Key takeaways

➛ A LinkedIn About Me works when it describes who it's for and what changes for them, not when it lists adjectives
➛ LinkedIn's search runs on the actual words in your profile, and for a firm owner, the people searching are prospects and referral partners, not recruiters
➛ Packing your profile with keywords can get you found, but it costs you trust when a real person reads it
➛ Something short and specific beats something long and generic every time

The majority of the 'About Me' sections contain a great deal of content but actually say nothing. They describe a person as being passionate, results-oriented, and a collaborative leader.

You could replace the name at the top with any other person in that industry and no other changes would be necessary.

Almost nobody fixes this, because most people think the About Me section is where you're supposed to sound impressive. It's actually the section where people decide, in about four seconds, whether to keep reading or scroll past. That's a different job than sounding impressive, and it needs a different kind of writing.

If you'd like to see a few About sections done well, these B2B LinkedIn profile examples are a good place to start.

What your About Me section is actually doing

Most people aren't aware that LinkedIn's search function is based on the actual words you use in your profile, not your job title. So, if you include the phrase 'client acquisition system' in your About Me and somebody searches for those exact words, then you're more likely to appear in the results; if you don't, you won't show up even though that's precisely the work you carry out.

For a firm owner, that matters because the people doing that searching usually aren't recruiters. It's a prospect trying to figure out if you're a fit. A referral partner checking you over before they send someone your way. Someone who met you once at an event and is now trying to remember what you actually do.

So the words in your profile aren't just about sounding good. They're about whether the right person can even find you in the first place.

Say who you’re for, then say what happens

When a person does end up on your profile, the 'About Me' sections that manage to hold their attention perform two functions:

1. Make it clear who the section is aimed at,

2. Describe the kind of results that are achieved after someone has worked with them.

Instead of listing qualifications, your About section provides a real outcome.

Here's the difference in practice:

• Providing strategic marketing solutions to help businesses grow.

• I assist small law firms in getting LinkedIn to generate new clients rather than using it as a platform to list credentials that no one reads.

The first sentence might apply to about a thousand people. The second clearly states who it's for and what it actually does, in a single sentence.

The lack of specificity in the second sentence wasn't by chance. It developed in stages, and this is much clearer if I go through the way mine was put together.

Not sure how your profile stacks up? Take the free LinkedIn scorecard.

Three levels of an About section

If your About Me has nothing in it right now, something short is still better than nothing. Here's how one profile can build from bare minimum to something that actually works. I'm using my own as the example, not because you should copy it, but so you can see the pattern hold up on a real profile instead of a made-up one.

Beginner

"I assist small consulting firms in setting up LinkedIn systems that attract clients without having to rely solely on referrals." That's just one sentence and it states both who the service is for and what I do. It won't win any prizes, but it's already better than most profiles.

Intermediate

The same as above but adds real numbers and a bit of personality:

➛ Help boutique firms turn LinkedIn into an actual client acquisition channel
➛ Built a system that generated mid-five figures in revenue from a single 100-day posting run
➛ Chartered Marketer, based in Calgary
➛ Also the person who will tell you, unprompted, why blocking traffic from countries you don't serve is basic website hygiene, not overkill

Advanced

Involves presenting the same facts in complete sentences that use precisely the terms people actually search for, rather than putting them in separate bullet points. It turns out like this:

I design LinkedIn client acquisition systems for small consulting firms. I used the same system on myself for 100 days in a row, and it generated revenue in the mid-five figures, at which point I stopped referring to it as an experiment and began calling it a service. Chartered Marketer, based in Calgary.

Nothing new got added there. It's the same four facts from Intermediate, just written as sentences a person would actually say, using the specific terms someone searching for this kind of help would type in.

This is also exactly where people get it wrong.

The keyword stuffing trap

There's a version of "advanced" that isn't the one above. It's packing your About Me with every tool, every industry, every company name you can think of, hoping it gets picked up in more searches.

Keyword stuffing works the same way shouting in a room technically gets you heard. The problem with keyword stuffing is that a real person can tell within a few seconds that a list like that was built for an algorithm, not written for them. Someone looking at a wall of buzzwords isn't thinking "well rounded." They're thinking, "What does this person actually do?”

The one-line test

Before you publish anything, try this. Read your About Me section back and ask if a stranger could repeat what you do and who it's for, in one sentence.

If they can't, it's not there yet. If they can, you're done, and you've built something that keeps working even when you're not in the room to explain it yourself.

FAQ

Should I write my LinkedIn About Me in first person or third person?

First person. It's the one section on your profile that's supposed to sound like you, not a bio someone else wrote about you.

How long should a LinkedIn About Me section be?

Long enough to say who it's for and what changes for them. For most firm owners, that's three to six sentences, not three paragraphs.

Does packing my profile with keywords actually help?

It can get you found. It also reads as manipulation the moment a real person lands on the page, and it costs more trust than the extra visibility is worth.

What's the difference between an About Me built for job searching and one built for getting clients?

A job search About Me sells your experience to one employer. A client-focused About Me names a specific audience and a specific result, so anyone in that audience recognizes themselves in the first line.

How often should I update my About section?

Whenever what you offer or who you serve changes. If you're saying the same thing you were saying two years ago, it's worth rewriting even if nothing else about it is wrong.

If you want a second set of eyes on whether yours passes the one-line test, that's exactly what my LinkedIn Profile Audit is for.

Thirty minutes on a call, a full section-by-section breakdown, two headline rewrites, and a plan you can hand off to whoever updates it.