I grabbed a few LinkedIn headlines (real ones, from people I'm not connected to) in order to rewrite them. Here are the old headlines, and my suggested replacements:
Old LinkedIn Headline:
Wile E. Coyote
Innovative, customer-focused business professional
Wile E. has forgotten that when a LinkedIn user searches the 100+million-member LinkedIn database, the search results show up in the form of names and headlines. The only things that LinkedIn user -- the one who conducted the search -- is going to learn about Wile E. (or any LinkedIn user) are the user's name and his or her LinkedIn headline. Wile E.'s old headline ("Innovative, customer-focused business professional") isn't doing Wile E. any favors. Anyone could say he or she is innovative and customer-focused. That's pretty much like saying "I breathe oxygen."
We can do better.
New LinkedIn Headline:
Wile E. Coyote
Marketing Manager (50/50 mix of traditional and social) taking consulting projects & exploring startup assignments
You get 120 characters, including spaces, for your LinkedIn headline. Wile E.'s new headline squeaks in under the wire, character-count-wise. Now, when somebody performs a search on the LinkedIn user database and comes up with Wile E.'s name, he or she will learn something useful -- namely, that Wile is a Marketing guy and a startup-focused one, at that -- from the headline, and have an incentive to click through the list of search results to Wile E.'s full LinkedIn profile.
What's the lesson? Don't make empty boasts (Resourceful! Innovative!) in your branding, and don't use the term "business professional" -- it's dreck. It means nothing. Here's another headline:
Old LinkedIn Headline:
Ziggy Stardust
Nonprofit professional with expertise in communications, health, grantmaking, program development and planning
Yikes! "Nonprofit professional" isn't much of an improvement over "business professional," and this LinkedIn user gives us a tedious list of tasks he's performed. That is unfortunate branding. We could go one step down in granularity and say "I get up, I go to work, I drive a car, I use the microwave. I take showers." We can't tell what this person is about, or why he or she does the work s/he does. We get no sense of the person behind the profile.
We want to know what you do for your employers or clients from a business standpoint -- what sorts of pain you solve for them, in other words. We want to know what impact you;ve had on their businesses. Otherwise, you look like someone who does what he or she is told, and performs tasks as some manager (or a written job description) dictates. That's not you standing in your power, not by a long stretch. Let's rewrite Ziggy's headline:
Ziggy Stardust
Not-for-profit Program Manager passionate about building buzz and participation for important causes and securing the grant and donor funding to carry them out
Now we get a sense of Ziggy's personal mission, and how he views his work. There's more heft coming through the words when Zig frames up his experience (and future direction) rather than breaking down his amazing background into task-y sub-functions and duties.
Lesson: don't minimize your accomplishments by taking the context out of the story. Even in a brief LinkedIn headline, you can get across more power than you think.
Take a look at your own LinkedIn headline. Is it doing the heavy lifting for you that it should be? If not, leave your current headline in a comment below, and I'll give you suggestions for strengthening it.
Follow Liz Ryan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/asklizryan
While I'm not actively seeking new opportunities, I do get contacted now and then. I have to admit I've been lazy about my profile. It currently reads "Project/Program/Quality Manager (PMP & ScrumMaster)". The only thought I've given to it thus far is that these have been my titles and include my professional credentials (I assume folks use these as search terms).
I would love your input to make my headline pop, reflecting my experience and strengths.
THANKS!
up to 70. Can you help?
Ex-corporate-suit chef looking for large kitchen (up to 70) and staff to lead
Corporate guy turned chef looking for a role that fuses creative cooking & menu planning with business management (may be too long; LI allows 120 characters including spaces)
Chef (and former corporate leader) looking to run a busy kitchen and lead a talented restaurant staff
Former corporate guy/Asian-Brazilian fusion chef ISO next gig
Think of a person on a chef hunt -- a restaurant headhunter, a restaurant-company CEO or HR person, the general manager of a hotel that's short a chef, or anybody else who'd be looking for someone like you. What do they care about? They want to get a feel for how you roll, for starters. Some chefs are flaky, some are temperamental, etc. So we've got that "former corporate guy" in there and it's critical, because it says a) you lead your own life -- you did one thing for awhile, it wasn't floating your boat any more and you made a change; b) you're not a prima donna, and you know how to deal with all kinds of people; and c) you're comfortable with the management side of running a kitchen.
