Remember when uploading your resume to LinkedIn and asking colleagues to rate your skills was enough? Today, a sales or marketing team member’s LinkedIn bio needs to shine to stand out and impress prospects in the social arena. To help you take your LinkedIn page to the next level, we’ve compiled some of our favorite LinkedIn profile summary examples in this post.
With the perfect LinkedIn About section ready to introduce you to potential customers and partners, you can significantly boost your lead generation and conversion results. Although most LinkedIn profiles fail to captivate their intended audience, a few trailblazers are showing us the way.
Read on to find out what a great LinkedIn summary entails, why it’s essential to your success, and how to craft yours like a pro.
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A LinkedIn profile summary is simply the bio or About section you see at the top of a LinkedIn profile. It typically comprises a few sentences or paragraphs introducing the LinkedIn user before you dive into the nitty gritty of their employment history and education.
When visiting a LinkedIn profile, you’ll usually only see the first lines of the person’s summary or bio, just below the “About” heading. To read more, you’ll have to click on the “…see more” link in the bottom right-hand corner of this block.
There’s also a restriction on the total number of characters you can use to create your LinkedIn About section: 2,600. That might sound like more than enough, but when your LinkedIn bio is what stands between you and a prospect responding to your messages, you’ll quickly find plenty to say.
Getting your About section to a place that ensures your profile stands out from the thousands of other sales reps and marketers doing outreach on the platform can be a challenge. That’s why it’s so important to learn how to make the most of the characters you have to work with and encourage a positive first impression.
While a large portion of LinkedIn focuses on careers and recruitment, your goal is to identify and connect with prospective customers. It’s all about showcasing your experience, instilling trust, and getting the conversation started, and it all comes down to that little “About” section.
That said, it’s important to think of this profile summary as a golden opportunity rather than a challenge. LinkedIn has provided you with this prime real estate, giving you a chance to gain your prospect’s attention and draw them in.
With the right LinkedIn profile summary approach, you can:
So, what does a great LinkedIn profile summary look like? There are several elements that can make a good profile summary great. That said, not all great LinkedIn bios contain all the same components. The success of the bio comes down to factors like the profile owner’s industry, audience, intention, and more.
Let’s take a look at some stellar LinkedIn profile About section examples to inspire your own.
One of the best ways to grab your audience’s attention is with a great story, and Justin Welsh does just that. He relates the story of his career, including the highs and lows, delivering a compelling story of success, hitting rock bottom, and rising from the ashes.
Justin uses numeral values to highlight his achievements and other crucial information, such as the exact length of his courses and how much content you’ll be able to produce daily with his course. His short, to-the-point paragraphs make his bio easy to read, and including his results in bullet point form brings them to the fore.
The summary also ends with a clear call to action, asking his audience to visit his course websites.
Another succinct example is Shradha Sharma’s LinkedIn profile summary, which shares her passion for storytelling and entrepreneurship.
Shradha tells us the story of how and why she’s combined these interests to create a unique business. She goes on to reinforce the benefits of the stories she tells and sums up her bio, highlighting some of her impressive achievements so far.
This is a shining example of a LinkedIn bio that communicates the profile owner’s drive through an emotional connection, peppered with crucial information about their skills, experience, and achievements.
If you’re looking for a LinkedIn profile summary example that appeals to its audience by emphasizing customer pain points and detailing how their product or service can help overcome them, look no further than Darrell Evans’ profile.
Spiked with a bit of humor, Darrell connects with his prospects on an emotional level, showing them that he understands their challenges. He lists the benefits of working with him to overcome these challenges while showcasing his skills and business capabilities.
This is one of the lengthier LinkedIn bio examples on our list, but Darrell does a great job of using concise paragraphs and white space, making his bio easy to read. He also uses all caps to create sub-headings, further breaking down the information into bite-sized chunks.
Another great LinkedIn bio hook example is Gijo Mathew’s About section, which opens with an impactful paragraph telling his audience about his passion, his work, and how his passion drives him. Although Gijo works in the world of software, he steers clear of complex terms, making sure that anyone reading his profile summary can understand it.
Gijo uses short bulleted lists to support his key competencies, giving them additional impact. Just before listing his extensive skills and experience, Gijo provides a call to action, inviting like-minded individuals to connect and collaborate with him within a specific sphere.
