How to add a summary on LinkedIn: Write and update your About section

When someone visits your LinkedIn profile, they want to understand who you are, what you do, and what makes your experience relevant. Your About section helps answer these questions by connecting your skills, achievements, and professional goals in your own words.

As part of a broader LinkedIn marketing strategy, this section provides context for people who discover you through posts, comments, search, or referrals. A clear, authentic summary helps visitors understand your value and decide whether to connect.

This guide explains how to add or edit your About section and write a summary that reflects your experience.

Key takeaways

LinkedIn calls a profile summary the About section. It gives you space to explain your expertise, experience, professional goals, and value in your own words.

• How to edit it: Open your profile, scroll to About, select the edit icon, update the text, and save.
• Character limit: Up to 2,600 characters.
• What to include: Start with a specific opening, explain your expertise and value, support your claims with real achievements, and end with a relevant next step.
• Writing style: Use first-person language, keep it natural, and include relevant industry and role keywords without keyword stuffing.
• Keep it updated: Revise your About section when your role, services, achievements, or career goals change.

Your headline serves a different purpose. It quickly describes your professional position, while the About section provides more context.

What is a LinkedIn summary?

A LinkedIn summary is the written introduction on your profile, officially labeled the About section. It is an open-ended space where you can describe your professional identity without being limited to job titles, dates, or employer names.

LinkedIn explains that the About section lets members express their mission, motivation, and skills to people who view their profiles. It is different from the headline, which appears directly under your name and must communicate your role or positioning much more quickly.

Your summary can help visitors understand:

• What you do.
• Who you work with.
• What problems you solve.
• What industries or subjects you understand.
• What experience informs your perspective.
• What results or outcomes you have contributed to.
• What makes your approach different.
• What professional topics you care about.
• What type of roles, projects, clients, partnerships, or conversations you are open to.
• How someone can take the next step.

A good summary does not need to include every role, skill, project, or life detail. Your Experience, Skills, Education, Licenses and Certifications, Featured, and Recommendations sections can carry much of that information. The About section should connect the most relevant parts into a clear professional narrative.

Your posts can give visitors examples of the expertise described in that narrative. If your summary emphasizes customer education, for instance, share practical insights about onboarding or product adoption. A LinkedIn scheduler can help you plan those posts in advance, while your summary explains the experience and professional focus behind them.

Why your LinkedIn About section matters

Your summary helps people make sense of your profile when they arrive from several different paths.

A visitor may find you through:

• LinkedIn search.
• A comment you left on a post.
• A post you published.
• A shared connection.
• A recruiter search.
• A Company Page employee list.
• A direct message.
• A job application.
• A referral.
• A webinar or event.
• A news mention.
• An article or newsletter.
• A sales conversation.
• A partner introduction.

They may want to answer a basic question:

“Is this person relevant to what I need?”

Your summary should help them answer it quickly.

For job seekers

A summary can clarify your target role, transferable experience, skills, achievements, career transition, and the value you can bring to an employer.

For business owners and consultants

A summary can explain who you serve, the problem you help address, your approach, areas of expertise, proof points, and how prospective customers or partners can contact you.

For executives and leaders

A summary can establish a leadership perspective, connect experience across roles, explain the business problems you work on, and articulate the principles that guide your work.

For recruiters and talent professionals

A summary can clarify the roles, functions, industries, or candidate communities you support, along with the professional approach you take to candidate and hiring-manager relationships.

For creators and subject-matter experts

A summary can explain the topics you write, speak, research, teach, or build around—giving new followers context when they discover your content.

An optimized profile on LinkedIn should make the headline, About section, Experience section, Featured resources, skills, and professional activity reinforce one another.

How to add a LinkedIn summary

You can add or update your summary from the About section of your LinkedIn Profile.

Add a LinkedIn summary on desktop

1. Sign in to LinkedIn.
2. Click Me, then View Profile.
3. Click Add profile section beneath your introduction.
4. Open Core and select About.
5. Enter your summary.
6. Click Save.

LinkedIn’s current help guidance uses this desktop path for editing the About section.

Add the About section in the mobile app

1. Open LinkedIn and tap your profile picture.
2. Tap your profile picture again to open your profile.
3. Tap Add section.
4. Open Core and select About.
5. Enter your summary.
6. Tap Save.

Open your profile, scroll to About, and select its edit icon. Update the text and save. On desktop, open your profile through Me → View Profile. In the app, tap your profile picture, then tap it again.

