It's Time To Review Your LinkedIn Professional Headline

When is the last time you looked at your LinkedIn profile? When is the last time you updated it? There are three sections on your LinkedIn profile that are important to get right. These three sections travel around LinkedIn, whenever you send an invite, comment on a post or appear in search results these are what people will see.

They are:

1. Your photograph
2. Your name
3. Your professional headline

And it’s your professional headline I want to talk about today.

Watch For LinkedIn Professional Headline Tips

Last week I was in a conversation with Claire By Reverie on Twitter about the rubbish we put in our professional headline. She had taken offence to the word ‘consultant’, a word that appears in my own bio.

But the problem isn’t the word, it’s the use of it. When I search on LinkedIn or when I get an invite I often see people describe themselves as CEO or Owner, it tells me nothing about them and means I am less likely to connect. Consultant is another one-word headline that doesn’t really describe you, it’s becoming an over used word.

You only have 120 characters, including spaces and punctuation to sell yourself so use them wisely.

5 things to consider when writing your professional headline:

1. It should be descriptive of the job you do
2. You should include keywords you would like to get found for on LinkedIn and Google
3. Include the name of your business or the oraganisation you work for if it’s important to you
4. Avoid buzz words
5. Make it appealing to the kind of customers you want

Take a look at yours now, does it represent you accurately? Will it encourage others to connect with you?

If not, now is the time to change it.

Finding inspiration

The best way to find inspiration is to look at other profiles. Do a search for some of your industry keywords and look at the headlines from the people you find.