As a comedian in the sales niche, Ross Pomerantz’s cleverly weaves humor into his LinkedIn summary, giving you a taste of his comedic abilities. He absolutely nails the tone and style for his target audience—discontented salespeople—speaking directly to them. Although he often includes sales-specific jargon, his profile still appeals to a broader audience.
While the bio is meant to be a joke, Ross still manages to give you a peek behind the curtain into who he is. His LinkedIn summary also includes a CTA directing his audience to his Bravado website to further build his community.
While Fernando Silva’s LinkedIn profile summary is by far the shortest on this list, it still packs a sizable punch. Yes, it’s incredibly concise. However, Fernando still effectively and convincingly communicates his experience, skills, and what motivates him.
The bio offers Fernando’s audience hints about his personal interests while keeping the core focus of the About section on what matters. In just three sentences, you have a fairly good idea of Fernando’s skill set and interests and whether he is someone you might like to work with.
Beginning your LinkedIn About section with a relatable and relevant story from your childhood is always a winner, and Damilare Odueso does just that. His story reveals authenticity and insight into his curious nature, an innate strength for someone in his field.
Damilare goes on to give us a glimpse of his career trajectory, from his studies to key turning points along the road. Through these, he highlights how it has all played a role in shaping his current skill set.
Although written concisely, Damilare does a fantastic job of painting a comprehensive picture of his career and personality in a compelling, easy-to-read way.
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You’re inspired and ready to craft your ideal LinkedIn profile About section but unsure where to begin. Not to worry—We’ve got you covered with all the tips you need to create a bio that is sure to impress. Remember that you’re using this space to market yourself in writing, so it’s time to put your best foot forward.
People often respond well to positive emotion and passion. They also tend to gravitate toward others with shared or unique interests. This is your chance to let your audience into your world and tell them what you’re excited about.
Expressing your passion for specific elements of your job or the company you work for in an authentic way is always a plus. It shows prospective customers that you’re driven by a sense of purpose and aren’t just in it to make a quick buck.
Spark interest in your bio and profile with an attention-grabbing but relevant introductory sentence. This captivating first sentence is known as a hook, and the idea is to pique your audience’s curiosity enough to make them want to read on.
This is not the place to tell prospects your life story or mundanely state what you do and how you do it. Your opening hook should be informative, give the audience a snapshot of expertise, but, most importantly, set you apart from all the other LinkedIn profiles they’ve read.
Consider why anyone you reach out to should respond to your messages or purchase your products or services versus those of a competitor. What sets you and your company apart from other similar businesses out there? Where do you excel where others may not?
Letting your audience know how experienced and skilled you are is great, but it’s important to convey this information without sounding “salesy.” Another effective sales strategy is to avoid putting your competition down. Focus on what you can do rather than what they can’t.
Nothing builds trust in a company better than hearing about customer success stories. Your bio offers an opportunity to mention a success story or two as briefly as possible. Adding these to your profile summary lets prospects know that your products or services work and are worth the investment.
It also highlights potential use cases your audience may not have considered before and resonates with others in similar industries to those in your success stories. It’s like emphasizing a product or service benefit specific to their organization through a real-life example.
Demonstrating your passions, skills, and product or service benefits may impress your audience, but it won’t necessarily lead to direct engagement with you or your team. That’s why you need to be clear about what you want your prospects to do.
Don’t be afraid to ask your audience to take the action you want them to take. It could be anything from sending you a message on the platform to registering for an event, signing up for a newsletter, completing a survey, and more. Think about the action that will best serve your goals and ask—politely.
Related: How to Create a Great Call to Action for Your Next Email Marketing Campaign
With just 2,600 characters to work with, it’s easy to focus more on what you will say than how you will say it. But your LinkedIn profile summary layout plays just as significant a role in the impact it has on your audience as its content. Ensuring your LinkedIn bio is easy to read makes it all the more likely that people will read it.
Two of the ways you can improve readability are by grouping sentences in a way that forms shorter paragraphs and incorporating bullet point lists where relevant. This creates more white space, which is more pleasing to the eye, and makes digesting the content more manageable.
Now that you know what to include in your LinkedIn About section, let’s examine what you should steer clear of. When crafting your winning summary, avoid including any of the following:
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Make sure you manage your LinkedIn leads effectively by integrating your social profile with a solid CRM system like Nutshell. With Nutshell connected to your LinkedIn profile, you can automatically send prospect and lead data from LinkedIn directly to your comprehensive CRM system.
This seamless integration offers several advantages, which include:
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