If you cannot find the About section

If About is missing, use Add profile section on desktop or Add section in the app, then look under Core. Check that you are viewing your own profile. 

If an edit does not appear where expected, confirm that you saved it and edited the correct language profile. LinkedIn specifically identifies language-profile selection as a check. Refresh the page or app after saving.

How long should a LinkedIn summary be?

LinkedIn allows up to 2,600 characters in the About section. That is a limit, not a target.

A useful summary is long enough to make your professional relevance clear and short enough that someone can scan it without losing the point.

Practical length guidelines

LinkedIn allows up to 2,600 characters in the About section. Use only the space needed to explain your professional focus, relevant experience, and next step. Start with a concise draft, then add details that help the intended reader. Remove repetition rather than expanding the text to reach the limit.

What should you include in a LinkedIn summary?

There is no single perfect formula. The best summary depends on your audience and goal. However, most strong summaries include several of the following elements.

Summary element	What it does	Example question to answer
Opening	Gives the visitor a reason to keep reading	What is the most useful thing to know about me?
Current focus	Explains what you do now	What work, role, or professional problem am I focused on?
Audience or stakeholder	Clarifies who benefits from your work	Who do I work with or serve?
Value or outcome	Explains why your work matters	What becomes easier, better, clearer, safer, or more effective?
Experience	Adds relevant background	What experience gives me a credible perspective?
Proof	Supports your positioning	Which approved accomplishment, project, credential, or result is relevant?
Specialties	Helps with professional context and relevant search terms	Which skills, industries, methods, or topics define my work?
Personality or motivation	Makes the summary more human	What principle, interest, or perspective informs how I work?
Current goal	Gives readers a next step	What opportunities, conversations, or projects am I open to?
Call to action	Makes contact easier	Should visitors connect, message, visit a resource, or explore my work?

You do not need every element. A technical specialist may focus on expertise, proof, and topics. A career changer may need to spend more space connecting previous experience to a new direction. A founder may center the summary on customers, business mission, and market problem.

A simple LinkedIn summary structure

Use this structure when you need a starting point.

1. Opening: State what you do or the professional problem you work on.
2. Audience: Explain who you work with or where your work has an impact.
3. Experience: Give relevant context from your background.
4. Proof: Include one or two accurate achievements, projects, or outcomes.
5. Specialties: Mention relevant skills, industries, tools, or topics.
6. Human context: Add a short, genuine insight about how you work or what motivates you.
7. Next step: Invite the right type of professional conversation.

LinkedIn summary template

I help [audience] with [specific problem, responsibility, or outcome].

In my current role as [role], I focus on [relevant work, industry, function, or area of expertise].

My background includes [relevant experience, career path, education, or professional context], which has taught me [specific insight, approach, or principle].

I have contributed to [verified project, achievement, result, responsibility, or scope].

My areas of focus include: [skills, methods, industries, or topics].

I am especially interested in [professional interest, mission, or area of learning].

I welcome conversations with [relevant people] about [relevant topic, opportunity, or collaboration].

Replace every bracket with facts you can support. Do not turn the template into a generic list of buzzwords.

How to write a strong first line

The first line should make it easier for a visitor to understand your professional relevance. LinkedIn recommends making the opening count and avoiding filler such as “Hi, I’m [name]” or “Thanks for visiting my profile.”

Strong opening approaches

Start with the problem you solve

I help B2B SaaS teams improve customer onboarding and product adoption.

Start with the people you support

I work with regional healthcare organizations hiring clinical and administrative leadership talent.

Start with your professional role and focus

I am a product marketer focused on making complex software easier for buyers and customers to understand.

Start with your professional mission

I build learning programs that help managers turn new skills into better day-to-day decisions.

Start with a clear career narrative

My career has moved through editing, content strategy, and product education, all centered on one question: how can complex information become more useful?

Start with a relevant point of view

Strong customer education does not begin with more content. It begins with knowing which action customers need to take next.

Weak openings to avoid

Avoid starting with phrases that could describe nearly anyone:

• “I am a hardworking professional.”
• “I am passionate about success.”
• “Results-driven leader with a proven track record.”
• “Innovative strategic thinker.”
• “Motivated self-starter.”
• “Dynamic professional.”
• “I am excited to connect.”
• “Welcome to my profile.”
• “I wear many hats.”

Instead of claiming a trait, show it through a professional focus, example, or outcome.

