How And Why To Craft A Strong Linkedin Summary

ARTICLE

Many people still wonder why they should invest their time and effort in the creation of a killer LinkedIn profile or fix a broken one to attract recruiters.

To put it simply, because we live in an era where our real and online life have come to converge.

This makes our social media presence a very significant component of the job search that can either make or break our career.

That aside, research has shown that more than 60% of top recruiters are more engaged with LinkedIn recruiting tools than average recruiters.

It would be a pity not to use such a low-effort, high-impact item, such as your LinkedIn profile that is nothing close to the tedious networking or email marketing campaigns. You only need to do it right just once and then sit back and enjoy incoming calls and emails from recruiters.

How to craft a LinkedIn profile that actually works? It is all in the details, so you won’t be reading the standard “Mind your profile picture, keywords and headings” type of guides rather than key points to make the difference in the digital world.

Step #1. Clear up your Social Media Profiles

There is no doubt that interviewers and recruiters will Google your name and see what they will come up with. If they find something that seems or feels unprofessional or inappropriate, chances are you won’t make it to the second phase of the recruiting process.

Before you do anything else, first make sure what is out there under your name is what you would want a recruiter to know about you. Google yourself and see what pops up. How do you feel about it?

To ensure your online presence is a shiny example of a top talent a recruiter would die to have, clear things up. Go to your Facebook profile’s Privacy Settings and make your profile inaccessible by search engines.

Only allow friends to be able to look you up using your cell number or email. Also, you could only allow friends to follow you on Twitter. The same applies to other social media accounts you may have (i.e. Instagram or Google+), particularly those that involve photo sharing.

Needless to say, if you have posted/published articles about, for example, finance-related issues, you can definitely include a link to your profile and use your full name.

Step #2: Update your LinkedIn Profile

Have a high-quality professional head-shot of yourself taken. Profiles with photos are evidenced to attract more attention from recruiters. Wear business professional attire and look straight at the camera. The background should also be solid so that it doesn’t distract.

Then, if you are applying for jobs that value creativity, such as copywriting, advertising, and social media, it is safe to use a creative headline or post videos of yourself giving a speech. However, if you are not aiming such jobs (say, you are in finance or law), your profile should be more “professional”.

So, disallow your LinkedIn connections from knowing that you are tweaking your profile. Go to your profile page and select “No” where is says “Notify your Network?”. Then, “Privacy Settings” and turn off updates. Being creative online if you are not in the creative industry could

Time to insert your headshot and enter your name and headline (related to your current position or your present unemployed state and types of jobs you are looking for).

Step #3: Customize your Profile URL, and shorten it!

Many LinkedIn users have endless LinkedIn URLs, and it doesn’t look good in a resume.

Click on your profile’s URL under your head-shot and click the “Your public profile URL” that is located on the right of the page. Make sure you change it into something very easy to read.

Step #4: Write your Summary

Your summary should include information about your current role and your most impressive feasts (or your most recent position). Bullet points are also great to use to highlight the most important things about your work experience. However, don’t use more than 5 and try to limit the lines per bullet point (1-2 lines is enough).

Optimizing your summary with your industry keywords is another tip. It’ll help your profile rank higher on LinkedIn.

Complete the profile by entering your work and leadership experience in the appropriate section. This is mainly copy-pasting data from your resume.

Check that you have added languages, certifications, organizations, expertise, education and skills properly while ensuring you have used specific target keywords that finance professional and recruiters usually include in their searches (i.e. credit analysis, valuation, etc.) – you can check job listings on other websites to get a hold of keywords/relevant skills to use.

And, don’t forget to ask for endorsements and recommendations from senior people (i.e. a C-level executive) over time, which adds credibility to your profile, and helps it score rank higher!

Finally, leave your profile as is for a day and go back to fix typos and a final round of edits.

Step #5: Go Visible Again

Once all is set, make your profile visible again to all search engines, as long as it has more than a handful of connections (not good for networking). In any other case, first add friends and colleagues to make It to 500 connections before going visible again.

Also, joining groups is also a must. Many recruiters search for talents in relevant groups.

Spending just half an hour a month to update your LinkedIn profile, you can always be certain that you will always be recruiters’ number one choice!