When it comes to platforms that social media marketers can leverage for their own careers, it’s hard to beat LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn is insanely valuable for social media practitioners, whether you’re running your own business, securing a new client or job, or just trying to build up your own thought leadership.

In order to really attract attention on LinkedIn, you need to have a strong LinkedIn profile. A crucial part of that is your LinkedIn summary. 

In this post, we’re going to go over how to write a high-performing summary for your LinkedIn profile, and we’ll take a look at a few examples.

Why Your LinkedIn Summary Matters So Much 

The summary for your LinkedIn profile will appear on your profile page underneath your profile picture, job title, and highlights. It is one of the first things that people see when they view your page, and it’s where you get to really showcase what makes you unique. 

Your job title shows past experience, for example, but not details like performance metrics, details of your job role, or traits that you may have that can help you exceed.

In the summary for Jonathon's LinkedIn profile, which you can see above, he gets the chance to stress the following:

• I’m motivated and strategic, and this has led to demonstrated success 
• Extensive training and experience in different subjects 
• Explanations of Jonathon's two ventures and their status now 

What Your LinkedIn Summary Needs to Accomplish 

Before you start writing your LinkedIn summary, it’s good to remember what it needs to accomplish.

Your summary should:

• Be unique. Don’t just copy and paste a summary from a template. You’re unique as a candidate, with unique experience, skills, traits, and lived experience; make sure that’s reflected. 
• Explain relevant experience that makes you competitive. This is where you can elaborate on what people will find by looking at your job and education history. Share details about why you performed well in those roles, your process for working, or what resulted from your work. 
• Highlight unique traits. Are you data-driven? An outstanding team member? A confident but empathetic leader? Keep in mind that people want to work with people they like and who are a strong fit for their company culture, so showcasing what you can bring to a team is invaluable. 

Detail what you’re looking for. Are you open to new employment opportunities? Or maybe you’re a freelancer who works with real estate agents and home developers? Explain who you work with or what services you offer, and what work you’re open to learning about; this is crucial. 

How Long Should My LinkedIn Summary Be? 

Your LinkedIn summary (now called the “About” section) must be under 2,000 characters. 

At least a few sentences is best; you don’t want to just say “Social media practitioner with five years of experience seeking full-time work.” That feels a little dull and uninspired. You also don’t want to ramble on forever.

If you stick to a solid paragraph that explains who you are, what makes you a qualified worker, and what you’re looking for, you should be good to go. 

LinkedIn Profile Summary Template for Social Media Marketers 

In many cases, it’s much easier to put together social media profiles for others than it is to try to compile them for ourselves. 

While the options for your LinkedIn profile summary are endless, here’s a template that can help you get you started: 

“ [Unique trait] social media practitioner with [x years experience] and [education]. Worked with [types of clients/ customers] on [types of projects], which resulted in [results/experience]. Prioritises [unique approach] to drive [specific results]. 

Here’s what this can turn into:

“Data-driven social media marketer with 4 years of experience and an education from Social Media College. Worked with two different agencies on B2B accounts including organic and paid marketing, resulting in conversion rate increases of up to 4.5%. Prioritises a tested, systematic approach combined with best practices and hard data to get results.” 

Or: 

“Freelance social media marketer with 8 years of experience. I’ve worked with over three clients, the majority of whom had sales volumes of 500k+ per year, to offer boutique social services to increase customer retention and reach. By using a custom approach and tailored-to-you services, I’ll help you get the results you want fast.”

3 Exceptional LinkedIn Profile Summaries for Social Media Marketers 

Looking for new ways to stand out? You can draw some inspiration from these three outstanding summaries for your LinkedIn profile.

1. Simone Cameron 

Simone’s summary is a great example of how you can showcase value as as an individual and a social media company. She explains the value of her agency’s services, talks about the experience her team has. It ends with a reminder that you need these services to help your business grow.  

3. Max Doyle 

Max is the CEO of a social media agency and has been developing a social media scheduling tool. His profile summary really demonstrates how passionate he is, how he focuses on innovation and storytelling when it comes to helping their clients stand out above the rest. And even better: He uses storytelling in his own profile, showing how effective that can be.

Final Thoughts 

You want to put your best foot forward on LinkedIn, and your social media summary is the best option for that. Taking the time to write a high-performing summary for your LinkedIn profile will always be key, allowing you to highlight what makes you great no matter what type of opportunities you’re looking for.