LinkedIn Headlines: Your Essential “Stalker”

Bob Woods

You may not know it, but you have a stalker on LinkedIn. You can’t get rid of this particular stalker, either. There’s no way to block or report this stalker. What’s more, LinkedIn wants this stalker to “follow” you everywhere.

Once you find out about this stalker, you should actually embrace it.

That’s right. Your “stalker” is your Headline. You know, that line that appears usually next to or below your photo and/or name on LinkedIn.

Think about it. When you post almost any kind of content on LinkedIn, when you appear in someone else’s “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” or “Who’s Viewed Your Posts” feed, or even when you appear in one of your connection’s News Feeds… your Headline “follows” you.

Since LinkedIn is giving you and your stalker this valuable real estate, you should strive to use it to its highest and best use.

Using Your Stalker the Wrong Way

Let’s quickly go over what your Headline should NOT be:

1. It should NOT be your title. Sorry, but “Account Representative at Acme Ultimate Widgets” doesn’t cut it anymore.
   
2. It should NOT be keywords, like “Widget Sales | Widget Parts | Widget Selling | Account Rep at Acme Ultimate Widgets.” That strategy was popular a few years ago. (DO keep that, though, for your Job Title in the Experience area of your profile.)
   
3. It should NOT be something “cute” that reflects your personality. “Head Cook and Bottle Washer at ABC Local Tech Company” is not appropriate.

None of these Headline examples tells those who see your name, photo and Headline throughout LinkedIn why they should visit your Profile. And that’s the goal of everything you do on LinkedIn: To attract viewers to your Profile.

Law of Attraction

You want to “attract” people to your Profile by phrasing your Headline to provide your value proposition, or what you bring to your customers or clients when you sell your product or service to them. Few things scare a LinkedIn user away from connecting with someone else than seeing the phrase “sales rep,” “sales manager,” etc., in someone’s headline.

Instead, try writing a Headline that piques curiosity, creates immediate engagement and gets them to click on your name or photo. Here’s a couple of “value proposition” examples:

• Helping Manufacturers and Distributors Leverage Technology to be More Effective
  
• Learn 3 Ways Manufacturers and Distributors Leverage Technology to Be More Effective by Reading My Summary

There’s all kinds of examples out there. But just remember to create engagement and curiosity in your headline to attract LinkedIn users to your Summary and Profile.

A quick note here: I had advised against using keywords in your Headline. Let’s amend that: Use keywords, but utilize them in a natural, non-keyword’y way.

Almost Perfect

You can even have a very minor call-to-action (CTA) in your Headline. It should ideally “point” people to your own LinkedIn Profile to learn more about what you do. Your Profile should also highlight why you are the person to go to in your industry.

Here’s one example of an almost-perfect Headline CTA: I’ve noticed a lot of my fellow Social Selling practitioners use this phrase (or something to the effect of it) at the end of their headlines:

Learn How in My Summary Below…

This is about as much of a CTA you should have in a Headline. As you might have guessed by now, though, this specific phrase is not totally effective. Why? If a reader sees this in a Headline, but the Headline is in, say, a Group post or “Who’s Viewed Your Profile”… well, there is no “Summary Below,” is there?

You might think, “Well, this person should know they need to go to my Profile to see my Summary.” I’d reply by saying, “Why take that chance?” It’s that simple, actually. Instead, use this type of phrasing (like I do):

Learn How in My Profile Summary…

This tells your reader that to learn more about whatever it is you do, she or he needs to visit your Profile—which they can by clicking your name or Profile photo. It’s a very simple tweak, but an effective one.

By effectively using the 120 precious characters you have in your Headline, you can turn this particular “stalker” from a do-good-for-nothing waste of space into a high-profile (pardon the pun) marketing message that draws people to your Profile from just about anywhere your name is seen on LinkedIn.

This post first appeared on LinkedIn.

(177)