If you’ve been following along, you now have an inviting LinkedIn photo, a keyword-rich Headine and an Experience section that highlights your most relevant and valuable accomplishments.
Now, in Part IV, I’m going to take you step-by-step through how to put together a stand-out About section.
Are you ready? Let’s do this.
The About section of your LinkedIn profile provides a maximum of 2,000 characters to define yourself, your successes and your unique value. This is your chance to show you’re a valuable professional with a unique story and life-shaping experiences to share.
The About section is one of the most under-utilized sections of LinkedIn. So many people just bag their own About section. They’re not really sure what to put there - what the “rules” are, so they skip it all together.
I’m telling you, this is one of the most useful sections on LinkedIn! First of all, the LinkedIn algorithm loves it because it’s a place where you can pack in a lot of keywords. The algorithm picks up these words and tries to put your profile in front of recruiters and tries to help you connect with others in your field or those who may have similar interests.
The About section is also where you get to show off your personality. The About section should be written 1st person. So instead of me saying, “Lee Koles does this or that, it would say “I do this or that”. This makes it so that when someone reads your About section, it feels as if you’re talking directly to that person. This is the place where you can help people get to know you - your personality and your unique achievements.
The first step in writing your About section is: Kick it off with an attention-grabbing opening.
When someone scrolls down to your About section, only the first couple lines of text are immediately visible, so begin strong so you can grab their attention. Begin with a statement about what drives you in your work. Then, to really draw people in, connect that statement to a short story describing what motivated to you go into that field or something that you experienced in that field. Choose a story and words that reveal your character and weave in references to your favorite personal traits.
When I say story, I’m not talking about a novel or a term paper - I mean a maximum of 3 sentences. People have short attention spans, so just give people the short, sweet version of what drives you and why.
Again, you’re writing in the first person with a friendly and approachable tone.
The next step is to explain what sets you apart.
Share the problems you solve.
Describe the people and/or organizations you help.
Highlight your successes.
Use your Experience to help you with this. You can take your 5 favorite accomplishment bullets from your Experience section and paste them right into your About section.
Cite the biggest takeaways from your Experience section.
Look across your past roles and combine your accomplishments.
Note the important moments in your job history.
Include numbers (aka proof) to quantify your achievements.
Next, include a Specialties, Expertise or Skills section. This is where you’ll list your specialties/expertise/skills in bullet form. Make sure that the skills you list are skills that are listed in the job descriptions of jobs you’d like to have. Include key words and phrases - the LinkedIn algorithm will love this and this will help recruiters - who are searching for people with certain skills - find you.
The next step is to look over what you’ve written - your mini-narrative with the description of yourself, your top experiences and your Specialty/expertise/skills section and make sure that you’ve included key words and phrases. These should be keywords/phrases from organizations and job positions that interest you.
Finally, end your About section with a call to action. A call to action can mean that you ask people to contact you or connect with you. You can say, “reach out to me at (your email address)” or “connect with me on LinkedIn.”
So you’ve written up your About section - I’m going to give you some tips on how to make it inviting to readers.
First, break up your text to make it reader-friendly. Make sure there’s plenty of white space. Keep your paragraphs no longer than 2-3 sentences. Think about it - so many people will be checking out your profile on their phones, so you don’t want to have big chunks of text - people will stop reading.
Add bulleted lists. This will keep it gentle on the eyes and hold the interest of the reader. Another thing you can do is use headings to break up text.
And there you have it!
Your About section is complete!
This brings us to the end of the LinkedIn Profile Workshop! I hope you’ve enjoyed it - found it useful and had all your questions answered. You have all the information you need to be seen and appreciated on LinkedIn.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to me with a connection request - It’s fun to meet and learn about you.
Until we get together next week, take good care and know that I’m cheering you on!