Imagine waking up in the morning and picking up the newspaper…
On the front page, you see your name in big bold letters.
The headline says that you have just inherited the fortune of a billionaire who had passed away the night before, and the full details on why, as well as how you would receive your fortune would be revealed on page 2.
Now let me ask you a question…
Wouldn’t you suck up the information on page 2 of that newspaper like a nuclear powered vacuum?
Most people say they don’t like to read…
And they ASSUME that others won’t read much either…
That’s why they believe that writing a good LinkedIn profile summary is a waste of time.
I don’t blame you if you feel the same way. Whenever I waddle through the sea of LinkedIn profiles out there, I personally feel like I am about to slip into a coma because they are all so boring!
99.999% of LinkedIn profiles:
- Do not inspire me
- Do not leave a lasting impression.
- Are confusing and vague.
- Sound exactly alike.
- Cause me to click away within seconds.
The sad truth is, most people on LinkedIn commit one crime that makes reading their profile as boring as watching paint dry:
Their profile is a giant shrine to themselves.
Your LinkedIn profile isn’t about you…it’s 100% about your target reader, whether that person is a prospective client or employer.
On LinkedIn, most people’s profile summaries say something like, “Hi, meet me, I have 10 years experience. This is what I am about. This is what I like to do. I am so great, and I think about myself all day long…yay!”
Just imagine running into someone like that in real life. Wouldn’t you rather listen to a screechy blackboard all day?
A sticky LinkedIn profile on the other hand, clearly identifies a target reader (business owners, tech companies, website owners, retirees, pharmaceutical companies, etc. ) and it clearly paints a picture of how you make that target reader’s life better.
So let’s go back to the newspaper example…
Since we both agreed that you would comb through every word on page 2 of that newspaper as fast as humanly possible, let’s think about the reason WHY…
I wager that deep down, you are secretly foaming at the mouth for the day when you can do nothing but sit on a beach and count your piles of cash over a sparkling glass of Champaign. And here comes an article that gives you exactly what you wanted!
You read the article because it is all about YOU: Your wants, your needs, your desires… It’s like the gates of Valhalla opened up and that newspaper article came floating down on a pair of angel’s wings.
Well, that’s what a sticky LinkedIn profile is like. You need to think about the BIGGEST fear, frustration or desire that is floating around in the mind of your target reader, and prove to them that YOU are the solution they have been waiting for…that they have finally found, at long last!
Here’s how you do it:
Translate What You DO…Into How You HELP.
So if you are an attorney who specializes in estate planning and wills, you might want to reconsider how you present that information. Here is an example of a generic Lawyer’s LinkedIn tagline:
Sounds like almost every Lawyer you’ve ever seen on LinkedIn, right?
WELL, waddya think of THIS:
…Now take a quick glance at this Lawyer’s summary section. I changed some of the details so hopefully I don’t get sued! You can go ahead and stop reading the first example as soon as you get bored:
Now this profile isn’t quite as bad as some. It at least made an ATTEMPT at focusing on the reader’s needs, however, this IS NOT a sticky profile! He could definitely pack a much stronger wallop.
I decided to have a little fun with his profile. Here’s MY version of his profile
summary:
Do You See The Difference?
Keeping in mind that I just made up this profile summary on the fly… AND that I’m being a little dramatic for “effect”, do you see how it speaks directly to a person’s greatest fear? (As far as writing a will is concerned, that is) Do you see how it’s 100% about my reader? Can you imagine how this profile might stop a reader cold and have a deep emotional impact?
I could go much, much deeper into the psychology of creating a “sticky” LinkedIn profile summary, but of course, I don’t want to bore you with all of those details.
After all, you don’t like to read much, do you? Ha!
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