Online Dating and LinkedIn Profile Writing Advice

I regularly critique excerpts from random dating and LinkedIn profiles (for anonymity). By pointing out dos and don'ts from actual profiles, you too can look at your own with a critical eye and improve on your personal branding.


Find a job with 200 words or less.

Transform your LinkedIn profile and boost your career. According to DMR stats, 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates. One of the most important areas they check out is your LinkedIn summary. That LinkedIn summary is your blank slate. It’s the place where you can create a powerful pitch without being confined by dates, titles or text boxes. There, you can break out of your one-dimensional screen presence and become a full-fledged candidate of interest. A LinkedIn summary can… read more

Online dating and deep crimson red flags.

Some online dating profiles are the literary equivalent of Scandal. There’s drama, anger, betrayal, intrigue, even surprise confessions. Today I read the dating profile of a woman who proudly asserted that she keyed her ex’s car. She added “lol” after that admission. I admit these are delicious reads. Lunacy often is. That said, red flags aren’t usually so obvious. Most have more subtle (though no less disquieting) clues. Here are my top six red flags of online dating. If you… read more

She asked, “is it me or are men pigs?”. The answer is perfect.

Here’s what to do when guys online dating just want in a roll in the hay. The other day I was chatting with a single woman who had abruptly pulled her online dating profile off okCupid. She’s vowed never again to go online dating. In her experience, the men were rude and inappropriate. Most had sent sexually explicit messages. Others, while less indecent, still made clear that all they wanted was sex. Frustrated, she blurted, “Is it me or are men online dating just total… read more

How to make management work harder (without cracking the whip).

Treat the LinkedIn profiles of your executives like individual ads in one campaign. Many companies know the value of a LinkedIn page. Some even know the benefit of having employees on LinkedIn to serve as ambassadors. Yet, few companies actually recognize the remarkable branding opportunity of their leadership team’s collective profiles. By presenting a strategic and unified front, a company’s key players can provide yet another touch point in a comprehensive branding campaign. Nevertheless, even those companies with media-worthy LinkedIn pages seem… read more

Her dating profile was so sweet, then this happened.

See what I did with my headline? I gave it a sensational quality, but for no reason. It’s called bait and switch. It’s a form of advertising writing that uses deception to attract people to a product or service. It fools them into thinking they’ll be clicking for one reason, but when they do – it’s not what they expected. It’s an old trick and I just I fell for it myself. I was scrolling through online dating profiles that I could review for… read more

Does your online dating profile open with a…yawn?

“Just checking out this online dating thing to see if I could meet a man who is cool and decent and see where fate may take us.”  That was the first sentence on an online dating profile that I found on POF today. It brings up two important points: 1. Avoid being redundant If you’ve posted an online dating profile on an online dating site then you don’t need to say that you’re checking out this online dating thing. It’s redundant… read more

Before you join LinkedIn, ask yourself this.

What’s the point? To most, it’s called a LinkedIn profile. To me it’s best described as “one of the most powerful marketing opportunities for professionals to date”. Your LinkedIn profile is an ad and you can maximize it by using marketing techniques. One of the most fundamental is setting objectives. Like all ads, your LinkedIn profile needs to have a purpose. What’s yours? Why are you on the site? Many people are on LinkedIn simply because they heard they should… read more

LinkedIn photo or mug shot?

A friend of mine had been a highly valued sales executive for an organization that relocated. He chose not to make the move with them confident that he’d find work. His credentials are outstanding. His profile has been searched and viewed. Yet, two years later, he’s still unemployed. I’m convinced his LinkedIn photo is costing him opportunities. More specifically, it’s costing him about $100,000 a year. In his photo, he’s staring straight at the camera unsmiling. His arms are held tightly… read more

The destructive power of finding your passion.

A friend of mine lost her job recently due to downsizing. The parting was amicable. The change was welcomed. She also received a great severance. And yet… “I can’t find my passion”, she lamented, and “I don’t even know where to look”. I couldn’t have been more surprised. This friend is a wonderful designer who can create beauty in all media from print to digital. She’s also skilled in a number of complex online design tools. In addition, she’s a smart… read more

How a gym ad can help you write a strong online dating profile.

Online dating profiles inspired by a great gym ad.

If you want a successful online dating profile – or any online profile, for that matter – then deconstruct an ad. After all, marketers are experts at getting a message across in a way that reaches an objective. And, the point of an online profile is, in fact, to reach a goal whether it’s finding love or finding a job. Today, we’ll analyze this ad by Publicis Ambience Advertising in Chennai, India and address two techniques that makes it effective:… read more