A Fast Formula for a Powerful LinkedIn Headline

Far from just a placeholder, your LinkedIn Profile Headline has an important job to do.

If adjusted to market you effectively, it can represent your personal brand and become an online promotional workhorse.

The most highly indexed part of your Profile (next to your name), your Headline allows recruiters and employers to locate you, based on the search terms or keywords you specify.

So if you’ve filled in only part of the Headline or let LinkedIn populate it with your current job title (the default value), you could be missing out on valuable traffic to your Profile. Don’t let that happen!

Instead, use as many of the 120 characters available in your Headline – ensuring that it represents your career level and personal brand, while distinguishing you from your competition.

Try the following formula when you’re stumped for an effective LinkedIn Headline that leverages your industry expertise, achievements, and keywords:

1 – Add your target job or position level:

Keep it simple, using the short, commonly abbreviated version to conserve space, as in these examples:

CEO
VP
Administrative Assistant
EVP
Developer
Call Center Rep
Account Rep

You can also add a slightly different, particularly if you are targeting jobs at a similar level (for example, Director / VP of IT or Sales / Business Development).

2 – Add your primary industry or job function.

This should be a strong keyword that encompasses your industry (Consumer Products, Beverage, Manufacturing) or function (IT, Finance, Sales, Marketing, etc.). By doing so, you’re giving employers an idea of your main career path and background.

Operations
Technology
Front Desk
CPG
Manufacturing
IT
Accounting
Customer Service
Healthcare
Order Processing
Employee Relations
Billing

3 – Pull in your strongest areas of expertise.

Add at least one, if not several, keywords that represent your areas of strength (your superpower, so to speak), such as Profit Growth, Team Engagement, Consumer Insights, or New Sales Territories. Be sure to look at job postings in your field for ideas on desirable skills and competencies.

Look at these examples for ideas:

Go-To Market Strategy
Software Sales
M&A Due Diligence
Corporate Restructuring
Customer Relations
Channel Management
ERP Systems
Financial Reporting

4 – Add a signature achievement.

Get specific about your success (35% Annual Growth, $125K First-Year Sales, or 56% of New Reseller Alliances), or expand it for a more broad meaning that doubles as a keyword (Sales Results, Customer Satisfaction, or Production Increases).

No matter what approach you take, your “achievement” should resonate within your industry and reference results that you can spell out in greater detail in your Summary and Experience sections.

Top-Line Growth
On-Time Projects
Profit Turnarounds
Successful Company Exits
Highly Available Systems
Technology Upgrades
Organizational Efficiency
Better Customer Retention
Cost Savings

The results should look similar to these LinkedIn Headlines:

COO, Manufacturing. Production Efficiency, Market Entry, Union Relations, Capacity Increases, & 32% Yearly Profit Growth

Project Coordinator. Planning, Billing, & Reporting. Better Performance From Organizational & Documentation Improvement

VP Software Engineering, CTO. Technology Roadmaps, Program Management. 20%+ Cost Savings, New Revenues, Staff Retention

Marketing Assistant. Expert Calendar Management, Collateral Development, & Events. Strong Lead Generation

Sales, P&L, US & Offshore Greenfield Manufacturing Startups. APAC Market Share Improvements & Production Increases

Project Analyst. Financial Services & Trust Accounting. On-Time Delivery & Accuracy Through Stakeholder Collaboration

Keep in mind these are just guidelines for a strong LinkedIn Headline.

You’ll want to regularly review and adjust keywords, tweaking your Headline from time to time based on the type of traffic, connections, and inquiries generated from making these changes.

Originally published on Job-Hunt.org