The LinkedIn Playbook: platform rules on writing

Hints at what makes a good LinkedIn copy for your profile

Before you start optimizing your LinkedIn profile with the help of ChatGPT, figure out…

Four+ ChatGPT prompts for your LinkedIn headlines

Revamp your LinkedIn About section with ChatGPT

The experience section of your LinkedIn profile - 175% more enticing with ChatGPT

LinkedIn’s most important social proof currency: references

Other useful LinkedIn profile sections you can fill out with ChatGPT

LinkedIn messages - ChatGPT can help with those

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+20 Useful ChatGPT Prompts to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for the Dream Job


It's been a while since you opened your LinkedIn profile, but desperate times call for desperate measures. 


*Insert the tune from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" here.*


Preparation for finding a new job includes the open-to-work frame in your profile photo...


.... the "I'm ready to begin a brand-new chapter of my career" plastered all over your headline, summary, +30 posts, and various DMs.


Yet those "pesky" recruiters seem to be avoiding you like the plague.


Where are they when you need them?! And why are your profile views below 100?! Why aren't recruiters doing their job to headhunt you?!


Hold it right there, partner!


Think about what is your reason to be on LinkedIn in the first place.


As the #1 social media: 



where not only recruiters, but CEOs (ranking amongst the likes of Ryan Reynolds and Russel Branson) hang out;

of content creators, who rise from the ashes of Rome, to spread wisdom and knowledge;

or the birthplace of that modern legend: of the Underdog turned manager due to a hiring decision…



…what is the value your desperate cry out for a new job brings to the platform?


Zero.


LinkedIn is definitely a worthy investment for you to be active as both a professional and a candidate. Not just when you’re on the job market.


But while some may have the gift of words, you may struggle to write separate sections of your LinkedIn profile. What is more, you don't happen to have the time to hire a fancy LinkedIn writer to optimize your profile.


In this case, you can count on ChatGPT. Or Open AI's artificial intelligence chatbot that has been taking the world by storm.


Built on large language models, ChatGPT is fine-tuned by supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. Basically, you provide it with prompts - in the form of questions or requests. 


The chatbot refers to an online database to spin out answers in the form of templates, poems, recipes, and lyrics. 


You name it, ChatGPT can and will write it. 
Within this guide, you'll learn:


the best guide to optimizing your LinkedIn profile and writing rules for the platform;

using ChatGPT prompts to make your headline stand out in just under 220 characters;

why storytelling should be part of your LinkedIn about section and the J.K. Rowling (“Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi”) prompt;

reframing your LinkedIn experience using ChatGPT;

various LinkedIn profile sections, which you can optimize with AI's help for the best results.


The LinkedIn Playbook: platform rules on writing

Before we get into the fun bit about optimizing your LinkedIn with ChatGPT, let's set some ground rules.


Or what works - and subsequently doesn't - on this infamous platform.

LinkedIn Rule of Thumb #1: Know your audience!

Before you even consider putting your best foot forward on the platform, know what your reason for being on LinkedIn is. Or - to be more precise - who you'd like to connect with.


If you want to network with recruiters (or potential employers) - think about their mindset with a focus on what:



impresses them;

resonates with them; 

gives your credibility.



The quicker you know who you're talking to, the easier it'd be to set up your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn Rule of Thumb #2: Keywords all the way!

You may have the "best" LinkedIn profile out there, but if it doesn't include at least two or three industry keywords, you have lost your chances.


Even though the likes of #sustainability and #machinelearning are all over the platform, be specific in integrating key skills for the industry in your profile.

LinkedIn Rule of Thumb #3: Stay linked in!

This platform deals in engagement - meaning the more content you like, the more it learns about you as a creator or user. As might be expected, the AI mirrors the behavior of all its users.


So you want to connect with more recruiters in data science? Start spending at least 15 minutes a day liking, commenting, sharing, or resharing content.
LinkedIn Rule of Thumb #4: Stay up-to-date!

