Excellent LinkedIn Profiles for CMOs & VPs of Marketing

Who should be the best at creating an online presence, personal branding, content, and communication? Marketers, of course! And there’s no better place to demonstrate your capabilities than LinkedIn, where your clients, prospects, employees, and stakeholders will see them.

And those folks are watching—looking to see if the person who leads the strategy and marketing for the whole company knows what they’re doing. Are you just talking the talk? Or does your LinkedIn presence reflect a marketing leader who understands the value of social media and uses it effectively?

Savvy CMOs and marketing leaders use these best practices to showcase their capabilities on LinkedIn:

Promote your company through posts and by liking and commenting on other employees’ posts. Share good news and give kudos on LinkedIn; that’s the kind of engagement that brings positive attention to you, your employees, and your company.

Showcase your talents through the writing and graphics on your profile. Start with a great headshot and a background graphic that grabs readers’ attention. Use the About section to share your story—how you got where you are, what motivates you, how you define success, and what’s important to you. Do it all with the excellence that makes you a marketing leader.

Use the Featured section to highlight your recent achievements. Note past accomplishments in specific job descriptions in Experience or in Honors & Awards or Projects.

Connect with other marketers and industry executives, and engage in conversations with them. Encourage others, share your viewpoint, and enjoy the interaction with your peers that used to be available only at conferences.

Embed keywords throughout your profile, so you rank high in searches and are more findable.

Use LinkedIn to make your capabilities as a marketer visible. You will set an example for excellence on LinkedIn that others can follow, and your efforts will pay off continually.

What does an excellent profile of a CMO or marketing VP look like?

Jennifer Chase’s LinkedIn profile welcomes visitors and connections with a creative and poignant header graphic that coordinates well with her photo. Her Featured section is a curated collection of her blog posts, as well as an interview that confirms her status as a thought leader. Her About section and Experience entries are well written and tell a thoughtful and cohesive story about this executive’s journey to her current role as CMO at SAS.

Bob Madaio’s header graphic immediately shows who he works for and why his readers should want to work there, too. At the time of this writing, Sharp Business USA is hiring, and Bob uses LinkedIn’s “Hiring” banner to invite inquiries from prospective recruits. The media samples in his Featured section reveal that people want to hear Bob’s perspective—amplified by the fact that his Skills and Endorsements are at the maximum level allowed by the platform. Bob’s work and volunteer Experience complete the picture of a dedicated team player who loves to help others.