The LinkedIn summary: Profile examples

In your LinkedIn profile you are able to present your pro­fes­sion­al ex­pe­ri­ence and spe­cial­ist knowledge to potential clients, customers, and future col­leagues. On the network, your digital business card consists of various areas, which together provide a com­pre­hen­sive overview of your pro­fes­sion­al abilities, and provide insight to your per­son­al­i­ty. Next to a profile picture, résumé, and skills, the so-called “summary” also plays an important part: It provides an in­tro­duc­tion to your LinkedIn profile and an initial op­por­tu­ni­ty to get your profile visitors in­ter­est­ed.

When filling in your LinkedIn profile, your primary concern is to present a complete CV and to emphasize your strengths. This in­for­ma­tion on LinkedIn is presented in a modular way. The opening paragraph, which makes up the summary, is often left for last: Many users don’t complete this bit or don’t use it at all. This doesn’t come as a surprise, as a lot of people find it difficult to write about them­selves. But when it comes to LinkedIn, this step is vital. After glancing at your profile photo, visitors are directly led to your in­tro­duc­tion. The summary has a very prominent place on a profile and should be carefully con­sid­ered.

A summary lets you introduce yourself in your own words. This means that you can dive into your pro­fes­sion­al skills as well as who you are as a person. A LinkedIn summary, then, also provides insight into your per­son­al­i­ty. And using your own words increases the meaning of the text. Because not only is it important what you write, but how you write it.

Com­ple­ment your CV with your summary. For example, explain to your readers why you’ve chosen your career path, what par­tic­u­lar­ly interests you in the field, or what you do in your spare time. In the summary there’s also room to directly address potential employers: Your summary can explain why they should choose you and what your excellent knowledge and skills can bring to a project. In this way, your summary also acts as a cover letter.

You can use around 2,000 char­ac­ters in your summary – and it’s worth making use of them. These are the factors to keep in mind when creating your LinkedIn summary.

• Limited view: When a network user clicks on your profile, only the first few lines of your summary are initially visible. The rest has to be expanded by clicking. That’s why you should try to catch readers’ attention right from the start.
• SEO relevance: LinkedIn looks at whether a summary has suitable keywords to match a search. Try to in­cor­po­rate relevant keywords in your text in the best possible way.
• Personal tone: Your text should be written in the singular form of the first person. The text is about you, and there’s no need to hide that.
• Unique­ness: Make it clear in your text what dif­fer­en­ti­ates you from others in your par­tic­u­lar area of expertise.
• Avoid mistakes: Just like in your cover letters, a LinkedIn summary should not have any spelling or grammar errors. So, take your time when you write it, because mistakes will set you way back.
• For­mat­ting: To make your text easily legible, your summary should be formatted in a reader-friendly way. Para­graphs and lists, for example, will make the in­for­ma­tion more easily di­gestible.
• Audience awareness: It’s important that your summary is written with your readers in mind. Write your text in a way that your industry or target audience can identify with it.
• Avoid phrases: Through­out the ap­pli­ca­tion process, employers and HR staff are con­front­ed with the same phrases and buzzwords. So, it’s best to avoid overused terms. This will pos­i­tive­ly set you apart from your com­pe­ti­tion.
• Think visual: Your summary can be com­ple­ment­ed by in­for­ma­tive pictures, videos, or links to in­ter­est­ing articles. This also makes you profile more visually appealing.

Try to make a positive first im­pres­sion on your readers straight away. Instead of a dry essay about your life, try to awaken interest in profile visitors. If the summary has already made a good im­pres­sion on a reader, this will probably also influence how they judge the rest of your profile. A carefully con­sid­ered summary that’s loosened up with media links and well-written text, will get readers in­ter­est­ed in the person behind the profile.

While it’s tech­ni­cal­ly not a part of the summary, it’s just as important on LinkedIn: the profile slogan. Examples that come across in a positive way include more than just a job title. LinkedIn slogans are also searched for relevant keywords, so it’s worth including suitable keywords here, too. Google will show your profile slogan in its search results. You have exactly 120 char­ac­ters to formulate a concise slogan – including spaces. Try to use this character count to the maximum. Besides your job title, there’s also often enough space in a profile slogan to hint at your areas of expertise.

But stay authentic. And know that not only search engines are reading your text, but also real people. That’s why this space should be ap­pro­pri­ate­ly struc­tured: That’s why, when it comes to LinkedIn profile slogan examples, we recommend using the vertical bar known as a “pipe” to break up the content. Besides pipes, dashes also work very well to make your slogan design more concise.

In the following, we will present some examples of what con­vinc­ing profile summaries look like, which you can use as in­spi­ra­tion. But don’t just copy the texts. A LinkedIn summary should let your per­son­al­i­ty come through and that’s only possible if you create it yourself.

We’ll introduce three examples to you, in which the tone ranges from “very casual” to “factual and serious.” Beyond this, we’ll show you some LinkedIn profile slogan examples, so that you can create a com­pre­hen­sive LinkedIn profile.

The first example stands out for its ap­proach­able tone. It’s written with wit and tells us something about the author’s character as well as her ca­pa­bil­i­ties. At the same time, it includes industry-specific keywords in the summary and in the slogan. This will lead potential employers using the search function straight to this profile. If someone types in a search for a game designer, who knows their way around the Unity engine and Android pro­gram­ming, this LinkedIn profile should appear right on top.

The above example of a LinkedIn summary stands out mainly for the passion with which the short text is written. The honesty of this author makes her seem ap­proach­able and matches well with her pro­fes­sion­al back­ground. The profile slogan combines a personal touch with important keywords.

This example of a LinkedIn summary suits its work en­vi­ron­ment due to its factual tone and its struc­tured layout. The profile slogan high­lights the most important points (job title and spe­cial­iza­tion), and the summary goes into various skills and groups them. Here, too, keywords are well placed.