It has been decades since you've checked your LinkedIn profile (which you created for a university assignment, back in the early 2010s). For the past six years of your career, that profile has been gathering dust.


Newsflash - whatever happens through your career, that's worth sharing - could and should be part of a digital portfolio of your choice.


And as your digital resume - make sure that your LinkedIn profile stays relevant. Score extra brownie points by aligning it to your actual resume, when applying for jobs.

LinkedIn Rule of Thumb #5: Be authentic

Many people are on LinkedIn to show off their "dream, digital nomad lifestyle" or their awesome 401(k).


You don't have to be one of those people to succeed on the platform.


Instead, keep your professional integrity by staying true to your values and what matters to you as a professional and to your industry.


Because your experience - as little or junior as it may be - is actually what makes your journey unique.
Hints at what makes a good LinkedIn copy for your profile

When applying for a job, all of your copies have to be written using clear and concise language.


While figuring out your professional narrative, you'd ultimately include on both your resume and LinkedIn:



relevant industry keywords;
strengths and major achievements - what makes you stand out? What sort of unique value do you bring about? What sort of challenges can you solve?
KPIs and impact via quantifiable results (numbers, metrics, and data);
specifics, examples, and, potentially, narratives (e.g. personal stories that have helped you attain soft skills).
While writing a resume, you have to ensure you're professional at all times (as they're often times assessed by the Applicant Tracker System (-s)), LinkedIn provides you with an entirely different visual experience.


Resumes have a pretty standard one- (to two-) page formatting with limited "real estate". 


There are character limitations on LinkedIn, you have a bit more freedom to:



experiment with emojis in key profile sections;

play around with paragraphs that vary in length;

include more blank spaces in between paragraphs.



Apart from building your personal brand and voice on LinkedIn, aim for making your readers' experience a more pleasant one.

Before you start optimizing your LinkedIn profile with the help of ChatGPT, figure out…
…who you’re writing for

Now, ChatGPT may not have access to actual LinkedIn user profiles, but it could help you imagine what your target audience’s (a.k.a. recruiters) demographics; goals and motivations; challenges; preferred channels; and key messaging are like.
…relevant industry keywords 

While ChatGPT’s latest version assesses data only up to 2021, it may be a good starting point to provide you with relevant industry keywords. 

Once you have your list, always double-check the keywords’ relevance within the platform by doing a simple search within posts to see who is posting what on the topic.

… your tone of voice

Perhaps you have references as to your writing style and want to maintain its consistency through your full digital presence.


Here’s how you could use ChatGPT to figure out your tone of voice via your resume:

These keywords could also be integrated as soft skills through your profile, as long as they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Four+ ChatGPT prompts for your LinkedIn headlines

LinkedIn profile headlines are actually quite similar to your resume ones, in the sense that it's a good idea to list within them:



skills and accomplishments;

industry keywords;

potentially - the role you're seeking to land.



Let's start off with a simple, yet effective prompt you could use with ChatGPT.

Here's one insider's scoop on how recruiters use LinkedIn when searching for candidates.


If they decided on doing their search via keywords, your profile is featured only with the first 70 characters of your headline.


So, make sure you are using this space wisely:

Some of the best LinkedIn headlines out there embody the specific role or professional.


They are:



concise and specific;

conversational in tone, yet professional;

feature advert keywords;

highlights or your unique value proposition.



Let’s look at a prompt that could help you achieve all of those things in roughly 220 characters.

More to the point, if you want to make your headline a bit more of a personalized experience for all recruiters, focus on



what problems you can solve with your current skill set (think of the main ones);
something interesting that you enjoy doing outside of work.
Now, this headline may include way too many clichés for your taste. Whatever you write with ChatGPT, always make sure to double-check that the outputs meet your standard of writing and tone of voice.


And here’s what we were able to achieve with this prompt:

Finally, if you happen to have your resume ready to go, you could feed it into ChatGPT to produce a detailed headline.
Revamp your LinkedIn About section with ChatGPT

It is difficult; actually, very difficult. To summarize your whole personality and career in about 2000 characters, while trying to rank within LinkedIn's algorithm.


