I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Blank. I know you’ve seen him on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites. He’s the one with no profile picture and no information. Here he is ->
When you see him do you accept the connection? I actually run the other way! When we are looking for valuable connections we check them out. Who are they? What do they do? Where can I learn more? So don’t be Mr. Blank! Here are 7 easy steps to creating the best social profile!
1 ) Add a professional photo – The first thing people look at is your picture. So have a picture that best represents you and your brand.
2 ) Define your specific skills, passions and expertise that set you apart from the rest. Showcase your expertise and unique brand in a memorable way. So anytime they are looking for someone with your expertise they think of you!
3 ) Provide your 30 second elevator speech (tailored to the specific social network). Here’s your chance, you can only be memorable once! Make the most of that short bio. Entice them to stay awhile.
4 ) Be interesting and memorable (share passions, interestes and unique traits or accomplishments). Clients and customers do business with people they like, business that “get” what they’re about! Share with your passions and share your case studies with your social networks. They want to hear this! This is what creates great connections and ongoing relationships.
5 ) Tag your profile with keywords relevant to your business. These are words your potential clients will understand and that use in their everyday word. Don’t use industry terminology that they won’t understand. Consider using words and phrases that are results oriented, what will get prospects excited?
6 ) Include key links to your blog, website and possibly other social networks. One of the most powerful aspects of social media is driving traffic. Be sure you include a link that is a great starting point for someone who just found you! Where should a new prospect start with your business?
7 ) Make sure your profile is readable and easy to follow. Don’t use images that are hard to understand or follow. Use a compelling image with great emotion. Chose your words carefully and strategically. The copy of your profile goes a LONG way. Use results and pain words. Paint a picture they want to live in!
Alrighty, there’s 7 easy steps to improving your social media profiles now. Make a few changes and see what benefits come to your profiles.
Did you use any of the steps for your business profiles? What helped you the most?
Sounds like I’ve got some work to do!
Thanks for the great insights. So many things that I hadn’t thought of before. I will be adding a more unique “elevator speech” like you talked about. My current bio isn’t that memorable.
I have heard of people tagging themselves before I didn’t know what that meant until now thank you for explaining at least one reason people do that. And the 30 second elevator speech is awesome that is kind of like a testimony that you give to someone when you are sharing about Christ and what He has done in your life. Great ideas all of them.
This was a great blog you have a lot of good ideas. My Facebook profile is very boring and I need to liven it up a bit and now I have some specific ways to do just that. Where did you come up with all this information and ideas to do this? You obviously have multiple social media connections don’t you? I am going to stick with Facebook for now.
Hi Donald,
There is so much to consider with social media profiles, I’m sure your Facebook profile with be packed with information soon
I’ve been participating and teaching social media for over 4 years now, so there I’ve got a ton of ideas swirling around in my head!
Thanks for your comments.
~Erin
I think having a picture on your profile of yourself is very important if you intend to win over the trust of potential customers This is especially important to information brokers who market their training services or downloadable programs or some other type of content. I don’t think anyone will be willing to spend their money on a Facebook profile that has the dreaded shadow. Even a company logo is much better than looking like an incomplete page.
It seems so simple when you read this list of tips, yet most people don’t bother to examine and carefully word their social media profiles with targeted key words. I think it is important for a business owner to make a list of the top five to ten key words and then compose the text for your profile with those key words embedded within the body of the text. Once you have a prioritized list, you can go from there.
Hey Karen,
Thanks so much for the comment. Great tips on the 5 to 10 keywords that is a great way to ingrate keywords.
~Erin
I like to integrate my Word Press blog with my Twitter and Facebook profiles. I use a plug in that automates this task so that when I submit a new post to my Word Press blog, both my Twitter and Facebook profiles get updated with a preview headline of the article and a link to visit my blog site. This takes care of at least one of the tips mentioned in this article. But you still have to work on your overall FB profile.
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for the great comment. WordPress plugins are a good way to go. If you start to notice your site is a bit sluggish due to a lot of plugins you can check out a few other automation tools.
HootSuite – they can publish to Twitter and Facebook via RSS feed
NetworkedBlogs – a Facebook application that I love, this can updated Facebook and Twitter as well. Good for you Facebook edge rank score.
RSS Graffiti – another Facebook application, this can only update your Facebook account.
~Erin