5 Tips To Elevating Your LinkedIn Profile Headline To Get Noticed Fast
If your LinkedIn profile headline is defaulted to your current position or basic information LinkedIn pulls in from your profile, this article is for you.
An optimized and strategically constructed profile headline helps recruiters find and connect with you more easily and sets the tone of your brand for your entire profile (along with your banner image and profile picture).
In this article, you’ll find 5 tips to elevate your LinkedIn profile headline to the next level to help land your next job or to get people interested enough to actually want to network with you.
State Your Intentions
Your profile headline defines how people perceive you and your brand. If you are on LinkedIn to get a job, say that in the headline. For example, if you're a university student looking for an internship in marketing this summer, say that! It’s perfectly acceptable to state your career intentions in your headline as it gives readers a way to understand who you are and what you are looking for.
If you're in a full-time role and want to promote your expertise in your industry, listing a few skills or ways you help clients is a great way to communicate your value add to the reader and state what you're offering.
As a career coach, most clients want help with resume writing, interview preparation and LinkedIn profile optimization. As such, those key terms are in my headline so folks can find me easily. Which takes us to my next point, your headline is searchable!
Use Key Terms
Using key terms related to what you do, how you help clients and/or popular buzz words in your specific industry are effective ways to get your profile to populate when employers search for people (headhunting) on LinkedIn. You want the terms to accurately represent you and what you can do, but with relevance to your industry.
For example, perhaps your current job title is “marketing assistant”. Marketing is a very broad field and doesn’t communicate specifically what type of skills you bring to the table.
Instead, try “Google Analytics certified marketing assistant helping clients optimize ad spend strategy to increase customer reach”.
From this example, you learn the marketing assistant is certified in a very popular, industry based platform, they specialize in digital marketing and they help their current clients in a clear goal: using digital ads to get more customers.
That’s a lot of quality and insightful information from just 15 words.
120 Characters or Less: Get Creative
You get 120 characters to tell the world who you are, what you stand for, what you can do, how you help and why someone would be interested in hiring you or networking with you. That is a lot to do in a short amount of space so you have to get concise, simple and creative with it.
When writing your headline, make sure you highlight your unique selling points that make you, YOU! If you’re a student, highlight your value add from internships, school projects or social organizations on campus.
If you’re a young professional, leverage your work accomplishments and show how your success helped your company or organization. Let your work speak for itself. If you did well, brag on yourself a bit! Be humble of course, but be proud of your accomplishments.
Be Authentic
I never write my client’s headline or summary section of their LinkedIn profiles because what I think is important or significant about someone might be completely different to how they see themselves and how they want to position themselves in the market.
From the key terms you choose to the accomplishments you put forward, be authentic and ensure those elements are genuinely how you see yourself. Choose adjectives in a thoughtful and sincere way to describe yourself so the reader can connect with your profile in an honest way that feels “right”.
If you project a sense of authenticity and openness in your profile, readers assume you're that way in real life, which very much plays into a recruiter’s mind when they are assessing candidates for a good fit in roles.
Make it easy for recruiters to get to know you before even meeting you.
Consider Your Market
Do your market research to better understand what folks in your functional area want to know about you and how they want it presented. For example, as a career coach, prospective clients want to know what I specifically help with and the type of people I work with so they can determine if I’m the right coach for their needs both professionally and personally.
Considering your industry and who you’re trying to attract to your profile (recruiters or peers to network with) will help you craft a headline that communicates a targeted message speaking directly and strategically towards your prime demographic.
Parting Words...
You’ve got just 120 characters to battle a limited human attention-span to keep reader’s eyeballs on your profile. Be intentional, tactile and personable in your headline and give enough of yourself to get people interested but not too much so they don’t need to keep reading. Be creative and have fun with it!
Related:
Why LinkedIn Isn’t Working For You: 4 Mistakes You Might Be Making Right Now
To Follow or Connect? Simple Tips To Navigating LinkedIn Networking
Meet The Writer!
Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com
