Your Professional Headline How to improve the most valuable piece of real estate for your online resume (your LinkedIn profile)

Most companies aren’t well known enough to tell the reader anything about them The reader would need to stop what they’re doing and take the time to research it On the Internet you never want to: leave the reader wondering or make the reader look up the information because in cases like this – they won’t do it and will move on to the next profile It’s all about “the 5 seconds”. There are plenty of other talented people out there who can impress them enough in 5 seconds with the information they’re looking for (in their headline).

Your name and professional headline are the only thing people will see when: Looking in the LinkedIn Q&A section Looking in the LinkedIn Group Discussion forums Looking through another’s LinkedIn connections Looking at your LinkedIn connections If they find your Professional Headline of interest to them they’ll want to read and learn more about you

Experience with a vertical line | Company Name | Education +8 years microprocessor sales always exceeding sales goals | Acme Chips | University of Michigan

Expertise + a value statement +6 years project management bringing in projects early and under budget

Being straight forward Looking for a corporate training position with a medical device company or Google Local Business expert | Call me 555-555-5555 to move you to 1 st page listings

Experience plus a little something personal Not-For-Profit Fund Raiser constantly exceeding goals | state champion hockey coach | way cool dad

Create the headline so you feel comfortable with it AND so it creates curiosity so the reader will want to learn more about you Just remember not to use corporate speake or be: – self-serving – full of “puffery” – HINT – **The decision maker will determine if you’re “visionary”** **They already assume that you’re “self-motivated”**

Also, ideas to include Target Market: Keywords (always if you want to be found) Value Statements Benefits

What to write when you’re unemployed can be an issue *You want to present yourself in a positive light to prospective employers and network contacts *You want to be honest because potential employers can, and will, check your background when considering you *Prospective employers want to know that you’ve been doing something with your time. *Unfortunately, employers can/do see being unemployed as a negative.

You have 120 characters * to tell the story that is your work life. – Take lots of time to build your Professional Headline. – Peruse other LinkedIn profiles in your target industry, profession, business, etc. for ideas. Remember not to plagiarize them. – Test your headline for results. You can change it whenever you want. *120 characters is approximately 15 – 20 words