LinkedIn gives you 2000 characters to write your summary! That is great. Don’t let the word ‘summary’ fool you, this place can be utilised much better than by literally summarising your profile. As I said before: “Never use your LinkedIn Summary to ehm … summarise“.
LinkedIn underwent a major overhaul early 2017, this affected how your summary displays big time! Out of those 2000 brilliantly worded characters people get to see either: about 200-230 or as little as 60 characters.
BEWARE EXTREME LOW VISIBILITY
Your LinkedIn Summary is easily overlooked. Two lines of text. You’ll need to find a way to interest readers to click to see more. It gets even worse on mobile, only about 60 characters displaying.
Beware of missing spaces! Notice something strange in the image to the left, thanks Sarah Haïlé-Fida for letting me use your profile. What is a STORYAs? That is when you add a ‘return’ to go the the next line and LinkedIn kindly removes it to display more of your summary!
HOW TO FIX MY ☆ STORYAs
Is your first line shorter than what’ll be displayed? Maybe you started with a heading or short statement? In that case start the second line with a hyphen and a space. In the full profile it is still the next line. In the preview it looks like this: ☆ MY STORY – As a manager. Just a tad easier on the eye.
HOW TO EDIT YOUR LINKEDIN SUMMARY
- Click your pretty little face top right
- Scroll down to summary (add one if needed)
- Click the pencil
- Write a brilliant, catchy, enthralling first line
- Click save
For more help on brilliantly compelling summaries, read this clever little piece I wrote some years ago.
Still pretty darn useful if I say so myself.
LInked Headline: “Customer Focused, Result Oriented Technology Leader loves his work and is passionate about helping businesses”
Summary: “Result Oriented technology industry leader, pioneering and managing complex IT solution designs including cloud-based ERP (LN), Dynamics CRM, Siemens Teamcenter, Nintex – Sharepoint based WF system & other business applications. Leverage fourteen years of requirements and applications solutions providing expertise to drive business development and retention to customer-focused success.
• Provide leadership vision enterprise-wide via decisive and insightful executive leadership, guiding daily ERP operations and SOX implementation through strategic thinking and decision-making.
• Known for seamlessly coordinating and collaborating with internal organizations and third-party vendors/partners.
• Build, grow and lead high-performance teams to manage, implement and streamline complex IT designs.
• Foster global team collaboration using relationship building and communications improvement.
• Spearhead project delivery within tight time frames, using cutting-edge and state-of-art technology.
CORE COMPETENCIES:
Management: Strategic Planning and Management • Requirement Analysis • Resource Utilization – Global team • Delivery • Organizational Improvisation • Business Consulting • Alignment with Business Demands • Vendor Management
IT Solutions: Baan ERP/ ERP LN• CRM• QMS• T&A• XM Application• Teamcenter• Workflows• Cloud Computing • DR Solutions
Security: Security Controls • Risk Assessments and Mitigation.
Experience in Managing IT applications, Databases, Consulting and Analytic domain with good exposure in Supply Chain Process, Vendor Management, Manufacturing, planning in pharma and manufacturing industries.
Inventory Optimization, Demand Planning, and Data analytic, Sales & Operations Planning.
11 end to end ERP implementations in Baan4, Baan5 and LN 10.3 and LN.4.2 on cloud (SaaS based) and managed 6 out of them as a project manager
Cross platform Migration of ERP that resulted in significant cost savings.
3 MS Dynamics CRM Implementations.
I just updated mine too, And it looks much more sharp and to the point. Thanks Petra!
Nice one Sascha! For those who are curious, check it out: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saschafogel/
Here’s my first 2 lines of my summary. I’m still not in love with it.
“I love to help small to medium size businesses and, in particular, lawyers and the legal profession, who are struggling with feeling overwhelmed from too much work and not enough time. With my legal and admin…”
How about: “Is your legal firm in need of admin support….” Does that feel alright to you? At the moment on mobile it cuts off after “in particular”. Having said that, when I turn my phone to landscape I see the same as on desktop. I doubt people hold their phone in landscape when using LinkedIn app though.
I just updated mine (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniewardfirefly/) and now it makes sense on mobile and desktop. Thank you, Petra!
Just checked on mobile, as that gives the least information. LOVE IT. I would definitely click to read more if I didn’t already know you.
Thanks again, Petra for great advice. I’ve just changed my summary (lot’s of fiddling with dashes and spaces!). Here are the first two lines of my summary (on laptop):
You want your English text to be grammatically perfect and well-written. And that’s precisely what I can help you with! – Language is communication – a means to an end, not an end in itself. My passion for language is actually a p…
Nice cliffhanger! Both on desktop and on mobile it gives enough clear information to let me know if you are what I am looking for.
“Hope beyond the ashes…” Fire is just one of the many disasters that can destroy your business, and the well-being of those you employ. At Fenix Essentials Consulting (FEC) we are dedicated to delivering essential solution
On mobile it only displays: “Hope beyond the ashes…” I am wondering to you offer grief counselling? It doesn’t in any way indicate that you offer a service for businesses 🙁
Great advice 😉
Show us the first two lines of your summary once you’ve implemented this great advice!