How to Write a LinkedIn Summary (About Section): Tips + 8 Examples
Oct 14, 2026
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15 mins read
A LinkedIn summary is the free-text section of your profile where you explain who you are, who you help, and what you want people to do next. LinkedIn now calls it the About section, and it gives you up to 2,600 characters to work with.
With more than 1 billion members on LinkedIn, the About section is one of the few places where you control the story in your own words. Your photo and headline get someone to click on your profile. Your summary is what convinces them to connect, reply, or reach out.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to write a LinkedIn summary step by step, what to include, how long it should be, and 8 examples you can adapt for your own profile.
Key Takeaways
Your LinkedIn summary (now called the About section) gives you up to 2,600 characters to explain who you help and why it matters.
Hook readers immediately with a captivating opener that speaks to their pain points or shares a unique story.
Showcase your skills and accomplishments using numbers and quantifiable results to prove your value.
Infuse your personality and authentic voice to build rapport and make your summary memorable.
Optimize your summary with relevant keywords, a clear call-to-action, and a conversational tone. Only the first few lines show before “see more,” so lead with your strongest line.
Why Is Your LinkedIn Summary Important?
Your LinkedIn summary sits below your name, photo, and headline, and it’s where visitors go to learn more once your headline has caught their attention. It’s a brief introduction that tells visitors who you are, what you do, and what you’re looking for. It’s also an opportunity to showcase your personality, values, and unique strengths.
A well-written LinkedIn summary can help you:
Attract potential employers or clients: Your LinkedIn summary is your digital pitch – so make it unique to you! A strong summary can pique the interest of prospects and encourage them to connect with you.
Support your visibility: Including the terms your audience actually uses makes your profile more relevant to the people you want to reach, and may help you show up when they search for those terms.
Set you apart: Your LinkedIn summary is an opportunity to showcase your unique value proposition. While there are plenty of LinkedIn summaries out there, there are none for your exact experience and personality.
LinkedIn Summary vs. About Section: What’s the Difference?
There isn’t one. LinkedIn renamed the Summary section to About, but it works the same way: it’s the free-text section of your profile where you describe yourself in your own words. You’ll still see both names used, which is why this guide uses them interchangeably.
Where to find it: Your About section appears on your profile below your intro section (your photo, name, and headline). To edit it, go to your profile and click the pencil icon on the About section. If you don’t have one yet, select the Add profile section to add it.
How it differs from your headline: Your headline is limited to 220 characters and appears next to your name across LinkedIn, including in search results, comments, and invitations. Your About section allows up to 2,600 characters and lives on your profile. Think of the headline as the hook and the summary as the full pitch.
How to Write a LinkedIn Summary: 9 Tips That Work
Whether you’re job hunting or looking for clients, your summary is competing with thousands of others. These nine tips will help yours get read.
1. Hook Your Readers
Your LinkedIn summary should start with a strong opener that hooks your readers and makes them want to read on. Only the first few lines of your About section show before the “see more” link, so your opener has to earn the click. A compelling opener can help you establish a connection with your audience and set the tone for the rest of your summary.
To write a captivating opener, try to:
Address your target audience: Who are you writing for? What are their pain points or challenges? Addressing your target audience directly can help you establish a connection and make your summary more relatable.
Start with a question or a provocative statement: Starting with a question or a provocative statement can pique your audience’s interest and make them want to learn more.
Share a personal story: Sharing a personal story can be a great way to add a human touch to your summary and make it more memorable. You could share a brief anecdote about a challenge you faced in your career or a moment that inspired you to pursue your current profession.
Highlight a unique value proposition: What sets you apart from others in your field? Highlighting a unique value proposition can help you stand out and make a strong case for why you’re the right fit for a particular job or opportunity.
Overall, a captivating opener is essential to grabbing your audience’s attention and keeping them engaged throughout your LinkedIn summary. By addressing your target audience, starting with a question or provocative statement, sharing a personal story, or highlighting your unique value proposition, you can create a summary that truly stands out.
2. Speak to Your Industry Expertise
Your LinkedIn summary should speak to your industry expertise and demonstrate your thought leadership. This will help you position yourself as an authority in your field and attract the right people.