You may have done something similar before - for your resume summary. But LinkedIn as a platform has its specifics.


This section of our guide will provide just that - a window of opportunity to write your LinkedIn About section.

Excellent LinkedIn About sections catch the reader's attention and set the tone of your whole profile. 


An outstanding one could be a brief summary of your professional background, state key skills, and/or notable accomplishments. 


Alternatively, there are a couple of popular frameworks that could do an excellent job for you.

Popular LinkedIn About frameworks

1. One of the best frameworks you could use for your LinkedIn About is the narrative one.


Basically, the career journey you embarked on to reach the heights you are at today.


Any good LinkedIn story can follow one of the most basic outlines used in storytelling:



Kicks off with the main character (a.k.a. you): what would make audiences sympathize with them?

What is the main character's goal/vision/ dream in life (in their career)?

Obstacles (the big "Oh, No" moment): how did they challenge the character to grow?

What are the lessons learned?

Where is this main character now?



ChatGPT could assist you to write the narrative LinkedIn about:

2. Another pretty strong framework you could use is the: "What I can do vs How I can help you" one.


It focuses on setting you apart from other professionals with the unique value you bring about.


This LinkedIn About is an up to four-paragraph affair that intertwines your experience, skills, and best achievements with LinkedIn's SEO.


The "What I can do vs How I can help you" framework is perhaps one of the best choices if you're trying to make an excellent impression on recruiters.


Test it out for yourself:

Writing your LinkedIn About should entirely reflect your personality and be about you as a professional. 


You could potentially:



start off your introduction with a few (possibly cheesy) icebreakers/ dad jokes;

kick it off with a wise quote that has inspired you to be the professional you are today;

build up your paragraphs based on three -to-four values and the soft skills you have to support them.



Get creative, and find what works best for you.


And for the fun part, we have prepared seven more ChatGPT prompts you can experiment with to write your best LinkedIn About.

Full resume ChatGPT promptChatGPT prompt based on resume summaryResume experience ChatGPT promptLinkedIn About prompt based on resume achievementsThe focus prompt

This one could be pretty useful if you happen to have a couple of keywords/ key skills, that you’d like to integrate into your LinkedIn About.
The “Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi” mirror prompt

Perhaps, you’d like to mirror your own, or somebody else’s writing style in your LinkedIn About section. These small tweaks could be pretty useful in building your digital identity.


This one is just for fun, but we decided to mirror J.k. Rowling’s writing style for this LinkedIn About.

Now, this may be a little too “magical” and “enchanting” for your taste, so don’t forget to edit all ChatGPT outputs.

Spice it up

You have your LinkedIn About ready to go, yet each tagline sounds a bit dull.
The experience section of your LinkedIn profile - 175% more enticing with ChatGPT

How do you select the best of your experience to feature on your LinkedIn profile?


Refer to just how relevant your role is to the job you're applying for.


For more recent positions that completely align with the desired role requirements, you could include more details in the experience section of your LinkedIn profile.


While with more back-dated work experience items, focus on the skills' relevance to your current career goals.


When listing your experience items, focus on both achievements and skills. Always remember to quantify them with relevant success metrics (e.g. numbers, data, performance review scores, etc.)


Let’s see how ChatGPT can help you adapt your resume experience for LinkedIn.
LinkedIn’s most important social proof currency: references

Any LinkedIn strategist will highlight the importance of references in your profile. The more you happen to have from different sources - the more plausible and authoritative your experience will be deemed by recruiters.


But here’s the thing about LinkedIn references - they’re very often the case of “you scratch my back, I scratch yours”. You’d need to be able to provide such for colleagues, mentors, team leaders, and even managers.

ChatGPT can help beat your writer’s block by providing you with a basic frame for your reference. 


