LinkedIn profile headlines are important for so many reasons that might not be obvious at first. To understand why these examples are good, you first need to understand what the purpose of a headline is.
- First, they’re the first thing anyone will read about you when they visit your profile. It’s right under your name; how can they miss it?
- When someone sees a little “sidebox” representing you anywhere on LinkedIn, they won’t receive any information about you beyond your name, your headline, and your follower count. This is your only chance to impress them!
- LinkedIn pushes notifications out to your followers when you update your profile. Changing your headline can act as a newsflash or a breaking story for your existing connections.
- LinkedIn is a platform flooded with information, and most of it is unexciting. The best way to break through the white noise of predictable professionalism is to be fresh and different with your headline.
- Lastly, your LinkedIn headline is the most powerful “SEO” element on your profile. When people search key terms on LinkedIn or even on Google, the words in your headline are most likely to put you in the search results. Want to show up when people search for “Gym Marketing”? You better have that in your headline.
Keeping all of this in mind, here are a few example headlines from up-and-coming and viral influencers on LinkedIn. While they’re sorted into a few different categories, every single one of these headlines can help anyone think about how to create their own best headline.
Oh, and if you want to check out what their LinkedIn profiles currently look like, just click on the images!
LinkedIn Headline Examples for Job Seekers
Justin Wu’s headline opens with an insightful blurb about the importance of “hustle” for success compared to merely being talented (fun fact: phrases that flip the first and last word around like this are using a well-known and convincing rhetorical technique called “Chiasmus”). It’s memorable. It tells you something about what he values as a professional.
He then quickly conveys key facts about his professional identity, clearly separating them: he’s a Growth Hacker. He’s involved in the developing blockchain scene. He’s the founder of a Startup. That startup is Growth.ly.
Not only did we learn a ton about Justin and what he’s all about, we see several key terms that are important to his brand as a startup influencer.
Note: If you’re a startup founder, take a look at our specialty marketing services for startup marketing.
LinkedIn Headline Examples for Students or Recent Graduates
The way Josh Fechter laid out his headline is great for recent students or graduates who have achievements, credentials, and goals that are impressive or valuable.
He lists out his best resume items. For a student or recent graduate, this could be your best scholarship, an impressive paper you published, a particularly prestigious internship, or something that makes you unusual compared to your peers (in a good way).
Josh ends with a “mission statement”, an item that people early in their careers often benefit from stating outright when searching for new opportunities.
Aaron Orendorff keeps things simple. He has a primary job title and two truly impressive claims to fame. He allows those to absorb all of the attention and doesn’t dilute them by including comparatively unimpressive snippets of information.
This can be a lesson for you as a fresh graduate or recent student. For example, maybe you haven’t done a whole lot yet, but you were a Rhodes Scholar. That’s a big deal! Definitely don’t let people miss your biggest selling point when they visit your profile.
Professional Headline Examples for LinkedIn
Vin Clancy chooses not to cram as many keywords as possible into his headline, instead making his headline into his personal news ticker. Instead of listing titles and employers, he lists clients and outcomes.
And it’s reasonable to assume some people are still searching for terms like “brands” and “superfans”.
He ends with a “stay tuned” type of blurb that leaves people intrigued: what is the project? This tells people that Vin’s constantly at work on the next big thing. Perhaps they’ll even message him because they’re curious.
Gretta van Riel focuses on the positive outcomes that she’s achieved in the business world: between the startups, the Instagram volume, and the incredible e-commerce sales, her goal is to dazzle you.
If you were wondering whether Gretta was good at whatever she does, you probably aren’t anymore. By putting the truly unique information front and center (astounding results!), she prompts you to dig deeper into what she has to say and what she’s doing to get those results.
On top of that, she still has key search terms in there; you can bet people are searching for terms like “eCommerce” and “Startup”.
We hope you found this guide to viral influencer headlines helpful! Is there anything you think we should add? Tell us in the comments!
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