Here are a few ways you can speak to your industry expertise in your LinkedIn summary:
Share your insights: Share your unique perspectives on industry trends and best practices.
Show your experience: Highlight your experience and how it’s prepared you to excel in your field.
Share your successes: Share your accomplishments and how they’ve contributed to your success in your industry.
3. Use Relevant Keywords
Using relevant keywords in your LinkedIn summary can help you appear in relevant search results and attract the right people. Some types of keywords include:
Use industry-specific terminology: Use terms that are commonly used in your industry. This will help you appear in search results for those terms.
Use job-specific keywords: Use keywords that are relevant to the job you’re looking for. This will help you appear in search results for those jobs.
Use location-specific keywords: If you’re looking for a job in a specific location, use keywords that are relevant to that location.
4. Show, Don’t Tell
Rather than telling people that you’re a great candidate for the job, show them. Use concrete examples to demonstrate your skills and experience.
Showing rather than telling can be one of the more confusing parts of writing a successful LinkedIn summary. Here are a few ways you can show:
Describe specific examples: Use specific examples to demonstrate your achievements and how you’ve added value to your previous roles.
Quantify your achievements: Use numbers and statistics to quantify your accomplishments. This will make them more tangible and impressive.
Use testimonials: If you have testimonials from previous clients or employers, include them in your summary. This will help you build credibility and trust with your target audience.
Including a call-to-action in your LinkedIn summary can help you convert visitors into leads or clients.
Here are some tips for writing a CTA on your LinkedIn summary:
Be clear and specific: Tell your audience exactly what you want them to do, whether it’s to contact you for more information, visit your website, or connect with you on LinkedIn.
Provide value: Offer something of value in exchange for their action, such as a free consultation or a useful resource.
Make it easy: Provide clear instructions on how to take action, and make it as easy as possible for your audience to follow through.
Highlighting your professional interests can help you attract the right people and opportunities. This also helps position you as an expert in your field, which is a core part of building a personal brand on LinkedIn. Here’s how you can establish yourself as an expert in your field:
Share your industry passions: What are you passionate about in your industry? Share those passions with your audience to help them understand what motivates and drives you.
Talk about your goals: What are your professional goals? Share those goals with your audience to help them understand what you’re working towards.
Discuss your future plans: What are your plans for the future? Share those plans with your audience to help them see where you’re headed and what you’re working towards.
7. Tailor Your Summary to Your Audience
Your LinkedIn summary should be tailored to your target audience. Some examples of target audiences are recruiters, product managers, and high-level engineering leaders. No matter what your target audience is, speaking directly to them is essential. Here’s what we recommend doing:
Use language they understand: Use language and terminology that’s familiar to your target audience. Let’s face it, anyone without a degree in language isn’t going to understand what you mean by “resplendent accismus.”
Address their pain points: Identify the pain points of your target audience and explain how you can help them in your summary.
Focus on their needs: Focus on the needs of your target audience, rather than your own needs. This will help you position yourself as a valuable resource and partner.
The more clearly you can picture your reader, the easier this gets. If you haven’t defined them yet, start with our guide on how to create an effective buyer persona.
8. Use a Conversational Tone
Gone are the days of extreme professionalism. While that doesn’t mean you should be wearing your 10-year-old Pink Floyd concert t-shirt to a job interview, it means you can get away with using less formal language.
Your LinkedIn summary should be written in a conversational tone, making it easy and enjoyable to read. This will help you engage your audience and make your summary more memorable. Here’s how you can turn something formal into something conversational:
Write as if you were talking: Write in a tone that feels natural and conversational, as if you were speaking to someone in person.
Use contractions: Using contractions can help you sound more conversational and approachable (ex., can’t, won’t, shouldn’t).
Be concise: Keep your sentences short and to the point, and avoid using jargon or technical language that may be unfamiliar to your audience.
9. Share Your Personality
A lot of LinkedIn summaries are similar. To truly stand out, we recommend adding some personality. That means tell a joke, a personal story, or what you enjoy doing on your weekends.
To share your personality, try to:
Use an authentic voice: Write in a tone that feels authentic and true to who you are. This will help you come across as more approachable and relatable.
Share your values and passions: What are you passionate about? What are your core values? Sharing these elements can help you connect with people who share similar interests and values.
