Right under your name, does your LinkedIn profile headline look like this…
- CEO & Founder at XYZ and Associates?
- Business Owner at ABC Consulting?
- Speaker at YourName.com?
3 Reasons Why Your Profile Should Not Be the Same as Your Position
1) Think of your headline as your first sales pitch to people who want to connect with you. If I am unfamiliar with you or your company, how does mentioning your company name and your position show me what you do and why I need to connect with you? It doesn’t! These headlines are too general, simple and straight forward. They are too vague and too broad. In order for your headline to be effective, it needs to grab my attention. It needs to make me want to read the rest of your profile. As a potential client or potential referral source, I need to see right away how you can help me or my clients.
2) When I am invited to connect with someone, I view their profile before I choose to accept. The first thing that I look at is their headline to see if there is any possible synergy between the person who wants to connect with me and my business. By doing this I can see if it is worth my time and energy to view the rest of their profile. Make your headline enticing so I will want to read your profile and connect with you.
3) If someone is going through people search or through the groups to see who they should connect with, they are looking at hundred to thousands of opportunities. You need to make your business stand out to entice others to want to click on your name to read your profile and learn more about you.
Now that you know that you need to drastically improve your LinkedIn profile headline in order to attract more clients, the question is, how do you fix it?
4 Questions You Must Ask Yourself When Creating Your LinkedIn Profile Headline
1) What can you say in your headline that will give your instant credibility?
One of the easiest ways to gain that instant credibility is to use any media attention. For example, I was recently called a “Social Media Expert” by the New York Times. Look how I use this media mention in my new LinkedIn profile headline to give me instant credibility:
“Read my profile now and discover LinkedIn secrets from the woman the New York Times called a social media expert”.
2) Does your LinkedIn profile headline command action?
The best way to get someone to read your profile further is to tell them to do so. Just look at my example above. Notice I’m giving you a call-to-action. By stating read, view or learn more by reading my profile, you are instructing the reader to do so. And, guess what – chances are they’ll listen. You just have to tell your prospects what to do – and why they need to take the action.
3) Does your LinkedIn profile headline show why you are different?
Go to people search on LinkedIn and type in your career description. Look at how many people match your description. For example, when I type in “internet marketing consultant” into people search it gives me 139,041 results. The phrase “life coach” gives me 83,847 results. The phrase “business coach returns” 224,274 results. In your headline if you show how and why you are unique chances are your prospects will explore your business further than that of your competition.
For example Article Marketing Experts Eric Gruber’s profile headline was: See how we can get you published on websites like About.com – instead of just article directories like our competition.
4) Does your LinkedIn profile headline show a benefit to the reader?
By implying there is an advantage to your reader by viewing your profile you are telling them that there is a benefit of using your products or services. The reader needs a reason to accept a connection with you. By giving them a benefit you are instilling confidence in your business. For example:
- Help My Website Sell Founder Adam Hommey’s headline is: Top internet marketing consultant and expert webmaster reveals how to make your website sell more products and services
- The Global Institute of Visionary Executives Founder Carrie Jacobs has this as her headline: Read my profile and learn from a champion visionary executive coach how you can profit from your own brand of success
Just by fixing your LinkedIn profile headline, you will begin to attract more prospects and referral sources. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, in my free special report, I reveal 14 mistakes that most internet marketers and small business owners make – and the opportunities they are missing. I invite you to get this free report at http://www.GetLinkedInHelp.com
About the Author: LinkedIn Expert Kristina Jaramillo creates online marketplace opportunities for small business owners who want more website traffic, prospects and profits. Now, with her free special report, you can uncover how you can become “the trusted source for your industry on LinkedIn” and along with easy ways to gain more connections fast by avoiding the top 14 mistakes. Get this information for free at: http://www.GetLinkedInHelp.com
Do you think these tips and advice from my guest author, Kristina are helpful? Please leave your comments below; share how you use Linkedin in your business and share any questions you would like to ask Kristina or myself —-
Outstanding LinkedIn profile headline tips, Kristina!
Thank you, Lynn, for having Kristina as your guest author. And I’m anxious to give her report a read. As of late, I’m shying away from grabbing all the goodies that come down the pike. However, I’m someone who’s not been putting LinkedIn to good use so Kristina’s report may prove to be very helpful.
Three cheers for this post!
Thank you so much Melanie I appreciate the cheers! and I am sure Kristina
will be very happy to hear that her Linkedin expertise is helpful. I
totally understand about getting so many ‘this and that’ coming to us every
day. There has to be a limit or we would get gobbled up by it all! So glad
you stopped by and shared your thoughts.
Thanks for these great tips Kristina. Your focus on the LinkedIn Headline was warranted as it is such an important part of one’s profile. Like you say, many people never get past the headline to see the meat of the profile. It’s like I tell people, “You only have one chance to make a first impression. Take advantage of it!”
I wanted to thank you Brad for stopping by and offering your expert advice
as I know you too, as Kristina, have so much knowledge with Linkedin. The
more we all can share and learn about this social platform, I believe is a
huge benefit to us all.
How interestingly sneaky! =) I like the idea of using commands in my LinkedIn profile description. It’s funny how we can subtly sway people to do what we want. I just came back from a neuroscience conference and learned that we can get people to choose a specific number on a number line, without them knowing, based on where we put our hands between the visual 0 and 10. Devious but amazing! =)
Sneaky I think in a good way. It seems it is human nature to want
direction, to be led or told what to do. I am interested in what you
learned Samantha, that is interesting and amazing as well! Thank you for
stopping in and sharing your thoughts.
I am guilty. As are most people, because if you joined LinkedIn years ago (as I did) that was the only option. And, like most of my clients, I have made no changes to the listing.
Thanks for OPENING MY EYES. Great post.
Thanks Roy for offering your thoughts .. and appreciate you confessing but I
have to admit that I too did not have a clue when I set up my Linkedin
account many years ago. Just in the past several months I learned how
important ‘proper’ profiles are to all our social sites. So never too late
and I believe I found a ‘gold nugget’ with Kristina, because she is
certainly an expert when it comes to Linkedin.
Very succinct. Makes one really think. Thank you. I will revisit my profile and look at it with your article alongside.
Glad you stopped by Roberta. Kristina really knows Linkedin and her tips
are always clear and to the point. Good to hear this is something you could
use when you revisit your profile.
Thanks for posting this helpful article, Lynn. Most people don’t know that you can change that headline to promote your brand.
Thanks for posting this helpful article, Lynn. Most people don’t know that you can change that headline to promote your brand.
So glad you found Kristina’s tips helpful. It really is just the little
things that can make a big difference. Thanks for stopping by Jeannette,
always appreciate your thoughts.
Hey Kristina,
Thanks for such a useful post. I keep reading about these keys to LinkedIn success which are filled with a load of not so successful tips. But your post highlights the basic point – the headline. I didn’t realise it till now, but I look at that headline FIRST while connecting with someone! Thanks again!