We’ve covered why you should have a LinkedIn summary. Now lets look at how to craft an outstanding LinkedIn summary.
The technique that I used on my profile is based on one used by advertisers and is known as A.I.D.A.
It is a 4-step process and is broken down as follows:
Step 1: Get Attention
Step 2 – Capture Interest
Step 3 – Create Desire
Step 4 – A call to Action
Step 1 – Get Attention
The first line or lines should grab the readers attention and get them wanting to read more. If you’re looking for work, then then product that you’re advertising is you, and what most employers want in terms of employees is one or more of the following. Someone who can:
- increase revenue through increased sales or reducing costs
- increase efficiency through new or improved processes
- solve a specific problem
- help the company become more competitive
- build relationships, both internally and externally
- build the company image
- attract new stakeholders such as employees or customers and/or retain the existing ones
Take a look at the types of jobs that you are applying for. What are they looking for in the person for the role and what need/s does the people fulfil, what problem do they need solving? Once you understand what their need is, then you can look at what skills and achievements you have that meet those needs. Then you can craft an attention grabbing first line.
Step 2 – Capture your readers Interest
You’ve used the top line/s to grab the readers attention, now lets draw them in. Talk about your key accomplishments in terms of the job you want. For example, if you are moving from one industry to another, what skills do you have that are transferable? What skills are you using in one role, that could be applied in a different way.
Step 3 – Create a Desire to hire you
You’ve grabbed the persons attention and shown what some of your accomplishments are. Now go back to those needs and explain or demonstrate to the reader how you can help THEIR business or organisation. What can you do for them? Why you would be better than the next candidate?
Step 4 – Call to action
All adverts are about getting you to buy something. On LinkedIn, you want one of two things:
- someone to connect with you
- someone to contact you
In both cases, these are openings for dialogue. Get talking and turn online networking into off-line, real-world talking.
*Tip*
If you try and copy and paste bullets on LinkedIn, most won’t actually work.
On my profile, there are a number of different symbols that I have used. If you would like to use any of them, simply copy and paste them. I have pasted the below as plain text.
• ★ ✔ ☛ ► ☎ ✉
Now, I have deliberately not included examples, but some really great examples can been seen via this link. Have a look at each profile summary and see how they have each used AIDA in different ways, but still kept to the same basic structure. Try it out and let me know how you get on.
If you found this blog post ” How to craft an outstanding LinkedIn summary” helpful, then please let me know, and if you feel you would benefit from some help with your LinkedIn profile, then consider getting a full, systematic review of your profile or some one to one training and support.