Your LinkedIn Profile’s Best Kept Secret: How to Optimize Your About Section Summary

Guess which part of your LinkedIn profile is underutilized or, worse yet, misused?

It’s the ABOUT section.

This used to be referred to as your SUMMARY or BIO section.

Most Common Mistake

From a B2B marketing perspective, the biggest and most common mistake I see is that people use their ABOUT section to talk about themselves.

Boring!

Contrary to the name “About,” this section is not about YOU.

In the B2B space, if you are building your brand and growing your business remember, your LinkedIn profile is not your resume.

The ABOUT section should never be written in the third person. Nor should it be a regurgitation of your CV or a bulleted list of your skills/ accomplishments.

The ABOUT section is actually about your audience - the person who is reading your profile.

The purpose of the ABOUT section is to figure out what you can do to spark curiosity.What you say can compel someone to click “see more...” to read the entire entry. The first three lines of your ABOUT section are like the subject line of an email.

What’s your hook? Does it motivate the reader to want to click ‘...READ MORE”?

pro-tip-first 3 lines

Why Does it Matter?

A recent LinkedIn poll by Deanna Russo asked the question: "What do you look at first when you check out a prospective connection’s profile here on LinkedIn?"

The poll attracted 441 votes - pretty decent by LinkedIn standards! I found the majority of the 85 comments to be insightful.

As for the results, not surprising to see a quarter of respondents ranking the ABOUT section. If someone has an interest in learning more about you, that's where they will look. Give them some Golden Nuggets!

Tell Me You're An Expert Without Telling Me You're An Expert

Nobody cares for the dude at the party who can only talk about how great they are. They might be amazing, but we cringe when hearing it directly from them.

Likewise, leading with your solution compromises credibility. It's a sleazy sales pitch. What a turn-off!

Your buyer will naturally gravitate towards your specific solution if you can frame the value of your solution’s differentiators as being the only way to fulfill the outcomes needed by their business.

At the end of the ABOUT section, you may add a “call to action” to invite them to have a conversation. No strings attached. And let them know no matter what, you will provide something that can benefit them, like:

Informative content that leads to your solution
Starting with the challenge your target prospect faces
Explaining the pain/problem that you solve
Offering helpful tips and insights
Adding a call-to-action

Before and After

Here are before/after profiles from some of my clients. Pay special note to the ABOUT sections:

victor quaye before after

Elements of a Solution-Filled ABOUT Section

Approach your ABOUT section as if invited to speak at a professional event to an ideal audience of prospective clients. You certainly wouldn’t spend the time talking about yourself. That would be a disaster.

Instead, you do your homework and clearly understand the problems and challenges your audience may experience.

They have a problem (they might not know they have this problem). You have a solution to their problem, but you will turn them off if you lead with that.

Better Informed Buyers are Better Clients!

Your job is to educate them to be better informed “buyers” of your service or product.

What would you talk about that would be of interest to them?
What insights would you share?
What do you want them to learn from your talk?

The answers to these questions are what you should include in your ABOUT section.

Get Aligned

Your ABOUT section is where your messaging needs to align with your prospects’ business challenges. The better grasp you have on this, the better your ability to speak the language that will resonate with your prospect.

Don’t waste this section on a sales pitch, keyword stuffing, regurgitating your resume/ CV, or worse yet leaving it blank. That’s the quickest way to lose the attention of your audience.

Find the Pain

Take the time to gain clarity about your prospect’s pain points. I'm a big fan of Keenan. and he nails here from his best-selling book, GAP SELLING. Highly recommend you grab a copy today! Mine is all marked up and highlighted.

keenan pain

Leading With the Pain

Here’s an example. My client owns a sales marketing agency that works with home decor manufacturers to help them get their merchandise into big-box retail. His ABOUT section leads with the “pain” his target audience faces:

leads with the “pain” his target audience faces

This opening resonates with his prospective audience and they are likely to click “...see more”.

Use the allocated 2,600 characters to show your subject matter expertise and whatever you want to be known for by providing the reader with something of value.

Think Differently

Employ a paradigm shift to change how your prospects think about their business in a way that leads back to your unique differentiator.

True differentiators are not:

Features and benefits common in your market
Vague or overused descriptions
Sales pitches

The key to real insight isn’t a story about your solution at all. It’s a story about your prospect and how they’ve missed something materially important to their business performance. Demonstrate the outcomes that your product generates for them to relieve their pain.

Provide advice, tips, and insights. Do it in a way that comes across to whoever’s reading your ABOUT section, that you’re giving them some useful information. You’re identifying their problem and letting them know you have the solution to relieve their pain.

Don’t Sell. Educate Instead.

Nobody cares for the dude at the party who can only talk about how great they are. They might be amazing, but we cringe when hearing it directly from them.

Likewise, leading with your solution compromises credibility. It's a sleazy sales pitch. What a turn-off!

Informative content that leads to your solution
Starting with the challenge your target prospect faces
Explaining the pain/problem that you solve
Offering helpful tips and insights
Adding a call-to-action

Practice What I Preach

my about section

Once you are able to optimize your ABOUT section, you will be on your way to attracting your ideal clients.

Still Not Sure What to Say

Writing a LinkedIn summary for your ABOUT sections is incredibly difficult for business owners, salespeople, marketers, and other professionals whose work relies on networking. You're not targeting recruiters and hiring managers; you want to appeal to potential buyers and clients.

You must come across as a subject matter expert and make your reader curious enough to want to engage with you.

Here are my go-to resources when I write profiles for my clients.

Exactly What to Say by Phil M Jones , CSP - CPAE

Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss

The Storyteller's Secret by Carmine Gallo

Here are my go-to resources when I write profiles for my clients.

Key Takeaways

Use the full 2,600-character allotment wisely
Make it easy to read by paragraph breaks - test it on mobile
Make sure you address your reader using “you, you’re, we,” not “I, me, my.”
Add section headings to help the reader scan easy
Add some spice with emojis, bullets, and special characters (NOTE - special characters use up more spaces than they appear)
Include a call to action at the end
Share your upgraded profile here in the comments once you're ready to go Prime-Time!

Over to you!

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Parts of this article are excerpted from the book Elevate Expand Engage - pages 31 - 37. This article was first published in a similar form on LinkedIn in The LinkedIn B2B Minute Newsletter

ABOUT JUDI RADICE HAYS

Judi Radice Hays is a sought-after certified LinkedIn strategist, author of 'Elevate, Expand, Engage,' a Refreshingly Different Approach to Winning on LinkedIn’ and regular Forbes contributor.

Judi is known for successfully turning underperforming LinkedIn profiles into prospect-attracting powerhouses. Judi helps business executives identify their audience, elevate their LinkedIn profile and personal brand.

Judi consults with businesses that sell high-ticket professional services in high-trust selling environments. Through her proprietary methods, Judi guides her clients strategy to build authority, credibility, and trust which ultimately leads to increased revenue with her expertise.