In part six of my social selling on LinkedIn series, I want to talk about your LinkedIn summary. The LinkedIn summary is arguably the most important, part of your profile because it is the most read. Sadly, it is also a part that many people choose to ignore. If you recognize yourself in that statement don’t worry! We’re going to fix that.
But first! If you haven’t read the five previous posts in this series covering social selling on LinkedIn, using LinkedIn as a sales tool, optimizing your LinkedIn profile picture, why you should customize your LinkedIn URL and LinkedIn headline tips you should definitely go back and read those first.
They lay the groundwork for your social selling strategy, how you should be thinking about LinkedIn in general, and some minor (but effective) changes you’ll need to make to your LinkedIn profile that will make you easier to find, and will help optimize your profile for organic search on Google.
What is an Ideal LinkedIn Summary?
The truth is, after looking at your photo and your headline the most read part of your LinkedIn profile by prospects, potential clients or customers is the LinkedIn summary section.
The problem is that most people leave this blank, or write this with a recruiter in mind. But not me, and not you! We think like our prospects.
Our prospect is asking themselves, what’s in it for me? Why should I care if you crushed your plan three years in a row? Or that you excel at cold calling and lead generation? None of these things help me… The prospect.
The ideal LinkedIn summary is a first person account demonstrating expertise not accomplishments. It is carefully crafted to attract your prospect, it sets you apart from your competition, and it plants a seed of trust and confidence that is needed to turn your prospect into your customer.
Add Keywords to Your LinkedIn Summary
Start by identifying ten to fifteen LinkedIn profiles of prospects or people that you’ve already worked with, or are hoping to work with, and as you’re reviewing their profiles, look at the keywords that they include in their LinkedIn summary.
Look at the skills that they’re endorsed for because these are the keywords that are important to your prospects, potential clients and future customers. Think about how you can work these keywords into your summary. Weave the skills and expertise section of your prospect’s LinkedIn profiles into your LinkedIn summary.
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Next, add a value statement. But remember to think from your prospect’s point of view, what’s in it for them, how can you add value, how have you added value to people just like them in the past.
Then think about the keywords you have identified and use them liberally throughout.
Demonstrate Expertise in Your LinkedIn Summary
Next up, show off your expertise. Add your specialties. What do you do well? What skills do you have that will be helpful to your prospect? How can you solve their problems or answer their questions?
Again, think about your identified keywords and use them verbatim. Think of your prospect and use the keywords that they used on their LinkedIn profile directly as almost a bar of search engine optimized words.
Add a CTA (Call to Action) to Your LinkedIn Summary
Finally, add a call to action. Remember that your first degree connections have access to your phone number, your email, your address. But many of the prospects that you deal with are, in fact, second and third degree connections, having found you through organic search.
They don’t have access to this information. So take a moment and add a call to action to your LinkedIn summary with your phone number, your email, or any other tool that drives them back to you.
Your LinkedIn Summary Bottom Line
The bottom line is it takes some time and effort to craft a LinkedIn summary that converts, but, it is well worth the effort if you’re using LinkedIn as a sales tool! Watch for upcoming posts where I’ll outline more steps I take, and that you should take to optimize your Linkedin profile and the specific actions you should be taking on a daily basis to implement a solid social selling strategy and really start using LinkedIn effectively!
What do you think? Leave a comment below and discuss via Twitter and Facebook. And If you found this post informative or helpful, I would appreciate it if you would share it using the icons below.