Headline & Power Words - Overview and Introduction:

A LinkedIn headline is the section at the top of your LinkedIn user's profile where you  can describe what you do in 120 characters or less. This brief description appears next to your name in search results. It should entice readers to click your profile to learn more about your experience and background.

In this Lab, you are going to learn about how to write a good LinkedIn Headline.  To do that we are going to learn about Power Words. 

What are "Power Words"? 

Caution & Safety  Considerations:

Primer:  "Aaron, I can imagine no way in which this thing could be considered anywhere remotely close to safe. All I know is I spent six hours in there and I'm still alive... You still want to do it?"

• As with any activity, please make sure you are using appropriate safety equipment.   If you are coding, make sure you stand up and stretch every hour or so,  Please consider any safety issues connecting to a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, computers and other electronic equipment.

Essential Questions:

• How does a strong and compelling LinkedIn Headline promote you personal brand and expand the reach of your network?

• How do I find "Power Words" related to me?

Key Academic Vocabulary or Concepts:

• LinkedIn Headline

• Power Words

• Compelling

In this lesson we are going to focus on your LinkedIn "Headline", it is the first of the 4 key sections of a LinkedIn Profile. Your Headline is the short, 120 characters description, that everyone sees first... And it show up everywhere.

Linked In Headline

Your Headline should be way more than your name, and current job or school... It should be your "Elevator Pitch".  What is an Elevator Pitch?     "A succinct and persuasive sales pitch"  

Your headline is what people see over and over. Make sure it communicates the right message to your target audience.  When someone looks at your profile, the first text they see is your name and headline.

Don't waste the 120 characters:

You have 120 characters to use with your Headline.  This is where you fill it with keywords of the Job or career you want.  Headlines are searched by bots and other employer tools...

So the more Key Words / Power Words you can add appropriately, the better.  Don't just stick them in, but rather make them fit your narrative... the "story" you are trying to tell in the 120 words...  95% of recruiters and hiring managers use LinkedIn to search for candidates. If your headline is not optimized, it's possible that you're missing out on job opportunities.  If you are looking for a job or want to connect with a specific organization, use key words from that industry. 

Power words fall into about 4 categories:  

1. Words That Show Change: Include power words such as accelerated, advocated and built.  Future employers or connections are going to care how you affected Change in your current organization.  Are you in the leadership of a school or club?  Did you affect any positive changes? Think about groups, clubs, charities, organizations you are part of and what positive changes you have made.  Think of "change" related power words.
   
   Be sure to include: In your “Summary of Skills” demonstrate your willingness to self-learn in order to problem solve and collaborate more effectively. In the “Knowledge and Achievements” section of your resume, list the relevant courses, credentials and informal learning you’ve taken on outside higher education and mandatory training.
   
   

2. Words That Show Results: Include power words such as awarded, completed, saved and decreased. Again, think of the different organizations yo are part of.  Did you help you current job save any money? How?  Did you help at a charity?  What were the positive outcomes? Because of you there were # of meals served.  Because of you there was $$ saved.  You helped # of tutored students pass the next test... Because of you, and a plan to change the way closing cleanup was done, you helped save 15 of minutes for the restaurant closing process... Think of things that got better or positively changed because of you.
   
   Be sure to include: A challenge you faced, the solution incorporated and the impact of your problem-solving ability.
   
   Be sure to include: Concise statements that replace clichés like “proven sales professional” with quantified statements like “Increased sales by $300,000 in my region” and “Exceeded quota by 152% over 5 years.”
   
   

3. Words That Show How You Work With People: Include power words such as brokered, coached and collaborated.  This is all about teamwork.  Future employers want to know how well you can work in or lead a team. Was there a positive change because you help in a team?  Have you coached, tutored, taught, collaborated, lead teams?
   
   Be sure to include: An example where you brought a team together, or where you and your team worked together to exceed expectations.
   
   

4. Words That Show You Have Managerial & Leadership Skills: Include power words such as anticipated, avoided and controlled. This is all about how you manage projects, people and activities. Because of you management skills, did good things happen, or were bad things avoided?
   
   Be sure to include: A time when your leadership made a significant impact; show where the problem started and the end result was driven by your efforts.

Look at the power words in each of these categories.  Pick some that apply to you. 

If you want to get a new job in a new industry, use the keywords from that industry.  But do the research, so that you know what these words mean.  The last thing you want, is to get an interview or a conversation, and they ask you about Machine Vision, because you had it in your Headline or About summary, and you can't describe or explain it... 

