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LinkedIn is a great way to get noticed and message prospective customers. Your profile is critical to getting meetings. Most executives build a profile as an online resume, hoping to be discovered in a search. Social media has drastically changed how visitors to your profile engage with the information, and now is a good time for an overhaul!

The “Swipe Left” mentality of society, combined with the growth in online scams, leads many profile visitors to arrive with a dose of skepticism, looking for red flags.  They drop engagement immediately! Authenticity now rules.  

Changing or “Optimizing” your profile can have a profound impact on not only who sees your profile, but it can inspire visitors to connect and engage with you and your business. Consider these facts:

  • Most profile visitors will spend less than 45 seconds on reviewing your profile
  • Many visitors immediately look for reasons to reject your profile. Incomplete sections, poor images  and long winded text sections are disconnects.
  • LinkedIn is designed primarily to help companies find very targeted groups of users. Most users get very little organic engagement.
  • The broader the audience you try to engage, the less chance your target customer will find you.

Using the latest in generative AI, SherpAI built the LinkedIn Optimizer as a tool to help you streamline your profile to impress your target client profile. It is a source of multiple ideas for you to improve the response you get from visitors.

Here’s SherpAI’s guidelines for a great profile, by section.

Background Photo 

The typical profile visitor spends 30-45 seconds reading your profile. A distracting advertisement or colorful background prevents the reader from more time on your great experience. Keep the background simple and positive. Examples: (use pictures here)

Your Image

Photos on Linkedin range from cartoons to “Glamour Shots”. This section can only provide the profile viewer a reason NOT to connect. Keep it conservative and professional. Adding banners like “Open to Work” or “Open to Network” scream desperation. Don’t use them. Good examples:

The Title Section

This is the first chance a viewer has to understand what you do and how to contact you. Listing multiple titles or making claims like “I can 10X your business” create a scammy image. Make sure your contact info, verification, location and school are clear on this section. If they are missing, it creates suspicion in the viewer's eyes. 

The About Section

This is your first chance to demonstrate you are a winner that consistently creates value. What viewers are seeking in this section are simply facts and examples of your success in your career-the abridged version!

This may be the most important section of the profile. Use bullet points to highlight career success:

  • I grew ABC Corp sales team from 5 to 40 during my time as VP Sales
  • I streamlined operations from 5 systems into 2 and cut 10% of overhead
  • Sold my first startup at 35 and went on to found 2 more
  • I’ve restructured 3 companies resulting in 32% better productivity
  • I’ve led teams from 5 to 50

In the About section you must establish a track record of success.

Skills Section

Usually the 45 seconds have expired and the viewer never gets to this section. But here is why this section is important. LinkedIn algorithms use this section in their search logic and it may lead prospects to you. Having 5-10 skills listed can be a great traffic driver.

The Experience Section

This is the section where most viewers will make their final decision to either engage or leave the profile.  If they liked your “About” section, they are looking to validate your bullet points. They are also looking to see if your career demonstrates increasing responsibility over time, and perhaps leadership roles.

Since LinkedIn only shows your current and last 1 or 2 roles on the page, you must make sure these roles are relevant to the visitor, and that they demonstrate experience that they would find helpful if they hired you. Otherwise, this information can only lead to you getting dropped by the viewer. 

Summary

Hopefully you see that  the short attention span of most busy executives is really an opportunity for you to differentiate your profile. Fact is most viewers are seeking reasons to drop your profile, when you want them to take action to connect. You must design your profile to this fact and make your profile impressive, brief and most importantly relevant!