Do you tell your compelling story in your LinkedIn About section? Be sure to use this section to its full advantage by sharing your story in a meaningful way.

What is the Purpose of an About Section?

Business owners, this section should be a narrative about you in the context of your current business and past career. Job seekers, it should be a narrative about you in the context of the job you seek to land.

In her excellent book, “LinkedIn for Personal Branding: The Ultimate Guide,” Linked consultant Sandra Long advises:

“Try to weave together your story in an exciting way to compel your audience to be motivated to work with you or refer you to someone else.” She also discourages people from using this section to rehash what is in other parts of their profile.

If you haven’t added the About section yet, here’s what you need to do. Click on the Add Section button and click on About. Click on the + sign to the right of the word Summary. Populate this section, ideally by first composing it in a Word document. Update this section by clicking on the pencil icon at the top right corner of the section.

Recommendations for Your About Section

  • Get right to the point. Only the first couple of sentences in your About section will display (unless you click on “see more”). Start with a sentence that will grab the attention of the reader. You have up to 2,600 characters for this section, and you might want it to be much shorter, depending on your audience.
  • Write for your target audience. Go through your About section to see how many times you use the word “I” versus the word “you.” Do your best to create more sentences that have “you” in them than have “I.” Picture your target audience – your potential clients or your potential hiring authorities. Therefore, be sure to write this section with them in mind in terms of how you hope to come across to them.
  • Describe your background. Tell us how you got into your line of work. People love to hear these kinds of stories. Business owners – please don’t make the About section simply a PR piece about your company. We want to hear about YOU in the context of your company.
  • Be clear about the types of people you serve or the type of job you want to get. Share the results you have produced and how you have positively impacted others. For example, here’s a statement from my About section that demonstrates this point. “My clients are primarily baby boomers who have their own business or are job seekers. I help them to be more effective and productive on LinkedIn and Facebook.”
  • Include a testimonial. Testimonials are one of the best ways to validate the quality of your work. Request a testimonial from one of your favorite clients or referral partners or from a former colleague. You don’t have to have a LinkedIn connection with that person to use a testimonial from them. Another alternative is to use an excerpt from one of the best LinkedIn recommendations you have gotten.

To learn more about Sandra Long go to her LinkedIn profile here.

You can order her book here.

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 55 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially LinkedIn and Facebook. She works with business owners, business development professionals, business consultants, job seekers, and more – ranging from entrepreneurs to people in large corporations. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.