Is your Linkedin Profile letting you down? In these series of branding tips I will show you how to revamp your linked-in profile to fast-charge your profile!
My love affair with Linkedin is nearly 2 decades old, My start was modest but over the years, and across a couple of tipping point initiatives, I have grown my network to over 6000 followers and 13000+ connects. And I believe that the best is yet to come!
These notes will explore how you can leap across these two decades of learning and gain the benefits of professional networking that Linkedin offers.
Of course, a key pre-requisite to professional networking is a professional profile. This is created via a number of elements on your linkedin profile page – from the masthead banner to the photoshoot, the headline, the summary and the profile content.
In this post and its supporting video log on my youtube channel (xltvInspires)- I am focusing on the Linkedin Headlines.
Linkedin Headline is a key part of your profile as it captures your profile essence in a line! Typically it defaults to your current designation/ company- but you can customize it. Unfortunately, many few chose to do so – and end up with an under-optimized profile. Take a look at these headlines I took out of linkedin!
Can you see the difference in the impact across these headlines?
The extreme end headlines are the standard designation-company headlines! But this side you have unique headlines that are building a brand personality – and highlight skills and achievements. If you take my linked in profile, you will also observe the conversation starters ( blogger-runner-memory athlete)!
So let me start by sharing 4 tips for creating winning headlines.
The fact is that a pure title headline is passé.
Now, It is quite standard to evolve your title with appropriate descriptors of your function, your specialties, your personal branding, as it were.
Do remember that you make your headline for humans – and for the LinkedIn Algorithm – the computer!
So you must build appropriate keywords to improve your ranking in the Linkedin Search!
And you HAVE to build up your headline to improve your impact on your target audience when they are presented your profile in the search!
How do you create winning headlines?
Here are 3 tricks to create mind-blowing headlines!
Trick 1 is to populate your headline with
Role | Skill / Achievement | Convo Starter ( or conversation starter)
You can flip it to have your achievement first/ then role / then a convo starter
(this is as shared in my linkedin headline above).
You will note that I have qualified my role with an adjective, viz, I am an ‘Accomplished Government Affairs/ Marketing Professional” – and yes, if you are building your linkedin brand then you should follow that as a practice –
Adjective SKILL / adjective SKILL for 2-3 skills!
Subscribe to my youtube channel – drop me a mail at aggarwal.ashwini@gmail.com with subject header : Dr.Ashwini’s Linkedin headline notes – and I will share is a Tip Sheet for Headline Generation & other tricks!
Trick 2 that I would like to share is to maximize the usage of the linkedin headline space,
Desktop browser version of linked in will give you 120 characters. However, you can expand it to 140 characters with the mobile version of Linkedin!
And you should use this headline real-estate to plug all relevant keywords in the headline! This will help the linkedin algorithm rank your profile better for your target audience!
The best way to do this is to prepare your headline text and bullets – then put it into the desktop version. The last text elements can be added via the mobile Linkedin application!.
Do remember that most people who browse your profile may not go beyond your headline – so you should maximize your impact here!
This brings us to trick 3.
You can create an impact headline by adding bullets and formatting your text.
Unfortunately, Linkedin does not give the capability to format text or add bullets. So how did I get the impressive headline in the example above?
You can add the bullets from Unicode characters – just copy (ctrl-C) the bullet you want from my notes page and paste the bullet (Ctrl-V) in the headline!. These notes/ tip sheets can be shared as per process described above in red fonts.
You will find my notes with some of the best Unicode bullets for your headline – as well as a rich bullet library URL for your use here..
And- you can add formatted Unicode text using the instructions and the Unicode text generator shared in the above notes.,
Finally, some caveats. You should avoid sounding desperate, look tacky or be boring.
You should also avoid overuse of keywords. Remember- you are communicating to humans – and to the linkedin algorithm. Overuse and abuse of keywords can penalize your search rankings!
Similarly, overuse of bullets and text formatting will lower your impact. The humans will see a tastelessly gilded site – and Linkedin will see lesser searchable headline space. Do remember that the Unicode character symbols are not searchable – so you have to strike a responsible balance between impact and searchable headline space!
Link to the summary deck for these tips is shared in the Winning Linkedin Headlines-vB.. And, as a bonus tip, I can tell you that you can use these Unicode bullets in your YouTube titles as well. There are studies that maintain that this improves the YouTube views. That may be debated – but the fact is that the title does standout from the crowd -and that is what branding is all about.
Hope you liked the tips -tricks and traps shared here –I will cover the linkedin masthead and summary in future videos. So- for future post alerts – do subscribe to my blog below. I also recommend that you subscribe my YouTube channel by pressing the SUBSCRIBE button below the above video – and select the bell icon to get future alerts!
Incidental notes for reference:
1. Please note that no headline is bad or perfect. It all depends on you and your target audience. For example, experts recommend that I should not include PhD, FIETE in the Linkedin intro. However, it has not impeded my search ranking and I find that I am normally in the top 1-2 rankings anyway. Also – I could replace my designation/company with a more industry specific expertise ( Strategic Experience in Semiconductors, Display, Energy and AI sectors). However, the nature of my position in the companies mentioned says it all and is an achievement in itself. Finally, I am not an active job seeker – I am more keen on positioning my personal brand – and shape a personality statement – so my convo sparker is “Blogger-Runner-Memory Athlete” instead of a corporate statement.
2. Irrespective of these personal vagaries, many people have commented on my linkedin profile as being vibrant and impressive. Fact is, my love affair with linkedin started in mid 2007 when I read the book ” web 2.0″. I was already acquainted with Linkedin as a networking site -but I cultivated my presence carefully after that and the connects grew to 1500+. The next big leap came in mid 2016 as I reviewed my social media strategy and decided to build my personal brand a little more carefully. Despite selective additions, I have got more than 13000 connections in my network now. Can it be more? Sure – but that is not my end-goal – for me this strategy has paid off well professionally and personally.
