Malaysian Professionals Touting “Motivated,” “Effective” and “Responsible” Get Stung by LinkedIn’s 2012 List of Overused Profile Buzzwords

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — December 17, 2012—  LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with more than 187 million members, today released the most overused words and phrases in members’ LinkedIn Profiles in Malaysia for 2012.

The most overused buzzword in LinkedIn Profiles globally is “creative,” which ranks fifth on the Malaysia list. Here’s the list of the top nine terms in full that are most prevalent in the profiles of Malaysian-based LinkedIn members:

Motivated
Effective
Responsible
Dynamic
Creative
Analytical
Interpersonal
Organisational
Track record

“Every day potential business partners, clients and employers are searching for professionals on the Web,” said Tara Commerford, Head of Communications - ANZ & SE Asia at LinkedIn. “If you want opportunity to come knocking, you’ve got to make your LinkedIn Profile stand out from the pack. Millions of professionals say they’re ‘creative,’ so set yourself apart by describing and linking to projects you’ve worked on that truly were different, unique and compelling. Pointing to concrete examples of the creative work you’ve done is more convincing than simply stating you are a ‘creative’ professional.”

This is the third year that LinkedIn has issued its buzzwords ranking, and the first year that it has conducted the study in Malaysia. “Creative” was also the top overused buzzword for professionals globally in the 2011 rankings. In LinkedIn’s 2010 study, buzzwords like “extensive experience,” “dynamic,” “motivated” and “innovative” were among the most overused buzzwords in various countries. When LinkedIn released its first buzzwords ranking in 2010, the site had over 85 million professionals. LinkedIn now has more than 187 million professionals and is growing at a rate of approximately two new members per second.

For a global flavour, here are the 2012 No. 1 buzzwords for countries in which LinkedIn fielded this study:

Australia: Creative
Brazil: Experimental
Canada: Creative
Egypt: Multinational
France: Responsible
Germany: Creative
India: Effective
Indonesia: Multinational
Italy: Responsible
Malaysia: Motivated
Netherlands: Creative
New Zealand: Creative
Saudi Arabia: Motivated
Singapore: Creative
South Africa: Motivated
Spain: Specialized
Sweden: Creative
Switzerland: Analytical
United Arab Emirates: Motivated
United Kingdom: Motivated
United States: Creative

If the buzzword bug bit your LinkedIn Profile, here are a few ways you can remove the sting and make your profile sparkle in 2013:

Check out the competition
·         Do a  LinkedIn Advanced People Search for people who live in your postcode and have the same job title as you. We’re often harsher critics of other people’s profiles than we are of our own. By looking at your peers’ LinkedIn Profiles, you’ll get a better sense of what you like and don’t like about each of them. Make sure you incorporate that feedback into your own profile.

Become a magnet for endorsements
·         When you add relevant  LinkedIn Skills & Expertise to your profile, your first-degree connections  can endorse you for those specific skills. You can add up to 50 relevant skills and areas of expertise (like ballet,  iPhone and  global business development) to your profile.

Make heads turn… with a killer professional headline
·         Your  professional headline is one of the first things people see in LinkedIn search results. By default, your professional headline is based on the title you entered for your most recent position, but you can edit it. Think of your professional headline just like the headline of a news article. You want to draw people in and entice them (whether they are potential hiring managers, business partners or clients), so they click through to read the whole story – in this case, your complete LinkedIn Profile. 

Visit the LinkedIn Blog to learn more about LinkedIn’s 2012 buzzwords study and to download the infographic.