Top 6 Terms Mid-Career Female Leaders Cut from Their LinkedIn Bios
If you're anything like me, you do things fast in the name of efficiency, so 75% of the time you're reading, skimming, and 90% of the time you said, "I read somewhere that..." you mean: I read the headline.
1 zettabyte = one billion trillion bytes. And that was 10 years ago. I can only imagine how much that's grown in 2020.
When we consume info, we're looking for solutions to a specific problem we need to solve. In the realm of conference bio, LinkedIn profile, resume, or any kind of professional self-summary, those "problems" are:
Hiring
Promoting
Partnering
Investing
Following
And because we're overloaded with a zillion zettabytes, we're scanning for certain search terms. And because there's a zettabyte's worth of people out there hocking their wares, the search must be hyper-targeted.
Imagine your bio or elevator pitch as a mystery package for your audience. When they open it, they're hoping for the answer to their problem. So when you serve the same terms everyone else does, you've sent a package that's 99% packing peanuts.
If your audience can't find the answer to their problem in your bio, they'll move off and find someone who uses the search terms they’re looking for.
I have looked at a LOT of LinkedIn bios, help career women tell a cohesive story about all their experiences and leadership through that medium. I’ve even written a guide on how to tell your story for the Harvard Business Review that’s the top hit on “How to Write Your LinkedIn bio.”
So, without further ado, here are the:
Top 3 Worst Offenders In Linkedin Bios
1. "Cara is a (strategic/creative) problem solver"
What kind of problem do you solve?
What's your particular strategic/creative approach?
2. "Meredith is known as a results/solutions-driven marketer"
What results? Profits? Efficiency? Global Happiness Index?
How do you measure it? What are your stats?
3. "Lena prides herself on being a builder/connector"
Of what? Of whom? What's the specific end result you get with your building & connecting?
Honorable mentions
4. "Kate is a known business leader/expert"
Which industries? What's your niche?
5. "Mei's work concentrates on growth"
This is like "results" -- what kind of growth? What are your metrics? Name them.
6. Her specialties include: then you name 10 specialties
If you have more than 4-5 specialties, they aren't special. You're still projecting “generalist.” Which are the top 3 that define you? The ones you could do all day and love? Name those. Cut the rest.
There are a lot of reasons this happens. No time to concentrate on your brand. Hard to see the forest of trees. Fear of pegging yourself as a specialist. Lack of clarity on what you want out of your career.
It’s normal. But it keeps you from connecting with the people you want to influence most.
Curious to learn more?
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