If you use LinkedIn to find clients, your summary has a specific job: convincing a prospect to accept your request or reply to your message. Profile Score is built for exactly that. It’s free, with no sign-up needed, and rates your profile from 0 to 100 across six sections, including your summary and headline, then shows you what’s already working, the one change that would help most, and why it matters for outreach.
How Long Should a LinkedIn Summary Be?
LinkedIn gives you up to 2,600 characters for your About section, which is roughly 400 words. You don’t need to use all of it. For most people, three to five short paragraphs is enough to cover who you help, your proof, and a call to action.
Two formatting points to keep in mind: Only the first few lines show before the “see more” link, so your opening line carries the most weight. The About section is plain text, with no built-in bold or bullet formatting. Use line breaks and simple symbols (like → or •) to make it easy to scan.
8 LinkedIn Summary and About Section Examples
Use these examples as starting points. Swap in your own role, results, and audience, because a summary only works if it’s specific to you.
1. LinkedIn Summary Example for a Seasoned Professional
“I help B2B SaaS companies turn marketing into a pipeline.
Over the past 15 years, I’ve led marketing teams at early-stage startups, a public-sector organization, and a high-growth tech company. That mix taught me how to build demand from scratch, scale what works, and keep teams steady through change.
What I focus on today: → Demand and lead generation → Brand and creative strategy → Sales enablement → Events and field marketing
I care about marketing that sales teams actually thank you for, and I mentor marketers who want to move into leadership.
If you’re building a marketing function or want to talk about career growth, send me a message.”
Why This Works: The first line states the outcome this person delivers, so it lands before the “see more” cutoff. The career history is compressed into one sentence, the focus areas are easy to scan, and the closing CTA speaks to two audiences: companies hiring and marketers looking for mentorship.
2. LinkedIn Summary Example for a Career Changer
“Finance taught me to make complicated numbers clear. Now I do the same with design.
After six years as a financial analyst, I moved into graphic design through online courses and freelance work. Since then, I’ve designed logos, pitch decks, and marketing materials for small businesses and startups, often for founders who need to explain something complex in a simple way.
What I bring from finance: tight deadlines don’t scare me, details matter, and every design has to earn its place.
If you need a designer who understands both the numbers and the visuals, send me a message or check my Featured section for recent work.”
Why This Works: The first line connects the old career to the new one, so the change reads as a strength, not a gap. It backs up the switch with real projects, turns finance experience into a selling point, and ends with a clear CTA that points to proof.
3. LinkedIn Summary Example for a Recent Graduate or Job Seeker
“Computer science grad who builds data dashboards people actually use.
During my degree, I worked with Python, SQL, and Java, and spent my final year building a dashboard that helped my university’s student services team track support requests in one place. Before that, I interned on a small web development team, where I learned how real projects ship: with deadlines, code reviews, and plenty of feedback.
I’m looking for an entry-level data analyst or junior developer role where I can keep building tools that make work easier for the people using them.
If your team is hiring, or you’re open to a quick chat about breaking into data, send me a message."
Why This Works: It opens with what the graduate can do, not just their degree. Specific projects replace vague claims like “fast learner,” the target role is clear, and the CTA works for both hiring managers and people open to a networking chat.
4. LinkedIn Summary Example for a Sales Professional
“Most buyers don’t want another demo. They want someone who understands their problem before the first call.
I’m an account executive helping mid-market logistics teams cut manual work out of their shipping operations. Over the past six years, I’ve worked with operations leaders across retail, manufacturing, and 3PLs, so I usually know the questions on your mind before you ask them.
What you can expect from me: straight answers, no pressure, and a clear yes or no on whether we’re a fit.
If your team is still running shipments through spreadsheets, let’s talk. Send me a message here on LinkedIn.”
Why This Works: It’s written for buyers, not employers. It opens with a buyer’s frustration, names a specific niche, sets expectations for the conversation, and ends with a CTA tied to a real problem.
5. LinkedIn Summary Example for a Founder or Consultant
“I help early-stage founders build their first repeatable sales process.
After three years of closing deals as a solo founder (and making most of the mistakes you can make), I now work with B2B startups between their first 10 and first 100 customers. Together, we figure out who actually buys, build an outreach process the team can run without me, and set up reporting that shows what’s working.
