Should I copy and paste my CV into my LinkedIn profile?

I am often asked whether LinkedIn summaries and CVs should be the same.
The answer is simple: DEFINITELY NOT!

There are 3 main reasons to write different summaries for LinkedIn and your CV.

1. Your CV profile should be short.
   No more than 5 or 6 lines at most and preferably less. Your LinkedIn summary is expected to summarise your career and highlight your main strengths, therefore needs to be longer. Think of it your LinkedIn summary as a mini bio and you’ll be on the right track.
2. Your LinkedIn profile should be written in a more informal style than your CV summary.
   When people look at any web profile, they expect to ‘hear’ your voice coming through. A CV summary is traditionally more formal in tone. This doesn’t mean your LinkedIn profile shouldn’t be professional, just that it should sound more like you. This means that it’s OK – in fact it’s recommended – to write in the first person and to include the word ‘I’ in your LinkedIn profile. 
3. Recruiters will probably check out your LinkedIn profile and CV at different times.
   Generally they will look at both. When they do so, they expect to find additional information, not a carbon copy of what they have already read.

For these three reasons, you must approach your CV and LinkedIn summary quite differently and never copy words from one on to the other.