Why does my LinkedIn profile matter?
Your profile is often the first place people look when they see your content or receive a connection request from you. If someone resonates with something you post, the first thing they do is visit your profile to figure out who you are.
If you make that hard for people, you lose opportunity.
They won’t play detective to work out what you do. They’ll just move on.
How quickly do people decide if my profile is relevant to them?
About four seconds. That’s it.
When someone lands on your profile, they’ll glance at the top section (your photo, banner, and headline) and make a snap judgement. They’re not going to scroll through your experience, read your about section, and piece it all together.
If it’s not obvious in four seconds what you do and who you help, you’ve lost them.
What’s the biggest mistake people make with their LinkedIn profile?
Leading with what they do instead of the problem they solve or the outcome they deliver.
Saying “I’m a consultant” or “I’m an executive coach” means nothing.
It’s a job title. Your prospects don’t care about your job title. They care about what you can do for them.
Lead with the problem you solve or the outcome you help people achieve. Your target audience should look at your profile and immediately think “I want that” or “That’s my problem.”
Should I try to be clever with my headline and banner?
No. Clear beats clever every time.
Phrases like “transforming lives through digital” or “strategic transformation of business outcomes” might sound impressive, but they mean nothing to your prospects.
These vague brand messages get lost on LinkedIn.
Unless you’re a household name where everyone already knows what you do, you have to be specific. In a short attention span environment, you cannot afford to keep people guessing.
Do my banner and headline need to work together?
They need to work independently.
If your headline needs the banner to explain it, or your banner needs the headline to make sense, you’ve done it wrong. Each element should deliver clarity on its own.
Your headline appears on every comment, post, and connection request.
Your banner only shows on your profile. Both need to communicate your value without relying on the other.
What should I put in the services section?
Use it as a billboard to show people how you work.
Most people treat the services section like a job listing. Instead, use it to give context. One to one coaching, group programmes, corporate workshops, keynote speaking. Whatever your delivery methods are, spell them out.
This helps people picture working with you. They see your promise at the top, then understand “Oh, this is how they actually deliver it.”
What should I put in my featured section?
Stop pinning random posts. It looks messy and wastes valuable space.
Your featured section is clickable real estate. Use it to drive people to things that benefit you: your main offer, a lead magnet, your podcast, case studies, or testimonials.
A few tips:
- Remove the descriptions. When you add a description, people have to click twice to reach your link. No description means they go straight through.
- Create custom thumbnails. Design simple graphics in Canva that tell people exactly what they’ll get when they click. Let the image do the heavy lifting.
- Lead with your main offer. Put whatever generates conversations or makes you money in the first spot.
Can I appeal to multiple audiences with one profile?
Not effectively.
If you have multiple personas in your head, it shows in your messaging.
You try to appeal to everyone and end up looking like a generalist to all of them.
A lawyer looking at a generic “helping business owners” profile will think they need someone who specialises in legal. A cybersecurity consultant will think their solution is too complex for a generalist.
In trying to appeal to both, you resonate with neither.
The only exception is when the problem or outcome is almost identical for both audiences. Lawyers and accountants, for example, face very similar challenges. But if the problems differ, you need to pick one.
Does my profile affect how my content performs?
Yes. LinkedIn’s algorithm now reads your profile to determine how much expertise you have in what you post.
If your profile is generic and the algorithm can’t figure out who you’re for, your content won’t reach the right people.
You could have 30,000 perfect connections, but if you’re speaking in generic language, the algorithm will limit your distribution.
Your profile clarity directly impacts your content reach.
Should I assume people remember my previous posts?
No. Assume everyone seeing your profile knows nothing about you.
You cannot assume people remember your posts. You cannot assume that because you mentioned your offer last week, anyone will recall it.
Everything has to be episodic.
Every post, every profile visit, treat it as someone seeing you for the first time.
Your profile has to do its job every single time someone lands on it.
Why do people struggle to create clear profiles?
Because they haven’t decided who they’re going after.
Most people have multiple personas in their head and haven’t committed to one target audience. When you try to speak to multiple different buyers, you end up going middle of the road with your messaging.
Until you settle on one primary audience and one primary problem you solve, your profile will always lack clarity.