How to Write Your LinkedIn About Section if You're a Small Business Owner

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First off, let's be clear: if you're a business owner trying to use LinkedIn to grow your business, you need to be using the platform in a very specific way, and that way is very different to the way most people use it!

That's because most people are employees of some type and many of them are using LinkedIn to advertise themselves to potential future employers in one way or another, actively or passively.

YOU, on the other hand, should not be looking for a new job if you're serious about your business! Unless things are going south of course, but in that case you should probably stop reading this now and get to work on your CV or resume...

So, although most LinkedIn Experts will tell you to write a story about yourself in your About section, you should never do that if you're using LinkedIn for your business (with one notable exception that I'll come to shortly) because most LinkedIn Experts are advising employees, not business owners.

If you're a small business owner, your LinkedIn About section should be about YOUR CLIENTS, not about you!

People who are looking to solve a problem that you can potentially help them solve are only interested in whether you can help them solve it or not. They don't care about you, your qualifications, your story (unless it's similar to theirs) or any personal details about you, at least not until they get to know you...

That might sound callous but the truth is that we are egocentric animals primarily concerned with our own survival and well-being. That's not a bad thing. It doesn't mean we aren't prepared to help others, it just means that we're hard-wired to help ourselves first. And our lizard brains are only on the lookout for things that will help us thrive or survive and this is especially true when we don't know someone.

So when you write your about section, do it that way - if you keep reading I'll give you a template you can download to help you! ??

Before you do anything else though, let's cover a few rules that you'd do very well to follow...

1. DO NOT WRITE IN THIRD PERSON

Please... just don't!

It makes me cringe when I see it! ??

I don't know how or when it became fashionable, but to me, writing anything at all in third person is just so... well, impersonal!

If your About section is about your clients and maybe a little about yourself then write it as if you were speaking to your ideal client in person! You wouldn't talk about them yourself by saying something like "Adrian can help you improve your performance on LinkedIn". You'd say something like "I can help you improve your performance on LinkedIn".

It sounds so obvious but you wouldn't believe how many people fall into this trap! I've probably tried to erase it from my memory but when I was in the corporate world I think I may even have done it myself in the early days of using LinkedIn! (Please don't tell anyone ??)

Nothing makes my heart sink more than when I see a LinkedIn About section that begins with something like: "John Smith is a successful leader with a proven ability to get results for clients and a demonstrated history of xyz..."

I mean - who actually talks like this! If someone introduced themselves this way to you in person you'd think they were either pulling a prank on your or had lost the plot!

Let's not forget that LinkedIn is a social media platform. Yes, it may be focussed on professionals but even professionals are still normal people that have normal conversations.

People are interested in real people. So just be yourself. Be real and act like you would if you were in a casual conversation with someone. Write everything as you would say it in person. NEVER write it in third person... PLEASE!

2. WRITE ABOUT YOUR CLIENTS

I know... when you see 'About' you just want to write about you, your experiences, your views and your feelings. I get it. I've even done it myself!

And there's nothing wrong with that. It's perfectly human. Some people will even want to read it.

BUT, people who don't know you, but may be interested in what you have to offer, and even be considering working with you don't care about all that stuff! At least not yet...

Think of your LinkedIn profile as an ad on a billboard. You don't see BMW putting ads out there talking about their proud history, their views on the world or how they feel about the world. There's a very good reason for that!

Yes, there is an argument that says people buy your 'Why' not your 'What' and I actually agree with that. But they'll only get to that point once their frontal lobe gets involved in any decisions that will be made about working with you. And that hasn't happened yet!

Focus on the problems your audience experiences and show that you know how to help them solve those problems. Talking about your experience, training, qualifications etc. in your About section just becomes noise. If people want to know this info they can scroll down to all those sections further down your profile.

3. USE YOUR EMPATHY

Before you write a single word you should have your ideal client front and centre of your mind. This goes for anything you write about your business by the way!

Use your empathy and become them and always read whatever you write back to yourself when you’re in this state to be sure that it resonates.

We all have empathy. Few of us actually use it when it comes to creating our online presence though. This is a crying shame because, (in my opinion), empathy is the single most important trait to have when it comes to business.

Being able to truly put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client, see life through their eyes and then write whatever you put out in the world about your business from that place will transform how your message is received.

CREATING YOUR ABOUT SECTION

So now it's time to have a go at this yourself. ??

Here's a simple template you can use to get you going. Just make a copy and edit it as you see fit. This template is great if your personal story doesn't have much to do with your product or service.

If it does, for example if you're a life coach that helps people that are in a situation you were in earlier in your life, then you can definitely use your personal story. There's a formula known as 'the hero's journey' that's VERY effective in this case. That's a whole other topic though....

Remember that you only have 2,600 characters for the entire About section.

Also, try to include keywords and key phrases related to your offer, what you do, your clients problems and the goals they are trying to reach. Maybe I'll go into details about keywords in an upcoming article... ??

One more thing to look out for is that if you want to add links, you can, BUT they're only clickable from the mobile app and not the desktop version of LinkedIn. Don't ask me why - only LinkedIn has the answer to that! ????

When you consider that at the last count 57% of LinkedIn usage is from a mobile device though, I think it's worth adding important links to your about section.

OK, that's it! Good luck updating your LinkedIn Profile About Section. Let me know how you get on.

And if you want some help with your profile, why not book a LinkedIn Profile Audit with me? I'll go through your profile in detail with you, pull it to pieces and help you put it back together again in a way that speaks to your audience and potential clients in such a way that they'll sit up and pay attention. There is currently a 75% discount on it! ??