Your LinkedIn 'About' Section Isn't Working. Use the 'WHOSEES' Formula.

I went to a career fair a couple of weeks back, and we had people literally queuing out the door for a CV appraisal. After a while, I started asking people a simple question: "Do you know what your value proposition and your three top strengths are?"

I swear, nobody knew. Not one.

I don't say this to be unkind. I just feel sometimes people need kicking out of a way of thinking. This is one of them. If you don't know your value proposition and your three biggest strengths, you are not job market ready.

Your LinkedIn 'About' section is the place to fix this. It’s your elevator pitch. It should be longer and more personal than your CV profile. Here is a simple framework to get it right.

The 'WHOSEES' Formula

We endorse a simple, straightforward formula for writing the 'About' section. It's called 'WHOSEES'.

• Who: Start with 'Who are you?' or 'What are you?'. I would include your value proposition right here. There's nothing wrong with doubling up. Remember, the first three to four lines are crucial, as that's all people see before they have to click "see more."

• Strengths: Describe your three biggest strengths. This is a fundamental thing you must know. It's what you are pitching to a future employer.

• Examples: Once you've described your three strengths, give some examples. Just one example of each. If you're really good at leading financial transformation programmes, give an example and home in on an outcome that proves you did a really good job.

• Ethos: What's your philosophy to the work that you do? What are you passionate about? This is where you inject your personal brand into the text.

• Skills: Finally, just list your skills. Yes, there is a skills and endorsement section, but you should have some manually written skills at the bottom of your 'About' section, too. These skills are going to help trigger the algorithm.

This is more personal than a CV, so you can write it in the first person. Use your pronouns, like "I" and "my."

A Quick Tip on Formatting

You can't use standard Word formatting inside of LinkedIn, but you also don't want a giant, unreadable block of text.

To give it a little bit of visual impact, use emoji symbols. I use a website called Emojipedia. I'm not talking about smiley faces and rockets. You can find what's called the "medium black square," which creates a really lovely little bullet point. This breaks up the text and makes it much easier to read.

Your Questions Answered

Here are a few common questions about the 'About' section.

Q: My 'About' section is just one short paragraph. Is that enough?

A: Don't make it too brief. The first three or four lines are important because that's all people see initially, but I would aim for four to five paragraphs of text for the full section. More data is better than less data for the algorithm.

Q: Should I be listing my skills in the 'About' section? Isn't that what the 'Skills & Endorsements' section is for?

A: You should use both. The 'Skills & Endorsements' section is absolutely vital, but you should also add some skills manually at the bottom of your 'About' section. A lot of the algorithm is about keywords. If you have the right keywords splattered all over your profile in all the various sections, you're more likely to come up in searches.