LinkedIn training tip – Your Professional Headline should be a marketing phrase, not your job title
Summary:
The Professional Headline in your LinkedIn profile should not just be your current title. It should be a marketing slogan.
Details:
If you were looking at a Professional Headline in LinkedIn, which one would be more memorable?
Jeff Ogden
Sales/Marketing Consultant
or
Jeff Ogden
Sales/Marketing Consultant, making you a “ferocious competitor”
In my opinion, the second one is more memorable, more powerful, and more intriguing.
The important thing to note is that your Professional Headline does not have to be your current job title. The field is 120 characters in size, meaning that you can fit 15-20 words in there, so you should make it more of a marketing slogan than a simple title. At the very least, you may want to add some flair, some detail, or some personality to your title.
Alternatively, you could add any of the following:
- More detail about your company
- Your location
- Something cool about your job
- The fact that you are looking for a job
For instance, if your job title is something like
- Sales Professional
- Accountant
- Event Planner
- IT Manager
you might want to consider changing it to one of the following:
- Sales Professional with the hottest disk technology in Boston
- Accountant who was responsible for the demise of AIG
- Event Planner, preparing golf outings for executives in Phoenix
- IT Manager seeking employment in New York
Ok, maybe not #2, but you get the idea. These all convey much more information that the simple title would provide. Remember that it is called your Professional Headline, so take the story of your work life, summarize it in a few words, and try using it for a while. You can always change it later.
Realize that your Name and Professional Headline are the only two things that others will see in the some places in LinkedIn, like when
- you answer questions in the Q&A section
- you leave messages in the Group discussion forums
- someone looks at their own connections
- someone is looking through another person’s connections
Therefore, if you give a few great answers in the LinkedIn Q&A section, you also have an opportunity to tell people (in a subtle way) that you are “seeking employment in New York”. If your answer is credible enough, you may be a click away from getting contacted for a job interview. After all, the people reading it were interested in the solution to a problem, and you had one. If they have a lot of problems, you may get a job solving their problems. If your Professional Headline just said “IT Manager”, the reader might just move on.
I have gotten business using the exact technique above. In fact, I got a recent contract from someone named
Josh Chernin
General Manager at Web Industries; Itinerant Writer; and Decent Little League Coach
which I thought was a very memorable example of a Professional Headline. In just 11 words, you learn Josh’s job, his passion, and you learn that he is an active father. He also appears to be a really good guy (and he is). If you combine his Name and Professional Headline with the hundreds of great answers he’s given in LinkedIn’s Q&A section, you really begin to feel like you know a lot about him, and I think that’s a big part of what social media is all about.
Therefore, think about dressing up your Professional Headline a little, and see what results you get. Look at the ones your connections have set up, and get some new ideas. Look at the Q&A section of LinkedIn, and consider using some of their thought processes to reform your own.
What are the best Professional Headlines you have seen?
20 comments
Excellent article. I’ve been very hesitant about signing up for a Linkedin account. After reading your article I see how important it is to be listed. I’m going to do it right now! Thank you
YEady,
Welcome aboard
Patrick,
What a great tip and something I need to include in my classes to Realtors and small businesses. I’ve talked about how anywhere you have your name and it becomes “linkable” (meaning anchor text) it doesn’t hurt to have a very short descriptive set of words for your Name/Title. Especially if all of those text words become anchor text for hyperlinkable URL’s.
Thanks for the great tip and reminder that we can use LinkedIn.com to further help paint a picture about yourself and spread that unique brand around.
Ed Bisquera
Follow me on Twitter @edbisquera
Wow! What a lightbulb moment! when I read this piece, I immediately signed in to my LinkedIn page and added some branding help to my headline. Thanks for the insight.
Thanks, EB & JN
Excellent story about the little league coach. Thinking about how to incorporate Ironman in my title.
LH, you could probably just add it at the end, saying “Iroman enthusiast”, or “Iron woman” if you wanted to be different. However, you do have to wonder if it will take away from the rest of your message. A picture of you in an Ironman related outfit may do it, although some people would say it isn’t business like.
I doubt there is a clear answer that will please everyone.
“so take the story of your work life, summarize it in a few words”
Love it! – makes sense and will probably get some to take a second look, or at least wanting to find out more…
Definitely not the usual boring tagline! =D
Great stuff Patrick.
Hope you have an excellent weekend,
–snookiecollins
[...] Sales/Marketing Consultant, making you a “ferocious competitor” http://www.the-linkedin-speaker.com/blog/2009/05/07/linkedin-training-tip-professional-headline-shou... [...]
Headline also appears in the results of searching, which is one of the most important places to be seen.
Regards
Alejandro,
It shows up everywhere – in the search results, in the list of your friend’s Connections, in LinkedIn Q&A, in Groups, and almost everywhere else.
Thanks for the pointers, Patrick. A very useful article.
Thanks, LMS
Excellent Article!
In fact, I changed my profile headline after reading this article.
I made something like this:
“Leading Offshore Software & Social App development ventures with dribbling success for customers including renown brands”
Your suggestion will be highly appreciated!
Thanks once again!
great line
I totally agree with you about the importance of personal branding. My branding statement came into being when a networking contact introduced me to a friend by saying that I was great at translating data into useful information (I’m a statistician). It evolved over time into its current form, which I use to this day as my LinkedIn tagline. When another networking contact heard about a job opportunity at her place of employment, she immediately thought of me and was able to share my branding statement – word for word – with the hiring manager. As a result, I was put in direct contact with the internal recruiter and was hired, starting the job 3 weeks later.
CJ, write up the story. Give real examples. Put it in a blog. I’ll link to it. People need help.
I’m looking at rewriting mine and found this article when searching. Thanks!
Hi Patrick,
Very good article..I was trying to update my headline..when i got this article..can you please help me out put up my headline..I was working as an Operations Manager in an IT firm and looking forwrd to picking up a job ASAP..
Kiran,
It has to be personalized, but it could be Operations Manager with the best IT firm in Boston
Leave a Comment