How to Write a Good LinkedIn Profile

Your LinkedIn profile isn't just a digital resume, it's your professional storefront, your digital handshake, and your personal branding powerhouse all in one. Whether you're hunting for a new role, building a client base, or establishing yourself as an industry expert, a well-crafted profile is your non-negotiable first step. This guide breaks down exactly how to optimize every section of your LinkedIn profile to attract the right opportunities and make a lasting impression.

Your Headline: More Than Just a Job Title

The headline is the most valuable real estate on your profile, seen next to your name in search results, connection requests, and posts. Don't waste it by simply listing your current job title. Instead, turn it into a compelling value proposition that tells people who you help, how you help them, and what makes you unique.

Think about what you do, not just what you are. A great formula is: [Your Title] | [Who You Help/What You Do] | [Special Skill or Accomplishment].

Let's look at an example:

• Before: Marketing Manager at SaaS Corp
• After: Marketing Manager @ SaaS Corp | Helping B2B Tech Startups Drive Demand Through SEO & Content Strategy

The second headline is infinitely more powerful. It speaks directly to a target audience (B2B tech startups), shows the value you provide (drive demand), and highlights your key skills (SEO & Content Strategy). This immediately differentiates you from thousands of other "Marketing Managers."

Tips for a standout headline:

• Be Specific: Name your industry, niche, or the type of client you serve.
• Use Keywords: Think about what terms a recruiter or potential client would search for to find someone like you, and include those in your headline.
• Show Your Why: If you can, add a touch of personality or mention what you're passionate about. For example: "...Passionate about building inclusive tech communities."

The Perfect LinkedIn Profile Picture & Banner

First impressions happen in a split second, and on LinkedIn, they are visual. Your profile and banner photos are your opportunities to look professional, approachable, and memorable.

Profile Photo Checklist:

• Headshot Only: The photo should be a clear, recent shot of your head and shoulders. No distracting backgrounds, no other people, and definitely no family vacation photos.
• Look at the Camera & Smile: Eye contact builds trust, and a genuine smile makes you seem approachable. You want to look like someone people would want to work with.
• High-Resolution is a Must: A blurry or grainy photo looks unprofessional. Most modern smartphones can take a perfectly adequate picture.
• Dress the Part: Wear what you would wear to work in your industry. If you work in a corporate law firm, wear a blazer. If you're a freelance graphic designer, a clean, stylish t-shirt is fine.
• Use a Simple Background: A solid color, a lightly textured wall, or a softly blurred outdoor background works great. Avoid busy or cluttered settings.

Using Your Banner to Your Advantage:

Most people leave the default blue banner on their profile, which is a massive missed opportunity. Your banner is a billboard you can use to reinforce your personal brand.

Ideas for your banner image:

• Showcase Your Work: A photo of you speaking at an event, leading a workshop, or in your work environment.
• Reinforce Your Value Prop: A simple design with text that echoes your headline, lists your core services, or shares your professional mantra.
• Include a Call-to-Action: Add your website URL, a link to your portfolio, or a handle for another social platform.
• Represent Your Company: If you're an employee, using a company-branded banner can show alignment and pride in your work.

Tell Your Story in the "About" Section

If your headline is the hook, your "About" section is the story that gets them invested. This is where you can move beyond titles and bullet points and share your professional narrative in your own voice. Avoid writing it in the third person, this is your story, so use "I" and "my."

Structure your "About" section with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

1. The Hook (First 2-3 Sentences): Start strong with a summary of who you are, what you do, and what you're passionate about. This part is visible without a user having to click "see more," so make it count.
2. The Middle (2-3 Paragraphs): This is where you elaborate. Talk about your journey, your expertise, your major accomplishments, and your professional philosophy. How did you get to where you are? What problems do you love solving? Showcase your unique perspective.
3. The End (Call to Action): Don't leave your reader hanging. End with a clear call to action (CTA). Tell them what you want them to do next. Do you want them to connect, message you about consulting opportunities, or visit your website?

Example CTA Ending:

"Always open to connecting with fellow marketing leaders and founders in the B2B tech space. Feel free to send a connection request or email me at [your email]."

Craft an Accomplishment-Driven Experience Section

Your Experience section should be more than a simple copy-and-paste from your resume. Each role is an opportunity to show not just what you did, but what you accomplished.

Instead of listing your job duties, focus on a few impactful bullet points that highlight results. The best way to do this is with the X-Y-Z formula: Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z].

Compare these two entries:

Vague, duty-based bullet point:

• Managed the company blog and wrote new posts

Specific, accomplishment-based bullet point:

• Increased organic blog traffic by 200% over 12 months by implementing a new keyword strategy and writing 4 SEO-optimized articles per month.

The second option uses quantifiable data and specific actions to prove your impact. Review each role in your Experience section and try to reframe 2-3 of your key responsibilities into powerful, result-oriented bullet points.

Pro Tip: Add Rich Media

Under each role, LinkedIn allows you to add links, photos, videos, or documents. Use this! Link to a successful project you led, a case study you wrote, or a press mention you received. This provides tangible proof of your skills and accomplishments.

Curate Your Skills & Ask for Endorsements

The Skills section helps reinforce your expertise and improves your chances of showing up in searches. But don't just list every skill you can think of. A long, unfocused list is less effective than a tight, curated one.

• Pin Your Top 3: LinkedIn lets you pin your three most important skills to the top of the list. Make sure these align with the jobs or opportunities you're looking for.
• Keep it Relevant: Remove outdated skills or those that are no longer relevant to your career goals. If you're now a Senior Director, you can probably remove "Microsoft Office."
• Actively Get Endorsements: Don't passively wait for endorsements to roll in. When colleagues endorse your key skills, it provides social proof and credibility. A great way to get them is to give them, proactively endorse the skills of your connections, and they'll often return the favor.

The Power of a Great Recommendation

A personal, written recommendation is far more powerful than a simple skill endorsement. It's a testimonial to your character, work ethic, and expertise. Two to three strong recommendations from former managers, clients, or senior colleagues can make a huge difference.

Don't be shy about asking for them. When you request a recommendation:

• Personalize Your Request: Never use the generic LinkedIn template. Remind the person of your connection and the specific projects you worked on together.
• Make it Easy for Them: Guide them. You can say something like, "I'd be so grateful if you could write a brief recommendation. It would be particularly helpful if you could speak to my project management skills based on our work on the [Project Name] initiative." This gives them a starting point and helps them write something truly impactful.

Showcase Your Best Work in the Featured Section

The Featured section sits near the top of your profile and is perfect for highlighting your proudest work. Think of it as your personal portfolio. You can feature LinkedIn posts you've written, articles you've published, portfolio pieces, or links to external websites.

Select a few items that best represent your expertise and the value you bring. This could be a link to a major project you led, an article where you were quoted as an expert, a video of you giving a talk, or a high-performing LinkedIn post that demonstrates your thought leadership.

Final Thoughts

Building a great LinkedIn profile isn't a one-time task, it's a practice. Your profile should be a living, breathing document that evolves with your career. By moving beyond a simple list of jobs and framing your profile as a story of your professional value, you transform it from a passive resume into an active tool for opportunity generation.

Once your profile is finely tuned, the key to building influence and attracting opportunities is sharing your knowledge consistently. Posting valuable content builds authority and keeps you top-of-mind, but we know first-hand that juggling content creation and scheduling across different platforms is a huge time-sink. That's why we built Postbase - to give you a simple, modern way to plan and schedule your content on LinkedIn, X, TikTok, and more. It helps you stay consistent without the headache, so you can focus on making meaningful connections.