LinkedIn Tips Part 2 - The Summary

"Your LinkedIn summary is quickly becoming your most important tool for advancing your career and marketing your skills. That’s because first impressions have gone digital: people are learning about you online before they ever shake your hand. As soon as they know they’re going to meet you or have a phone conference with you, they’ll start their online research." - William Arruda

Now that we all have a LinkedIn profile and a headline, let's focus on the next most important part of your profile: the summary. This is something that we have noticed is missing on peoples' profiles quite frequently. We know, it's hard to write a compelling summary about yourself, but it's absolutely essential for showing who you are and acing that first impression. You just have to buckle down and do it.

William Arruda wrote a fantastic article on how to write the perfect LinkedIn summary, so we will summarize some of his main points and direct you to his full article. He breaks down the process in 5 steps.

1. Know Your Audience
• What do you want them to know about you?
• What would you like them to do?
• How do you want them to feel?
2. Prepare Raw Content
• Follow the 6 V's
• Victories
• Values and Passions
• Valiant Superpowers
• Vital Statistics
• Verve
• Validation
3. Write Your Summary
• Choose either first or third person
• Brag about yourself
• Make me want to read more after the first sentence
4. Test it Two Ways
• The Question Test
• William Arruda gives a series of questions in his article to make sure the summary accomplishes what you want
• The Audience Test
• Identify a target audience member, a mentor/coach, and friend/family to ask for assistance
5. Bring Your Brand To Life
• Supplement your recently created summary with rich content on your page.

Once you follow these 5 steps you will be on the right track to the perfect summary. As always, it is best to supplement one person's opinion with others. We suggest googling and reading other good summaries for further guidance.