

It can tell people everything they need to know about you…

Or worse yet, say nothing.

Before you write your LinkedIn summary, here are a few things you should decide right from the start according to expert, Donna Serdula:

1. Figure out why you’re on LinkedIn:  What are you trying to accomplish? Are you on it for reputation management? Are you on it for a job search? Are you on it for sales and prospecting?

2. Think about your target audience: What do they need to know about you? What do they want to learn about you? What is important to them?

3. Figure out if you want to be found on LinkedIn for an opportunity: If someone’s typing in a keyword, do you want to pop up in that search? For a lot of people the answer is ‘yes.’ But for some people, it’s ‘no.’

How to write a LinkedIn summary: 5 examples that do certain things well — and why:

1. Show your experience, yes… but couch it in personality.

Why this LinkedIn summary example works:

• Overall, Karen strikes a great balance between saying things that win confidence in her creative abilities — but she writes conversationally, drenching her experience in personality without coming off as boastful or overly self-serving.

Expert tip: As Serdula explains, one’s presence on LinkedIn is “more than just a calling card. It’s who you are, virtually… your online persona.” Along those lines, Karen gives you a strong sense of who she is — skill-wise and sentimentally — filling the space with a well-articulated and strategic snapshot of her career. It’s a compelling case for being remembered. In addition, Karen’s approachable nature would also seem to jell well with Serdula’s expert advice around writing summaries with feeling. “That’s what you’re aiming for: That real human “About” section. It has a heart and a soul and it should grab people.”

2.  Tell people not just who you are, but what you stand for…

Why this LinkedIn summary example works:

I like Barry’s summary for three reasons:

1. He hits you with an impressive encapsulation of who he is from the start — dropping a range of keywords from “serial entrepreneur” to “25 years experience,” which speaks volumes not just to readers, but the LinkedIn search algorithm.

2. Barry backs it up with data — delivering specific numbers around the annual sales for the products he’s built, venture capital funds he’s helped raise, and even makes a mention of the range of publications he’s been featured in (Forbes, NYT, and WSJ).

3. What impresses me most about Barry’s approach, however, is how he addresses his character at the end, what he believes in and his preferences for work culture as a person in a position to hire:

As a leader, I believe in developing a people-first culture that prioritizes fairness, integrity, and empathy, and I look to surround myself with people who are driven by similar principles. Put more simply – it is important to surround yourself with people who do good, not just those that are good at what they do. My daily mantra: “Stay humble, not small.”

Expert tip:  To the first point, Serdula offers sound advice regarding keywords and how you should use them to be successfully found in a LinkedIn or Google search. “You want to figure out:  What would those words be? Then make sure you’re infusing those keywords throughout your LinkedIn profile. I’m not talking with obnoxious repetition… but organically into your narrative.”

3. Leaving white space is okay… if you fill it with the right words.

Why this LinkedIn summary example works:

• Like any good art director, Monique is not afraid to leave white space — keeping it relatively short and sweet, but making good use of the words she does choose to write.
• Monique manages to sound interesting, without being too obscure. “I may not always be the obvious choice, but I’m the best decision” is an intriguing line that begs people to want to learn why.
• By saying she’s “constantly on the look out for new ideas, creative opportunities” she’s signaling to her audience that she’s open to making new connections. Making that fact known is a matter of personal preference, but if you’re looking for work, it can signal to your network (and beyond) that they should keep you in mind should something come up.

Expert tip:  Another thing Monique does well here (as did the first two) is talk directly to the reader. As Serdula says, “When you write your ‘About’ section, do it in first-person narrative as opposed to third person (which can seem very distant).” This will not just help you make a connection, but will make you seem accessible and approachable. Both qualities that draw people in!

Why this LinkedIn summary example works:

• LinkedIn shows only 2-3 lines of your summary (roughly 300 characters) before readers must click “see more” if they want to keep reading. Jeff makes great use of the first 280 characters, listing a slew of positive traits (not jobs) that speak to who he is — his concern for quality control, being success-driven and thinking strategically, amongst other things.

• Expert tip:  Don’t get bogged down in some sort of “wait for it” moment to start your LinkedIn summary. Leading with a compelling and/or revealing statement about you is huge — because that’s all people might see. If you don’t believe me, look at the mobile screen shot below of Jeff’s summary to see how little is actually shown before it requires an action to see more.

5. Serve it up in digestible fashion.

Why Donna’s LinkedIn summary example works:

• Think about how people read these days. We like quick hits, sound bites, digestible morsels. In this regard, Donna lets the content breathe like a fine wine as the eye moves down the page, delivering information in easily scannable fashion.
• She also utilizes unicode (graphics, different font style, etc.) to give the page more visual intrigue. Given the amount of information she chooses to present to convey what her service does, these images make her summary look different.
• Other than the fact that it’s written by someone who’s literally written the book on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, Donna makes sure her readers know where they can contact her, buy her book, and sign up for a LinkedIn makeover.