As a first step, ask the person (to whom you’ll be giving the reference) to provide you with either their resume (it’d be excellent if it’s in Google Docs format) or key skills that they would like to have highlighted.


Next, paste in this prompt:
Other useful LinkedIn profile sections you can fill out with ChatGPT

The next four LinkedIn profile sections are nice to have - to possibly fill in some gaps in your experience or perhaps further build-up your professional narrative.

Volunteer

When writing about your volunteer experience, ensure that you’ve highlighted your responsibilities and achievements. 


If you’ve worked on any bespoke projects or initiatives, they could also make their way into the volunteer section.
Publications

The rule of thumb for writing about your publications on LinkedIn is to always include a clear summary of what your work is about and what its relevance is to the industry.


The description of your publication has to be up to 2,000 characters long.

Popular Projects

What was the purpose of the project you participated in last summer? Were you able to achieve what you set out to do?


The LinkedIn projects’ description should also include any noteworthy achievements, your role in the venture, and the end results.

Education

For your LinkedIn education section, you may decide to paint the full picture with more information.


In the 1000-character limit, you can mention notable academic achievements and honors.

LinkedIn messages - ChatGPT can help with those

Your whole job search strategy is based on who you know, so you’ve decided to take the time to build a sustainable LinkedIn network.


And one key player within your network would be adding relevant recruiters. Now, these professionals receive plenty of requests per day.


To stand out from the crowd, include a personalized message with your connection request.
Key takeaways


Before you start optimizing your LinkedIn profile, learn a bit more about your target audience; to get the recruiters’ attention, you need to research relevant keywords, ensure your profile is updated, and take the time to network.
ChatGPT can be a useful instrument in allocating keywords, understanding the behavior/ activity of recruiters, and devising your tone of voice.
Apart from keywords, focus your LinkedIn profile on your strengths and achievements (both quantifiable with data); credibility (in the form of references); and authentic narrative you’d intertwine.
ChatGPT prompts can be used to support you in writing various sections of your LinkedIn profile; from headline and about to volunteer, education, etc.
ChatGPT’s outputs should serve as frameworks which you’d personalize. Remember that your most authentic self is what’d win you the job in the end of the day.

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What Is An Enclosure In A Cover Letter

An enclosure in a cover letter refers to additional documents that are being sent along with the letter, such as a resume or a portfolio. The enclosure is typically mentioned at the end of the letter, after the closing, and is indicated by the word "Enclosure" or "Enclosures" followed by the number of documents included. 
For example, "Enclosure: 1 resume" or "Enclosures: 2 writing samples, 1 reference list."

Should I attach a cover letter or write it in the email?

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Should I Attach A Cover Letter Or Write It In The Email

Should I attach a cover letter or write it in the email?It's best to include a cover letter as a separate attachment in PDF format and also write a brief introduction in the body of the email highlighting your interest in the position and the attached cover letter. This way, the hiring manager can easily see both your email and cover letter in one place and it can also help to ensure that your formatting remains intact.

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What Should You Name Your Cover Letter File

When titling a cover letter, it's best to use a clear and concise title that includes your name and the job you are applying for. For example, "Jane Smith - Application for Marketing Manager Position." This makes it easy for the hiring manager to understand the purpose of the letter and match it to your application.

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Do You Need To Put A Date On Your Cover Letter

Do you need to put a date on your cover letter?It is generally recommended to include the date on a cover letter, as it provides context for when the letter was written and can be important for scheduling and follow-up purposes. Additionally, having a date on the cover letter can also indicate to the employer that the letter is current and relevant.

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Do You Indent Paragraphs In A Cover Letter

Do you indent paragraphs in a cover letter?Yes, it is common to indent paragraphs in a cover letter. This helps to visually separate the different sections of the letter and makes it easier to read. Typically, the first paragraph of the letter should be left-aligned, and each subsequent paragraph should be indented by about half an inch. 
This can be done by using the "tab" key on a keyboard, or by adjusting the paragraph formatting in a word processing program.

Cover Letter Help

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