Skill building and careers

10 Marketers Who Nailed Their LinkedIn Profile

A portrait of a man wearing glasses and a blue blazer looking directly into the camera.

Eating healthy. Cardiovascular activity. Stopping the next episode from auto-playing. We all have our struggles. We know how we should act, but the actions don’t always follow.

Personal branding is an all-too-perfect candidate for this category. We’ve generally accepted that a strong personal brand is important. But carving out (and protecting) time to actively brand ourselves? That’s a whole other matter. The good news is, even if you don’t consider yourself a social media darling, you can create a professional brand that impresses all who view it, and you can do it in just a few minutes a month.

Previously, we wrote about free ways to build your personal brand on LinkedIn. In this post, we illustrate how to optimize your LinkedIn profile using examples from marketers who made us take notice.

The LinkedIn Profile Headline Is Your Digital Salutation

By making incremental updates to your profile, you can greatly increase your visibility on LinkedIn, and there’s no better place to start than with your headline. Your headline is your first and best opportunity to distinguish yourself in search results. Just how important is it to distinguish yourself? The LinkedIn community is enormous with more than 875 million members. At the very least, it is vital to ensure your headline is instantly recognizable. That will make it clear you are the person the searcher is looking for. 

Be sure to call out your industry in your headline. If you are a digital marketer, make sure you craft a Linkedin headline for digital marketing. This will help anyone searching for you to find you faster, especially if you have a common name. For example, there are about 126,000 people named "John Smith" with LinkedIn profiles. You have to be sure that you can stand out in a crowd.

What makes a good headline? 

Take time to review and update your headline regularly, because the search for people like you is a never-ending one. A complete, up-to-date, engaging headline tells the professional world you’re open for business and eager to network with the right folks. 

There are a few things you can do to level up your headline today: 

  1. More than a job title. Your headline is your salutation. This is the one line that searchers are most likely to read, and your chance to get them to click through to learn more about you. Since it’s the default setting for a headline, featuring only your job title won’t set you apart.
  2. Easy to read. A lot can be packed into a LinkedIn headline. If you wear many hats and want to showcase them all, consider separating each descriptor with a special character such as a vertical bar, a pair of colons, or slashes with a space on either side. This will make it easier for the viewer to read the list, which will make them more likely to click through. 
  3. A clear professional brand. A good LinkedIn headline sums up not just what you do, but why you’re unique in the way you do it. Put a twist on it to convey a more telling and compelling story. Maybe you’re not just a “Financial Advisor at Acme Investments.” Maybe you’re a “Relationship-driven Financial Advisor Who Makes Investing Way Less Complicated.”

Who nailed their LinkedIn profile headline?

Feeling stuck on what to write for your headline? Check out these
10 eye-catching profile headlines

Craft a LinkedIn Summary that Supports Your Objectives

Your commitment to incremental improvement and professional growth is as impressive as it is inspiring, so don’t hesitate to let others know about it. Your profile summary is your elevator pitch: a perfect spot to quickly communicate your career goals. You can highlight your skills and accomplishments, as well as professional aspirations to demonstrate your ambition and vision.

What makes a good LinkedIn summary? 

  1. A clear narrative about who you are. Instead of treating your summary like an objective statement on a resume, use this space to tell readers a story about who you are and what you really want them to know about you. Professionally speaking, what’s your purpose? Don’t be afraid to write multiple paragraphs—if your story is epic, include the most compelling details to round out who you are professionally and personally. 
  2. A conversational tone. When writing your summary, try to strike a conversational tone that invites the reader in. A conversational tone is more pleasant and sometimes even exciting, which makes it much easier to read—and to keep reading. Because you want to get this just right, consider drafting two options you’re happy with, then ask a trusted peer or mentor for their feedback.
  3. More than just buzzwords. Buzzwords can be helpful for putting the reader in a specific frame of mind about what you see as your most valuable attributes by using shared language you know they will understand. However, words like “strategic,” “expert,” or “passionate” will fall flat without examples to back them up. If you’re strategic, include an example of how your approach led to positive results. If you’re an expert, include a few instances of your expertise being called upon by third parties such as journalists or clients. If you’re passionate, go into some detail about the volunteer work you do for your industry’s trade group. 

Who nailed their LinkedIn profile summary?

Naomi Assaraf's About Section
Rachel Rodger's About Section
Brian Fanzo's About Section

Need more inspiration? Check out
14 LinkedIn profile summaries that we love.

Create A Seamless Discovery Experience for the Person Viewing Your Profile

Linkedin makes it easy to show professional proof, benefitting your personal brand right from your profile. Featured items allow you to link directly to your best work, allowing your achievements to speak for themselves. Links to presentations you’ve authored, videos you’ve helped create, web pages you’ve written, campaigns you’ve designed and more can be added to your featured items section, as well as within each section of your work history.

What makes a good featured item? 

  1. Media that gets to the point. If someone is interested in learning more about you through the work you’ve done, help them find what they’re looking for quickly. For example, a video of your keynote speech at an industry conference is impressive—unexpectedly having to wait 12 minutes for it to show up in the video is not. Quick hits that will impress immediately are easy wins. 
  2. Social proof. Nothing is quite as validating as someone else giving you or your brand space on their channel. If you were a guest on a podcast, contributed a guest blog, or were the featured expert in an article related to your industry, including a link will lend extra credibility to your brand. 
  3. A title and description. This may seem basic, but tending to details like this can go a long way. When adding featured items to your profile, take a moment to include a title and description to help set the stage for the viewer. Tell them exactly what to expect and why you’re proud of it. 

Who enriched their LinkedIn profile with featured items?

Jason Keath's Featured Section
Pam Didner's Featured Section
Shonali Burke's Featured Section
Rohit Bhargava's Featured Section

There’s more than one way to create a unique, polished LinkedIn profile. A focus on these three key sections along with a bit of regularly scheduled upkeep will ensure you’re showing your best self to the world’s professional community. Hopefully, these examples have inspired you to make incremental strides toward your own standout profile.