Be sure to include: In full sentences, insert the relevant buzzwords, keywords and acronyms from the job description and from within your industry.

Power Words: Example List:

This is by no means a complete list.  See if you can find more.  Send them to me @  TopClown@STEAMClown.org

Think about your skill set and experiences, and see how you can describe them using action verbs like these power words.

Highlight Your Accomplishments With Power Words:

Don't say you are an expert, but rather prove that you are by showing your work... show, describe, point to things you have done... If you have some portfolio content, point or reference that.  You headline is the perfect place to slip in a key accomplishment.

If you have any awards or certificate or special training, this is a good place to add it as a key word phrase... We will see where you can expand on these more later, but getting them worked into your Headline is awesome.

If you are in any organizations, charity groups, won any awards, again, the Headline is a place to talk about it in a Keyword phrase format.

Too Many Things To Tell About Yourself?

Don't worry if you created too many descriptive sentence about yourself.  The next "story" you will tell is the LinkedIn "About" section, and you will have much more space to tell your story.  You can use these power word sentence fragments to make that a great story.

Who is Your Audience?  Write To Them:

Think about your audience.  You are writing your Headline for them.  Highlight the skills you want to show them you have.  Describe what you do... or if you don't do it yet, but want to describe you want to to it... "Aspiring Aeronautical  Engineer, with key word skills in..."

Be sure to include: An editor! Your chance to prove your communication skills are well above average disappears about two seconds after a recruiter sees a typo in your cover letter, resume or LinkedIn profile.

Do You Provide Value?

You always want to show a future employer that you can add value. The best way is to highlight where you have added value in the past.  You may not have lots of work experience, but maybe you have done something to save money at your current job.  Maybe you recommended that they change some process that saved the company time or money... 

Maybe you have a unique skill.  can you speak another language?  Have you tutored someone  in Math?  Have you worked as a summer camp counselor? Do you walk dogs for money? "Self Employed Dog Walking Entrepreneur" 

Even working in "Fast Food" can be turned into a skill... most future employers will not really care that you worked at Jack in the Box, but they might be interested that you have a skill like being, "Recognized for Inventory Management in Stressful Fast Food Industry" 

Highlight Your Accomplishments:

Don't say you are an expert, but rather prove your work... show, point to things you have done... If you have some portfolio content, point or reference that.  You headline is the perfect place to slip in a key accomplishment.

If you have any awards or certificate or special training, this is a good place to add it as a key word phrase... We will see where you can expand on these more later, but getting them worked into your Headline is awesome.

If you are in any organizations, charity groups, won any awards, again, the Headline is a place to talk about it in a Keyword phrase format.

Some Examples Of How The Headline Shows Up:

Here is another reason why you want to tune your headline.  It shows up when ever you post. If you make s post, your connection network will see your Profile picture and Headline.

If you comment on someone post, your Profile picture and Headline show up... So everyone who follows or are connected to the person post you commented on will see your headline too... 

Let's Dig Deeper & Look At Some More Examples:

Here are some great links to explore and see some great examples of LinkedIn Headlines.

• 12 Impactful LinkedIn Headline Examples from Real People

• 15 Of The Best LinkedIn Headline Examples Around for 2020

• 10 Eye-Catching LinkedIn Profile Headlines to Inspire Your Own

• How to Write a Professional LinkedIn Headline (With Examples)

• Does Your LinkedIn Headline Suck?

• How to Optimize your Linkedin Headline To Grab Attention

• How to use LinkedIn | Top 5 Tips for writing your LinkedIn Headline

What's Next?:

If you stick around, we are going to dig much deeper into the topic of the LinkedIn Headline.  Please take the time to work the LABS.  When you are done with this section on LinkedIn Headlines, you will have a the information to create and post a great Headline.

Teachers - Unit, Module and Lesson Plans

If you are a teacher and want to connect and teach this LinkedIn module, discuss how I teach it, give me feedback, please contact me at TopClown@STEAMClown.org 

To access this Lesson Plan and the Teacher collaboration area, you will have needed to connect with me so I can Share the content with you.  Please go to  the Teachers & Partner Page, check out my Licensing and fill out my Collaboration and Curriculum Request Form.  I'll review and then grant you access to the requested areas and lesson plans if they exist.

If you have questions or feedback on how I can make a presentation, lesson, lab better please give use my Feedback Form.