Explain what you do in plain language

Job titles can be unclear outside your company or industry. Your summary should explain your work in terms a relevant visitor can understand.

Less clear:

I lead transformative initiatives across strategic enablement, organizational synergy, and stakeholder alignment.

Clearer:

I help cross-functional teams define project ownership, simplify approval processes, and improve the information handed from one team to the next.

Less clear:

I am a customer-centric go-to-market professional who drives scalable value.

Clearer:

I work with product and customer-success teams to turn product changes into clear onboarding, education, and adoption resources.

Plain language makes your summary easier to understand and more credible.

Add achievements without turning the summary into a resume

Your summary can include relevant proof, but it should not repeat every accomplishment from the Experience section.

Choose one to three examples that support your positioning.

Useful proof points

• Scope of responsibility.
• Size or type of team supported.
• Market, industry, or customer segment served.
• Relevant project.
• Product launched.
• Program built.
• Process improved.
• Award or credential.
• Publication or speaking topic.
• Years of relevant experience.
• Verified business outcome.
• Customer-safe result.
• Professional specialization.

Example

Over the past eight years, I have worked across customer education, onboarding, and lifecycle communication for B2B software products used by operations teams.

Most recently, I led the content and enablement work for a new onboarding program that standardized product education across sales, implementation, and customer success.

The second sentence gives proof without turning the summary into a metric-heavy list.

Use metrics carefully

Numbers can strengthen a summary when they are accurate and meaningful.

Good:

Led a 12-person customer-success team supporting mid-market SaaS accounts across North America.

Good:

Built a training program adopted by more than 200 internal users.

Avoid:

Increased engagement by 400%.

Unless you can explain the metric, time period, baseline, responsibility, and permission to publish it.

Do not share confidential client details, internal financial information, sensitive personal data, or unapproved customer results.

Add keywords without keyword stuffing

Your About section can help relevant visitors understand your expertise, and it may support discovery through professional search. LinkedIn recommends using words that highlight top skills and relevant specialties, including language found in job descriptions and related professional profiles.

Use keywords naturally in sentences.

Less useful:

Marketing | Growth | SEO | Social Media | B2B | Strategy | Content | Leadership | Innovation

More useful:

My work spans B2B content strategy, LinkedIn marketing, social media planning, customer education, and organic growth programs for SaaS and professional-services teams.

Where to find relevant keywords

Look at:

• Job descriptions for roles you want.
• Customer and prospect language.
• Industry terminology.
• Your actual project work.
• Skills you have demonstrated.
• Services you provide.
• Certifications and tools you use.
• Competitor or peer profiles for vocabulary inspiration—not copied wording.
• Frequently asked questions from customers or hiring managers.

Only include terms that accurately describe your experience. Keyword stuffing creates an unclear profile and can undermine trust.

Show personality without oversharing

A strong LinkedIn summary can sound human without becoming a personal diary. LinkedIn’s examples show that authentic career stories, motivations, interests, and a sense of humor can help a summary become more memorable when they reinforce professional relevance.

You might include:

• A professional principle.
• A career turning point.
• A hobby that connects naturally to your work.
• A volunteer role.
• A meaningful motivation.
• A learning interest.
• A light personal detail that creates a conversation starter.
• A concise explanation of why you chose the field.

Example

Outside work, I volunteer with a local mentoring program for early-career marketers. It keeps me grounded in the questions new professionals ask before they learn the industry language.

This detail supports the person’s professional focus. It is more useful than adding unrelated personal facts solely to fill space.

Share only what you are comfortable making public and what fits the audience you want to attract.

Write in first person and use white space

Your About section should usually sound like you speaking to a professional contact.

Use first person:

I help operations teams improve cross-functional handoffs.

Avoid third person:

Sarah is an experienced operations professional who helps teams improve cross-functional handoffs.

LinkedIn recommends writing as you speak, reading the summary aloud, using first person, avoiding excessive special characters or emojis, and creating white space with short paragraphs or lists.

Formatting guidelines

• Write in short paragraphs.
• Use one idea per paragraph.
• Add bullets only when they make skills or specialties easier to scan.
• Use one to three short bullets, not a long keyword dump.
• Avoid excessive emoji strings.
• Avoid all caps.
• Avoid large blocks of text.
• Use simple punctuation.
• Read the summary aloud before publishing.
• Test whether the first few lines work independently.

Example formatting

I help mid-market SaaS companies improve customer onboarding, product adoption, and customer education.

