Whether you like it or not, LinkedIn is the place to be for most professionals. It’s more than your online resume: anyone wanting to confirm your experience will check you out on LinkedIn. If someone searches for you on Google, a link to your LinkedIn profile may appear. Even if you spend more time on other social media platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, your LinkedIn profile is important.

That means your Summary needs to shine. It may be the toughest part of your profile to write. Everything else is dates and skill and accomplishments. But this, this needs to catch the reader’s eye right away.

To make it worse, a reader will only see the first two-and-a-half or three lines of your Summary, even though you’re allowed 2,000 characters–a full page. And you’ve probably slaved over that page, too. No pressure, right?

Where do you start? What do you do first? How do you write a killer LinkedIn Summary? The steps below will get you off to a good start

While writing a LinkedIn Summary can be challenging, spend some time on the first three steps. Once you’ve completed them, the rest will flow more easily.

The Hard Part: Who’s Your Audience?

1. Decide what you want your Summary to do. Do you want a new job? More customers? A stronger network? Making this decision will help you create a clear message. Yes, you can do more than one thing at a time but choosing one will make your job simpler.
2. Determine who you need to reach. This is the audience you’ll be writing for and it’s important you know exactly who they are. If you’re looking for a job, you’ll want to attract recruiters and hiring managers in your field. ILooking for more customers? Then corporate decision makers in your industry are probably your target. If you want to expand your LinkedIn network, then you want to attract colleagues.
3. Why would someone look for you? What problems would they ask you to solve? (This is not the same as “what I can do for you.”) Make a list. Dig deep on this one. Sure, a hiring manager may be looking for a Senior UX Designer. But the real problem is her top designer quit right in the middle of the biggest project of the year. Deadlines are tight and she needs someone who can ramp up quickly. Your ability to learn quickly and work productively under pressure is probably more important to her right now than anything else.  

The Not-So-Hard Part: Write Your LinkedIn Summary

1. Write a very short lead that will appear “top of the fold” on your LinkedIn Profile page. Summarize why you’re the right choice. Include contact information so the reader doesn’t need to click to find it. (They may not know where to look. Besides, LinkedIn has a habit of changing their user interface without warning.) Keep it very short－175-200 characters, not counting your contact info. Why? Because that’s what a reader will see without having to click “more” to read your entire summary.
2. Write the rest of your content, ending with a call to action. Keep it short, solution-focused and compelling. If you need help, see my blog post “How to Create a Powerful Message.”
3. Ask friends and colleagues to review and give you feedback. Polish, polish, polish. Edit your text carefully. If you’re not good at editing, have someone else do it. DO NOT RELY ON GRAMMAR AND SPELL-CHECKERS!!!!!! Seriously, if you screw up here you blow your credibility. Don’t be that guy. Or girl.

Tips

• Create a draft in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. That way you can keep several versions around and play with them to your heart’s content.
• Before you post your final Summary on LinkedIn, turn off Notify Your  Network. (Check LinkedIn Help for information on how to do this.) Turn it back on when you’re all done and ready to publish to the world.

Need more help with a LinkedIn Summary? I know some excellent professionals who would be delighted to speak with you. Contact me to get the information.