Whether you are an entrepreneur, a job seeker, an employer or whatever other reason you have to be on Linkedin, you are there for business! If you are on an active job hunt through Linkedin, it must not be kept a secret. Similarly, if you are there to promote your B2B brand, generate leads or looking for investors, your Linkedin profile must be developed accordingly.

To generate business you must have your first impression lasting for long and that’s what your Linkedin profile summary does. LinkedIn allows you 2,000 characters (including spaces) to summarize your professional background and these 2000 characters are exclusively the part of your profile summary, i.e. your profile headline, educational details, experience details and other fields have to be dealt separately.

Remember that the LinkedIn profile summary is the first and the only opportunity for you to turn your visitor into a potential client. It means that recruiters, hiring managers, your Linkedin network, potential clients and investors will surely skim through this section even if they do not look into your detailed profile. So make sure to have the best possible professional summary. Ideally, it should cover all the key points.

Following are a few tips that will help you write an impact creating Linkedin profile summary:

1. Never ever leave the summary section blank. Without a summary it’s not your profile, rather it’s a resume. Even if you do not have any professional background yet, utilize this section to highlight your potentials!
2. Use all 2,000 allowed characters, keeping in mind to be relevant only. These 2000 characters include the spaces and it should roughly make not more than 300 words, which means you can have two to three paragraphs.
3. Mention what you can do, i.e. your skills and abilities.
4. Tell them what you have done, i.e. your achievements like awards and appreciations. But again, do not waste characters with unnecessary details.
5. Use bullets to make it more readable, as people do not want to read long sentences and paragraphs.
6. Having a tagline is a big plus, but think out of the box while selecting the tagline. Serial entrepreneur, growthhacker, evangelist etc. are some of the highly hyped words, but you must use them only when your professional background supports them.
7. Highlight your experience in various positions where you exhibited XXX skills. Again do not write a story, but highlight the numbers!
8. Must use the language of your industry, i.e. use your specific key terms.
9. Keep your spirits high with positive attitude, i.e. make sure to keep a motivated tone throughout your profile summary.
10. Do not forget to mention your career/business goals/vision.
11. End it with a call to action; now this is what you know what you want your visitors to do!
    Depending on nature of your profile and your industry you may have some options to enhance your profile summary, however, the above points will cover all industries and regions!

The Bottom Line:

I am sure, if you follow the above points while writing Linkedin profile summary, you should witness an increase in profile views. And yes, having an awesome Linkedin profile summary has many other applications, i.e. you can use it in seminars or other events where you are a speaker, you can use it while pitching investors other than Linkedin and so on.