Your LinkedIn profile is either working for you or against you

Most professionals underestimate how much a well-positioned LinkedIn profile does around the clock. While you sleep, attend meetings and run your business, your profile is quietly doing one of two things: opening doors, or closing them.

A decision-maker searching for your expertise lands on your profile, reads for a few seconds, and either sees why they should talk to you or moves on to someone else.

The CV trap

The most common problem we see is a profile that reads like a CV: job titles, responsibilities and dates, written for a recruiter in 2012. It tells people where you've been. It doesn't tell them what you can do for them.

Rewriting it around what you can do for the reader changes who gets in touch, and why.

Four signs your profile is working against you

• Your headline is your job title. “HR Manager | MBA” describes a role. It doesn't say who you help or the outcome you create.
• Your About section starts with “I am a results-driven professional…” Phrases like that appear on thousands of profiles, so readers skip them. Say what you've actually done, and for whom.
• You don't show up in search. If the people looking for your expertise use words that aren't on your profile, LinkedIn can't connect you.
• Your best opportunities came from everywhere except LinkedIn. Usually that's a problem with the profile rather than the platform.

What a profile that works for you looks like

A profile that works for you answers three questions in seconds: who you help, how you help them, and why you're the one to trust. It uses the language your audience uses. It's structured so the right keywords show up in the right places. And it gives people a clear next step.

After an Elevate Beyond optimization, clients have seen up to five times more profile views, and many report more inbound inquiries within weeks of the new profile going live. One client, an HR consultant, told us she was receiving more inquiries than she could take on, because her value was finally being communicated clearly.

Where to start

Start with your headline. Rewrite it so a stranger could finish this sentence: “This person helps ___ to ___.” Then look at the first three lines of your About section, the only part most people read before clicking “see more.” Make them about your audience's problem, not your history.