Expert tip: To the last point about making sure people know how to contact you, Serdula says, “Opportunity can’t knock if it doesn’t know which door to knock on.” In addition, Serdula reveals the pros and cons of using unicode on the summary page:

More and more people have been using unicode on their LinkedIn profile to make it seem as if the text is formatted since there are no bullets, bold or italics on LinkedIn. But if you look around, especially at my profile, you will see that there are certain words that are bulleted to show a list… It looks pretty, but one, screen readers can’t read it so if someone blind is visiting your profile, their screen reader will not work for them… and two, you’re losing search. All that great content isn’t being indexed by LinkedIn. If you do attempt to format [with unicode], just do it sparingly. Maybe just with a header or a call-to-action.

As for Serdula’s approach in breaking up the content in her “About” section, she is a proponent of breaking up the bulky stuff. “When you’re faced with a huge block of text, it doesn’t matter how well written it is, you just can’t penetrate it.” Quick solution according to Serdula? “Make sure to hit the return button every now and then…” Your reader will appreciate it.

Now, here are 5 LinkedIn summary examples that show you what NOT to do*:

[*Please Note: The examples created below are inspired by real LinkedIn summary examples that contained these faux pas.]

1. Don’t recite your resume.

My first job out of college was at Pinkberry where I worked for two years until I went to Chase Bank for three… That’s when the insurance world called, where I worked for Geico, Progressive and now State Farm, where I sell auto and life. Btw, interested??

No, not interested.

Merely listing accomplishments without any context as to how they’ve helped shape who you are in your career is a LinkedIn no-no. There’s an entire section devoted to work “Experience” on LinkedIn, so save your breath here… and add more breadth there.

Instead, use the space for a compelling, 360-degree snapshot of who you are, what you’ve done and what makes you awesome. Your previous roles should be woven into your story contextually. It’s not a place to list the things they’re gonna see anyway when (and if) they scroll down. Which, as luck would have it, they probably won’t since you’ve attempted to say it all right here.

2. Along those lines, don’t copy/paste from your resume.

Even more of a no-no for the platform? The tone-deaf move of copy and pasting your resume into the summary section.

Example:

STATE FARM INSURANCE – Los Angeles, CA

Customer Service Specialist – October 2018 – Present

– Answer and direct 40+ calls daily, with goals including selling plans, responding to service queries.

– Trained 5 employees in customer service software, as well as in basic duties.

– Received a 90% average customer satisfaction rating, winning “Employee of the Month” in July of 2019

The copy/paste-from-the-resume move may seem like a good one if you’re at a loss for time and things to say in this space. But don’t. Even your good neighbor Jake from State Farm would highly disapprove.

As Serdula sates, “When you copy and paste a resume, that’s one of the biggest faux pas. Even if you’re looking for a job, you should not be pasting a resume. These are two totally different things… they should complement each other.”

Instead, fuse your accomplishments into an engaging narrative. What is it you love about customer service? Is it your outgoing nature? Or that you thrive on human connection? Add some emotion… show there’s a person behind the accomplishments.

But…

3. Don’t confuse your LinkedIn summary with your unabridged biography.

I was born to a family of five, in a poor section of the Bronx. My mother never took to breastfeeding, so I was a bottle baby from the start, undersized, underfed, and underwhelming. As the middle child, I had a minor birth defect — a mole above my right eye that screamed ‘everyone, please keep away.’ But now I just write seemingly unending LinkedIn summaries to handle that for me.

I think you get the point.

What you choose to write should have contextual relevance for the career you’re trying to promote.

Here’s what this rather inconsequential summary does:

• It wastes prime real estate — the first 300 characters — talking about something that won’t get you a job, mildly grosses people out, and has little-to-no information about your work experience, career or expertise.
• It also says that you don’t really know how to use the platform, which can work against you in several ways.

This kind of chance-taker *might* endear you to a specific audience, let’s say, if you’re a novelist or stand-up comic… but more likely than not, it will cause your reader to nod off, click away and wonder what your mole has to do with being a coder.

Think about the “About” section as an opportunity to substantiate why you’re the person for the job, any job, with present day jargon and relevant nuggets about your work experience. You don’t have much time or space, so better make the most of it.

Telling the greatest possible story in the shortest amount of words possible.

That’s your goal in life… and LinkedIn.

4. Don’t talk about yourself in the third person.

Carl Spackler is a detailed-oriented groundskeeper at Bushwood Country Club, who stays dedicated to manicuring the greens and believes in making true one-on-one connections with the people he speaks to. Not only does he specialize in the art of intimate portrayals, but in his spare time, he also prevents gophers from disrupting the golf games of people in plaid pants.

You’ve seen it, you may’ve even done it: Referring to yourself in the third-person. It’s a common method people use to write their bios and when they want to seem more professional. Here’s the thing: Everyone knows you wrote your LinkedIn summary.

Even if you hire a professional, it should appear that you did.

So spare them any confusion by referring to yourself as some third-party entity. It sounds strange, has a hint of ego, and also works against the one thing you’re trying to do in your summary section: Make a meaningful and memorable human connection.