Now that we've gotten some of your personal mojo across to the reader, what else can we convey? Probably your favorite culinary style, if you have one.
Best,
Liz
"Regional Coordinator-utilizing feedback, leadership, and consulting to better educational products and technologies."
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
1) you say "My job duties include management..." What sort of management? What are you managing?
2) you're developing educational products. Tell us more about that. Developing what sorts of products, for whom?
3) above all, we need to know what you want to do next. You want to brand yourself in a frame that's just big enough to contain the work you do now PLUS the work you want to do next. Can you give us a feel for your chosen career direction?
Thanks! Liz
Thank you for your reply. Please see answers below:
1. I was responsible for remotely managing 7-10 other Pearson campus ambassadors at different campuses on the west coast. Duties included employee training, conference calls, Cisco webex webinars, and one to one calls.
2. My self and my team were responsible for conducting focus groups, consulting, and providing feedback on higher education online learning resources, learning management systems, and supplemental course materials. We also worked with software developers giving feedback, ideas, and opinions on new program concepts, usability, and content. We also worked in conjunction with marketing on ways to advertise and implement products at colleges and universities. And last, we worked with editorial reviewing chapters, layout and design, and writing style of authors. All of which was part of creating textbooks and learning technologies for Pearson Higher Ed.
3. Well currently I am in school and want to go to law school. However, I would like to build my personal brand around consulting and creating ideas which is what I am really good at. I have a strong ability to look at something pick it apart, analyze it and give constructive feedback on what works, what doesn't, and things that should be reconsidered as well as new or alternative ideas. Providing feedback is my ultimate goal for where I am at now in the company.
You are rapidly becoming my favorite career advice person!
I'm a recently laid-off Account Manager and my current headline reads: "Ten Years of Experience in Building and Developing Client Relationships" Ideas for me?
Thanks in advance,
Let's say that you decided you wanted to go after software Account Management positions, serving $1M+ accounts. In that case your LinkedIn headline might read like this:
Lucas Eight
Software Account Manager avid to grow $1M+ accounts to $10M accounts
We need to give the recruiters and hiring managers trolling Linkedin a reason to stop and click through to your full LinkedIn headline. When we talk about years of experience or about tasks rather than results, the first thing that happens is that the cynical, doubtful part of the reader's brain asks "Why don't we learn what those relationship-building years netted Lucas?,"and we can't really blame them for asking, because Account Managers are there to grow the accounts, rather than just hand-hold them. So when we say "avid to grow, etc." we're saying "I understand what my role is all about -- why you pay someone like me the big bucks." Does that make sense?
Best - Liz
Contributor/Blogger at HuffingtonPost.com
Consumer Advocate/Blogger/Writer/Investor Relations at http://www.askaloanmodguru.com
I would love to hear your ideas
I empower homeowners to become their own best advocate and save their homes from foreclosure.
Anna Cuevas
Empowering Homeowners to self-advocate and avoid foreclosure
This raises an interesting question. With the LinkedIn headline just above this line, you'll most likely hear from homeowners who want to avoid foreclosure. Maybe that's not what you want. Maybe you want to hear from editors who want you to write for them, or maybe you want to work with banks or mortgage companies or something else. We need to have the audience in mind. Without a clear bead on the audience, we can't brand ourselves. Share your thoughts on that if you have a second. Enjoy your weekend!
Thanks for the reply. I want to reach editors and producers as well as Lenders to further my cause... and yet I also want to reach the homeowners that need to find my book and blog information. What is the best way to balance that on a Linkedin profile?
Here are a couple of questions to answer (you can post again if you like!):
1) What is the ideal problem for me to jump in and solve -- if the phone rang right now and on the other end of the line were a client or a hiring manager with my all-time favorite, oh-my-God-I'm-perfect-for-this problem, what would that problem sound like?
2) When people say "Forget about it, you have to hire O to solve that problem" why do they recommend me? What sorts of words do they use to describe me, and why the work I do is so useful to them?
Thanks!