This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jillian Richardson, a 31-year-old ghostwriter for executives. She’s based in Brooklyn. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m a ghostwriter focused on helping executives and founders grow their presence on LinkedIn.
I offer LinkedIn profile polishes for executives, as well as people looking for a new job or trying out self-employment. After helping a number of people edit their profiles, one of my takeaways is that people need to brag more. They are not hyping themselves up nearly enough.
LinkedIn is the place where it’s socially acceptable to brag. The point is to discuss your career and where you’re going next in life. LinkedIn is also a sea of people, and if you don’t share what makes you unique, you won’t stand out. People also assume you just need to share something about yourself once, and that’s it, but things get lost on social media, so you can share the same thing a few times.
I recently talked to a colleague, and we both have the same experience with ghostwriting clients. When they start posting more on LinkedIn, they’ll receive a text from a friend calling them a try-hard or poking fun at them.
The idea that social media is not entirely real and only shows everyone’s best side is what’s called “discernment.” You’re not going to be sharing every horrible moment of your life on social media. If you did, you probably wouldn’t be in a super stable place. There are only parts of yourself that you want to share on the internet, and that’s up to you. I wouldn’t say that’s inauthentic. That’s just having boundaries.
There are a lot of places in the profile where the bragging — or lack of it — can show up. These are my suggestions to showcase your accomplishments more effectively:
The ‘Headline’
The headline is one of the places people share accomplishments. I always recommend that when people write their headline, they think about using the language they would if they were speaking to an individual customer.
You want to use the headline to let the reader know how you can support them. Just write it as a single sentence. Don’t use those divider lines that chop up everything because that’s when people get carried away, and then they have 10 different accomplishments that don’t connect to the person reading it.
The ‘About’ section
I can’t tell you the number of founders I’ve talked to who literally don’t have anything in their ‘About’ section. If I looked at their LinkedIn, I would assume their company doesn’t even exist.
In the ‘About’ section, you should share statistics of how you help your customers. This is the place to really brag about how you help people succeed; why people should trust you; and what makes you different from other people in your industry. You should also use client case studies and share testimonials.
The ‘Featured’ section
I always recommend that people pin a newsletter, a landing page, or a website that brings people outside LinkedIn, where you can collect their email so you can be in contact with them in another place, and continue to have them get familiar with you.
For example, you could feature a social media moment that you had. Recently, I was featured in Forbes, so I have that there to look like I’m a trustworthy human being. Or, I can pin a LinkedIn post that performed really well to demonstrate my industry expertise.
The ‘Recommendations’ section
The Recommendations section is located toward the bottom of the profile, and many people don’t pay attention to it. However, people really look at this section when considering hiring someone. Many people already have testimonials on their website, so I usually suggest asking for recommendations from those people by saying something like, “Hey, you said this exact thing to me. Would you be willing to copy and paste this on LinkedIn?”
Or, if somebody just said something nice to you on a call that they maybe didn’t write down, just email them being like, “Hey, I’m looking for recommendations on my LinkedIn. I remember you so generously said this thing. Would you be willing to copy and paste this as a LinkedIn recommendation?”
Most people will say yes, including a former boss or colleague. As long as you have a good relationship with them, why not reach out and ask? Everybody wants to see their team members succeed, hopefully.