My work sits at the intersection of customer success, content strategy, and product communication. I translate product complexity into guidance teams and customers can actually use.

My focus areas include:

• Onboarding strategy
• Customer education
• Lifecycle content
• Adoption measurement

I enjoy connecting with customer-success, product, and content leaders working on better customer experiences.

LinkedIn summary examples

Use these as structural examples. Replace the details with your experience and voice.

Example: job seeker

I am a marketing coordinator with experience supporting B2B content, campaign operations, event promotion, and performance reporting.

I enjoy the work behind a clear campaign: understanding the audience, organizing the message, coordinating stakeholders, and measuring what happens after launch.

In my recent role, I supported content calendars, email campaigns, webinar promotion, and reporting for a SaaS business serving operations teams.

My strengths include content coordination, project management, social media planning, campaign reporting, and cross-functional communication.

I am currently exploring marketing-coordinator and content-operations roles where I can contribute to an organized, audience-focused marketing team.

Example: career changer

I am transitioning from customer support into customer success and customer education.

Over six years in support, I learned that many customer issues are not caused by a lack of effort. They happen when customers do not have clear guidance at the moment they need it.

I have experience identifying recurring support themes, improving knowledge-base content, working with product teams on customer feedback, and helping users navigate complex workflows.

I am now building deeper experience in onboarding, customer education, lifecycle communication, and adoption measurement.

I welcome conversations with customer-success leaders, education teams, and mentors working in SaaS customer experience.

Example: consultant

I help professional-services firms turn unclear content operations into practical, repeatable publishing systems.

My work focuses on content strategy, editorial workflows, social media planning, subject-matter-expert collaboration, and measurement. I work with teams that have useful expertise but struggle to turn it into consistent, audience-focused content.

I have led content planning, blog programs, LinkedIn campaigns, executive thought-leadership workflows, and analytics reporting for B2B organizations.

My focus areas include:

• B2B content strategy
• LinkedIn marketing
• Editorial operations
• Thought leadership
• Content measurement

If your team is building a more reliable content workflow, I am always interested in comparing notes.

Example: founder

I founded [Company] to help [audience] solve [specific problem].

We work with [type of organization] that need [outcome]. Our approach combines [service, product, or method] with a focus on [differentiator].

My background in [industry, function, or prior experience] shaped how I think about the problem: [brief insight].

I write about [three relevant topics], particularly where [audience] needs clearer decisions, stronger processes, or better information.

I welcome conversations with [customers, partners, industry peers, candidates, or other relevant people].

Example: recruiter

I work with healthcare organizations and candidates navigating specialist and leadership hiring.

Recruitment is not only about filling an open role. It is about helping organizations define what they need, helping candidates understand the opportunity, and creating a process that respects both sides of the decision.

My experience includes talent sourcing, candidate engagement, hiring-manager partnership, interview process design, and workforce-planning conversations.

I share practical insights on healthcare hiring, candidate experience, recruitment operations, and leadership talent.

I am always open to connecting with healthcare professionals, talent leaders, and organizations building stronger teams.

Example: technical specialist

I am a data analyst focused on turning operational data into decisions people can use.

I work with teams that have dashboards, reports, and systems—but still struggle to identify which metric matters, who should act on it, and what should happen next.

My work includes data modeling, dashboard design, performance reporting, data-quality review, and stakeholder enablement.

I am particularly interested in analytics adoption, data storytelling, operational measurement, and making reporting more useful for non-technical teams.

I enjoy connecting with analysts, operations leaders, and product teams working to make data more actionable.

How to use AI to improve a LinkedIn summary

AI can help you organize your experience, identify vague wording, create outline options, simplify language, compare drafts, and check whether your summary reflects a target role or audience.

It should not write a fictional professional identity for you.

Good uses of AI

• Turning notes into a structured outline.
• Identifying repeated phrases.
• Simplifying jargon.
• Generating several opening options.
• Checking whether a summary explains a career transition.
• Comparing your skills with a job description.
• Flagging claims that need proof.
• Creating a keyword list from your verified experience.
• Tightening a draft.
• Checking readability.

Unsafe or unhelpful uses

• Inventing work history.
• Creating fake accomplishments.
• Adding unearned certifications.
• Claiming customer results you cannot prove.
• Creating false personal stories.
• Adding companies, clients, awards, or job titles you never had.
• Claiming expertise based only on a course you completed.
• Copying another person’s summary.