Recent work: helping a six-person HR tech startup move from founder-led sales to its first two sales hires.
Open to advisory roles and short consulting projects. Send me a message to set up a call.”
Why This Works: The opening line is a clear positioning statement. Personal experience builds credibility, a concrete recent project replaces vague claims, and the CTA says exactly what kind of work this person is open to.
6. LinkedIn Summary Example for a Recruiter
“I connect product and engineering talent with fast-growing fintech companies.
For the past eight years, I’ve recruited for roles from senior engineers to VP of Product, mostly across the US and Canada. I take the time to understand what you actually want next, not just what’s on your resume, and I’ll tell you honestly if a role isn’t right for you.
Hiring? I help fintech teams fill hard-to-hire technical roles without the endless back-and-forth.
Looking? Send me a message with the kind of role you’re after, even if you’re not actively searching.”
Why This Works: Recruiters have two audiences, so this summary gives each one its own CTA. The promise of honesty also addresses a common candidate frustration with recruiters.
7. LinkedIn Summary Example for a Financial Advisor
“Retirement shouldn’t feel like guesswork.
I’m a financial advisor who works with families and business owners in their 40s and 50s who want a clear plan for retirement, taxes, and passing on what they’ve built. My approach is simple: understand your goals first, then build a plan you can actually follow.
I specialize in: → Retirement income planning → Tax-aware investing → Exit planning for business owners
If you’d like a second opinion on your current plan, I offer a free introductory call. Send me a message to set one up.”
Why This Works: The hook speaks to a feeling the reader already has. It defines a specific client type, lists specialties in a scannable format, and offers a low-commitment next step. If you work in a regulated industry, run your profile copy past your compliance team before publishing.
8. LinkedIn Summary Example for a Freelancer
“I write website copy for B2B tech companies that sounds human and actually converts.
Over the last five years, I’ve written landing pages, product pages, and email sequences for SaaS and IT services companies. Clients usually come to me when their website explains features but doesn’t explain why anyone should care.
What clients tend to notice: fast turnaround, zero jargon, and fewer rounds of edits than they expected.
Currently booking projects for next month. Send me a message, or check my Featured section for samples.”
Why This Works: It names the service and the audience in one line, describes the problem clients bring, and creates light urgency with an availability note. Pointing to the Featured section gives readers proof without crowding the summary.
LinkedIn Summary FAQs
Is a LinkedIn summary the same as the About section?
Yes. LinkedIn renamed the Summary section to About. It’s the same free-text section on your profile, with the same purpose.
How long should a LinkedIn summary be?
The About section allows up to 2,600 characters, roughly 400 words. Three to five short paragraphs is enough for most people. Put your strongest line first, since only the first few lines show before “see more.”
Where is the About section on LinkedIn?
It’s on your profile, below your intro section (photo, name, and headline). To edit it, click the pencil icon on the About section. If you haven’t added one yet, select Add profile section.
Should I write my LinkedIn summary in first or third person?
First person. Your About section is one of the few places on LinkedIn where you speak directly to the reader, and third person tends to read like a formal bio.
What should I include in my LinkedIn summary?
Cover who you help, what you do for them, proof that you’re good at it (results, numbers, or examples), a bit of personality, and a clear call to action.
What’s the difference between a LinkedIn headline and a summary?
Your headline is up to 220 characters and appears next to your name across LinkedIn. Your summary is up to 2,600 characters and gives the full story on your profile.
How do I know if my LinkedIn summary is good enough?
Read it as your target reader would. Does the first line tell them what you do for them, and is there a clear next step at the end? For an outside check, Profile Score rates your summary alongside five other profile sections and flags which ones to fix first.
Conclusion
A strong LinkedIn summary tells visitors who you help, proves you can do it, and gives them a clear next step, all in your own voice. Start with a hook that lands before the “see more” cutoff, keep it specific to your audience, and only use the full 2,600 characters if every line earns its place.
Want to see how your summary measures up? LinkedIn Profile Score rates your profile out of 100 across six sections, including your summary, and points you to the changes that will make the biggest difference. When you’re ready to act on the feedback, the LinkedIn Profile Optimizer can rewrite your summary, headline, and experience with AI. It shows each change side by side with your current profile, and nothing goes live until you approve it.
