In the real world, an elevator pitch is essentially a 30 to 60 second “commercial” about your professional skills, expertise, and experience. You never know when you’ll find yourself in a networking situation, so it’s nice to have an elevator pitch ready at all times. However, when you’re creating a LinkedIn account, you always need to leave a good impression in a short amount of time.
Why is LinkedIn So Important?
While many people fail to realize this, LinkedIn is a huge network. LinkedIn has twice as many users as Twitter and the user base is still growing. More important than the sheer size of their user base is LinkedIn’s main demographic. As you probably know LinkedIn is mostly used by business people of all ages.
More than half of Americans with a college degree use LinkedIn regularly, according to Pew Research Center. What’s more 49% of LinkedIn users make more than $75,000 per year. Essentially, many influential and powerful business people use it. That’s why you want to create a great first impression.
How to Create a LinkedIn Elevator Pitch
You need to start working on a LinkedIn profile as soon as possible if you don’t already have one. The sooner you create a LinkedIn profile, the easier it will be to update it with more experiences and accolades down the line. Here are a few steps you should take to get things started:
1. Define Your Target Audience
First, you need to figure out who are you trying to attract. HR professionals, small business owners, or maybe potential customers? Figuring this out will allow you to cater to the content of your profile to your audience and use certain keywords and phrases that will help them find you quicker.
2. Get a Professional Profile Photo
Adding keywords may be effective, however, simply adding a professional picture to your profile makes it 14X more likely to be seen by others. If you have a friend who’s a professional photographer, contact them, and have them help you with the picture.
3. Come Up With a Catchy Headline
Your headline is usually the first thing people read about you so make it count. Most people leave their Headline to the default position and company, however, they are missing a trick. Use this space to build intrigue and demonstrate the value you add. You only have 120 characters here so make them count.
4. Create a memorable Summary
In your summary, tell people as much as you can about yourself. Include the following:
- Introduce yourself
- Explain what you do
- …and why you do it
- Include a call to action
Make sure to sound confident and straight to the point. Use bullet points to make things more digestible. Avoid using clichés and make sure not to have any spelling or grammatical errors.
Check out these examples of great LinkedIn Summaries to get you started.
Remember to Always Keep Things Updated
Last but not least, remember to keep your profile updated at all times. Your career is always evolving, so make sure to keep your pitch evolving as well. The best thing to do would be to schedule a few times a year to make updates to your profile to keep things as fresh as possible.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed our article. Have you ever worked on an elevator pitch before? Is your LinkedIn profile updated? Share your experience with us in the comment section below.