Use ChatGPT for LinkedIn profile writing as a drafting and editing assistant, then verify every claim and rewrite the final summary until it sounds like you.

AI prompt for a LinkedIn summary

I am updating my LinkedIn About section.

Here is my verified work history, experience, skills, education, and career goal: [paste information].

My target audience is: [recruiters, prospective clients, hiring managers, partners, peers, or another group].

My desired tone is: [practical, warm, direct, analytical, concise, etc.].

Create three outline options before drafting. Each should include:

• A clear opening
• My current professional focus
• Relevant experience
• One or two verified proof points
• Relevant skills or specialties
• A natural next step

Do not invent metrics, clients, job titles, qualifications, awards, certifications, personal stories, or results. Flag any claim that needs me to verify it.

For more examples of structured instructions, use these AI prompts for LinkedIn posts and profile content.

Common LinkedIn summary mistakes

Avoid these common LinkedIn About section mistakes to keep your summary clear, credible, and easy to read:

• Repeating your résumé: Highlight the experience that connects to your current goals instead of listing every job, responsibility, and certification.
• Starting with filler: Skip generic greetings and introductions. Use the opening to show what you do and why it matters.
• Using vague buzzwords: Replace terms like “passionate” and “results-driven” with specific examples of your work and achievements.
• Listing too many skills: Focus on the skills and expertise most relevant to your audience or target role.
• Making unsupported claims: Support statements about your expertise, awards, qualifications, and results with accurate evidence.
• Sharing too much personal information: Include only personal details you feel comfortable making public.
• Writing in third person: Use first-person language to make your summary sound more natural and personal.
• Using one long paragraph: Keep paragraphs short and use limited bullet points to make your summary easier to scan.
• Copying someone else’s summary: Learn from other profiles, but use your own experience, goals, and voice.
• Forgetting to update your summary: Review it whenever your role, expertise, services, audience, or career goals change.

Review your summary before publishing

Use this checklist before saving your LinkedIn About section.

Review area	Question
Opening	Does the first sentence explain my professional relevance?
Audience	Is it clear who I work with, support, or want to reach?
Role	Does it explain what I actually do, beyond my job title?
Value	Does it describe the problem I help solve or the outcome I support?
Experience	Does it include enough relevant background to be credible?
Proof	Are all projects, outcomes, titles, metrics, and credentials accurate?
Keywords	Are relevant skills and industry terms included naturally?
Voice	Does it sound like me when read aloud?
Readability	Are the paragraphs short and easy to scan?
Privacy	Have I removed confidential, personal, customer, and employer-sensitive information?
Goal	Is it clear what kind of opportunity or conversation I welcome?
Freshness	Does it reflect my current role, focus, and goals?

Keep your summary connected to your LinkedIn activity

Your summary is not an isolated profile field. It should match the professional story people see elsewhere.

For example:

• If your summary says you specialize in customer education, publish practical insights about onboarding, adoption, and customer experience.
• If you want consulting clients, share useful frameworks related to the problems you solve.
• If you are seeking a new role, make your headline, Featured section, Experience details, and professional activity support that target direction.
• If you are building executive visibility, connect your summary themes to the ideas you write about and the conversations you join.

A well-aligned summary gives new visitors context when they discover your content. A practical LinkedIn content strategy helps ensure the posts you publish reinforce the expertise and audience focus stated in your profile.

How ContentStudio supports LinkedIn profile visibility

ContentStudio does not edit your LinkedIn About section for you, but it can help you build the professional activity that brings relevant people to your profile.

Use ContentStudio to:

• Plan content aligned with your expertise.
• Build a LinkedIn content calendar.
• Draft and review thought-leadership posts.
• Create and schedule content for Profiles and Company Pages.
• Organize source material and post ideas.
• Collaborate on content with teams, clients, or subject-matter experts.
• Use AI to improve drafts and generate variations.
• Monitor engagement.
• Analyze content performance.
• Identify topics that attract relevant profile visits and conversations.

Use a LinkedIn content publishing workflow to connect your profile positioning with consistent, relevant activity.

Final words

A LinkedIn summary is your opportunity to explain your professional value beyond a title and résumé timeline. It should help the right visitor understand what you do, who you help, what experience supports your work, and why they may want to connect.

Start with a clear opening. Use plain language. Add evidence rather than buzzwords. Include only information you can stand behind. Give the reader a relevant next step. Then review the summary whenever your professional direction changes.

FAQs