How can you create a bio that highlights your strengths?

This is very important because if we don't know our purpose, a LinkedIn bio can end up seeming like an impersonal Wikipedia page on a celebrity. And so, we really need to be very strategic about it and craft the copy accordingly.

In order to answer this question I'm going to reflect on my learning experience in college. While attending Charter Oak State College we learned how to create a Annotated Bibliography. The Purpose of an Annotated Bibliography is to provide an overview of the main issues, arguments, and research within a particular area and to identify relevance between the information sources. These concepts are the same thing you can use when creating a Bibliography. Let's break it down a little bit more. 1. Provide an overview of a main issue/ Bibliography provide an overview of the person's main or key skills. 2. Identify relevance between the information sources/ Bibliography The Who, The What, The Where, The How, The When.

You can still be credible with a first person, friendly tone of voice ??What you say and how you say it are 2 different things. For me, writing in the first person is a must. I have a very conversational tone of voice and part of my mission is to help other business owners see they CAN be themselves and celebrate that. We are dampened down by some many rules and expectations in life, especially in the corporate world, and it has been life changing for me to be able to be myself once I went self-employed. I work for corporate clients yet get constant feedback about how easy I am to work with and I quickly build great relationships. Along with my skills, being myself and using the first person tone has been a huge part of this.

Additionally, this also depends on the domain where you are in. If you're a senior leader with tremendous experience and in a domain that demands a level of 'seriousness', it's better to stick to the third person tone. On the other hand, if you're a much younger professional, it's better to be more friendly and approachable. This tone also works for those who are in more creatively-oriented professions like marketing.

As we move from the age of attention into the age of intimacy, a first person voice will become more valuable than perhaps it was a decade ago. Likewise, as decline in corporations increases, the invisible brand of ‘we’ becomes less credible so if you are literally a sole trader best to say I than we.

Additionally, it's important to use the right keywords for your experience as well. For instance, if you are in analytics, talk about the specific domain you're working in and the type of work that you do. Simply writing 'I'm a data science professional' would be vague. An action-oriented bio with sentences like 'I am a data engineer with 6+ years of demonstrated experience in the healthcare domain' would be a better approach.

It would certainly sound more credible if you insert a Quote from your employer to underline a skill that is needed in the New work surrounding. It's maybe not expected and may add a subject íve note tó yor?ur application/bio.

I hugely disagree with the last sentence, “However, you should avoid being too casual, informal, or slangy, as this might undermine your professionalism and credibility.” I am so casual and informal and that has been a huge superpower for me and my business. I quickly establish relationships, make people feel at ease, make it fun and get amazing feedback on working with me - because I’m informal and myself. We have to be careful making generic statements like this as for some businesses, clients, audiences etc this informality can be a huge selling point. Many of my coaching clients come to me because I’m open, honest and informal and they are fed up of the falseness elsewhere in the industry.

The vast majority of bios fall into a single category: boring. When my clients ask me to develop theirs, my task is to capture who they are ... not what they are ... in 100 or 250 words. Your bio shouldn't be a paragraph version of your resume or CV. Maybe it needs to sound like what a friend or colleague might say when introducing you. Maybe it should make a prospect want to hang out with you. Might even give that prospect the confidence to choose what you offer. (By the way, this also applies to your LinkedIn profile.)

In focusing on engaging on the platform and posting content, I forgot for a long time about my bio. Now I schedule a reminder in my diary to check it every couple of months. My services and skills have been evolving rapidly so it’s important to ensure it is always up-to-date. And I’m very transparent about the constant changes and evolutions so it is clear it is intentional, not a mistake.

Do make sure to add relevant links that you want to highlight next to your bio. Be it your portfolio or your other social media pages, do look at opportunities to make your bio more visual.