Start working on your LinkedIn profile by improving your headline.photo credit: jack ryan
This post is the fourth in a series called “The Baby Boomers’ Guide To LinkedIn.” For part one, click here; part two click here; part three click here.
Every career counseling client I worked with seems to have made the same mistake when it comes to the crucial headline section of LinkedIn. If you search your friends and connections, you’ll notice that almost all baby boomers make this same error on LinkedIn. They do not understand the importance of keywords in their headline. Most tell me they didn’t realize they could change the headline or that they should change it. Big mistake. If you look under your name, LinkedIn by default lists your current job title and that is your headline. Unless you are Oprah and the world knows who you are without any words under your name, your job title isn’t the only thing you want in your headline. You may not even want that title listed at all if it doesn’t have the right keywords in it.
Personal Brand
You must pay close attention to your personal branding and how you want to be known on LinkedIn. The headline is how you attract recruiters, hiring managers, HR, connections and potential clients. It is the most searched section on LinkedIn’s platform. This is your big advertisement to market yourself to the world. It needs to be well thought out, concise and strategically written. It also offers the words that would attract someone to check you out in the search – that is if they find you at all.
The goal is to be discovered by telling people who you are, what you do or what kind of client or job you seek. The headline has a limit of 120 characters so you need to utilize this marketing space as effectively as possible.
Examples for Consultants and Business owners:
Best-Selling Author & Ghostwriter | CEO of Publishing Company | Columnist at Forbes.com
From Henry’s headline, you know exactly what he does. He is a writer and he’s stressing that. He is also pointing out that he is a ghostwriter, something that is very unique and interesting. Thirdly, he owns a publishing company.
If you own a business you must distinguish yourself in order for potential clients to find you amongst the 500+ million users on this website. So you want to use the headline space to say what you do and try to attract the niche market you work in. Here’s another example:
Serving healthcare clients who need help working with Veterans Affairs and Dept. of Defense l DoD Access l VA Access
Bill was a career counseling client looking to reach a specific audience. He needed help to define who he was on LinkedIn. He works in a small arena. Originally he had the default job title noting he was CEO and founder of his company but that didn’t help him attract clients. This headline targets what he does and who he can help. If you are a consultant or small business owner you need to do the same. You must determine who your client is, and use the headline to attract that customer.
Whether you are a job hunter or an individual who is happy with your current position you still want to be found. So you need to add in the most effective keywords about your position plus some industries or even a particular skill that you might have that is appealing to employers, i.e. LEAN expert, or SCRUM master or C++.
Examples for job hunters:
Both of these ladies needed to determine what they wanted and then needed to advertise the right words so recruiters could find them.
Mary wants a promotion
Healthcare Consultant l Vice President Pharmacy l Vice President Healthcare l VP Pharmacy
Mary was a career counseling client who was stuck at the Director level and kept getting passed over. At 57, she needed to make a move and needed help with LinkedIn. She said, “I never realized you could optimize your headline. Certainly, I never thought of using it to target where I want to go.” She was worried that her boss would look at her profile so no mention of job hunting was made on her page but this headline was doing that advertising to recruiters for her. We developed all the job titles and areas anyone might look for her. This headline attracted the appropriate recruiters to contact her. You need to do the same thing. If you are job hunting you select the job title you want and any special words
Cathy wants a new job
Sales Software Engineer l Technical Sales Account Executive l Technical Software Sales
Cathy was a 55-year-old career counseling client who needed to make a change. She traveled a lot for her current job and wanted to be able to cut that travel down. She lived in a small city and the job opportunities had been slim so she decided to mention she would relocate on her LinkedIn profile.
When you develop your headline, notice one thing that we use and that is the “l” slash sign. That “l” tells the search engines to keep those words together. So when you select your keywords for your headline you need to separate the different words by the “l.”
You can attract recruiters, potential clients and more connections, simply by making improvements to your headline. Don’t let the LinkedIn default headline remain on your page after your name.
Caution
When you add a new job to your work experience there is a checked box that automatically changes your headline to this new job title. Be sure to uncheck it so the new headline you have created does not get erased any time you add a new job to your work history.
To summarize, your LinkedIn headline is one of the most visible sections of your LinkedIn profile. You will appear in more LinkedIn searches by using strategic keywords in your headline. After you improve it, more people will find you.