LinkedIn Headline Examples

With over 690 million users across the planet in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is the professional social media network where you need to be. Whether you are building your network as a professional, expanding your company, or looking for clientele or a job, LinkedIn is the social network that can serve many new opportunities.

Just as you would suit up, spiff up, and offer your best in a job interview or business meeting, you should do the same with your LinkedIn profile. Your headline resides just at the top of your professional profile. What’s the first thing visitors see on LinkedIn when they check you out?

When creating your profile, you can hit default, which will list your current job title. This works, but within 120 characters, you can say much more about who you are and what you have to offer. Make sure you stand out with these tips to create the best LinkedIn headline with a few examples.

5 Important Tips to Write Great LinkedIn Headlines

Before creating the LinkedIn headline that will get you noticed, take the time to get professional tips. Here are five tips to help you write great LinkedIn headlines.

1. Create your headline with your target audience in mind. 

Who is it you want to attract to your LinkedIn profile? You should know this first and foremost before you get started. Knowing your target audience tells you what these people are likely looking for in a prospect, potential connection, or candidate.

2. Highlight your unique selling proposition (USP).

The USP is the attribute about you that others may not always have to offer. This could be a prior-held position, a specific credential or achievement, or even a professional quality. Toss this into your headline to make the content more representative of who you are as an individual and a professional.

3. Use basic terminology.

Avoid being too wordy or fluffy where your terminology is concerned. Don’t use big words where shorter, more common words will do. You don’t need the wasted character space, but you should also be going for simplicity.

In other words, resist the urge to use more powerful words to make a good impression. You want every person who lands on your profile to get what you have to say and not leave your profile confused.

4. Portray your competency without bragging.

A fine line exists between simply stating your accomplishments and bragging, and many professionals inadvertently cross that line without knowing it. Unfortunately, if you have to brag about yourself to get noticed, you will likely be getting negative attention and not positive. Steer clear of hyperbole and work your way toward authenticity instead.

Remember, show, and avoid telling.

You may be intelligent and good at marketing, but try to show why or how instead of stating so. For instance, you could tell you increased company revenue by 75% through personalized marketing plans.

5. Don’t forget the value of SEO.

Like any search engine, the bots at LinkedIn will crawl across profile headlines to find suitable matches. Those people who are on LinkedIn scouting out specific professionals are likely going to use certain keywords and phrases in the search bar. So using industry-related keywords in your headline can make you more searchable.

7 Examples of Well-Written LinkedIn Headlines

Every LinkedIn headline will be different, and you must inject your attributes. However, you can learn a lot by looking at some of the best examples professionals have created as their headlines. Take a look at some of the best examples of professionally constructed headlines and, most importantly, what the professional did that made the headline work.

1. Stating What You Do and Offer 

Sometimes, a good headline on LinkedIn is all about saying who you are and how you can help, which is just what publicity expert Joan Stewart does with her headline. Joan explains who she is as a professional and further state the type of client she serves. Separated neatly with periods, it is easy to understand why she would be a valuable connection.

2. Making a Personal Brand Statement 

Ed Han creates a rather lengthy headline, but it includes everything a prospect would want to see: who he is, how he’s contributed professionally, and what he has to offer as a recruiter. Including the call to action at the end is a creative way to get job seekers to take note.

3. Calling Out the Pertinent Titles  

When you have a lot of credentials under your belt, like Gary Vaynerchuk, you may have a hard time including quite everything. However, Gary’s headline pretty much nails down the essential attributes and then finishes with an impressive accomplishment that he is a New York Times five-time bestselling author.

4. Injecting Some Personality 

If you’re relatively successful in your career role and want to highlight your personality, injecting humor in your headline is fine. Some onlookers can see this as a welcome break from the ordinary and be more than happy to connect. For example, Katie Clancy of The Cape House real estate proclaims in her headline that she is “the happiest person in real estate.”

5. Creating a Collaborative Explanation of Skills and Interests 

Highlight your skills, experience, and interests in one short headline, and people get to know a lot about you. Allie K. Miller, which is a LinkedIn Top Voice candidate, does an excellent job of offering a collaboration of her professional skills and interests in a way that is clear-cut and easy to read.

6. Dropping Hints About Accomplishments 

You founded a company, have been a mentor, and accomplished a personal goal—try integrating these impressive attributes into your LinkedIn headline like Julia McCoy. Julia provides her accomplishments, separated by vertical slashes, and briefly explains what she has to offer.

7. Simple and Straightforward 

If you are well-known already for your industry or services, there may be no reason to get too frilly with your LinkedIn headlines. Take notes from Arianna Huffington, the well-recognized founder, and CEO of Thrive Global and listed as one of the biggest influencers on the LinkedIn platform for 2020. Her LinkedIn headline is simple—no need for additives when you are a well-known professional.