Optimize Your Profile

Your social media profile is the first thing anyone who cares enough to click will see in their efforts to learn more about you. It’s a relatively easy and painless way to put your best foot forward and present yourself as the person you want people to see. Yet many people neglect their profiles; leaving them incomplete, featuring vestigial low res user pics from a time of stricter upload limits, or any number or other errors that may push away the exact audience you want to draw near.

So: don’t do that. Yes, it may be boring or seem trivial, but your social media profiles are like business cards. Please make sure they feature accurate, complete, and up to date information!

Different platforms ask for different info, but a few basic principles cut across all of them:

  • Fill out your bio and other profile categories with info relevant to the people you want to attract. Looking for clients? Fans? Friends? Be sure to say wtf you do that would interest any of these audiences. Let people know who you are, what you offer, and why it’s worthwhile. “Cat whisperer and award-winning author of 10 books including the best-seller My Cat Hates Me But He Hates You More” tells potential connections a lot more than “I love my cats and baking and reading the Sunday Times in bed”
  • “Relevant” includes interesting. You want to come across as a 3D human (maybe even if you’re not one–I’m looking at you, any AIs reading these tips) so feel free to highlight hobbies and nonprofessional interests, just not at the expense of any crucial info. You’re less likely to get editing clients with a twitter bio that brags about your running triumphs than one that discusses your professional credentials and mentions just mentions “ultramarathoner” at the end.
  • Space for a URL? Choose wisely, but choose something. Don’t have your own website? Link to your company’s or another professional affiliation you wish to highlight, or just go get a free wordpress site or something already.
  • In general, please fill out all the categories unless genuinely irrelevant or unflattering. The more useful info cleanly and concisely displayed, the better your chance of making a useful connection
  • Pictures, please! Make sure you have a use pic that is optimized for the size/shape of the thumbnail displayed. LOOK AT THE THING after it’s uploaded. Is it clear? Inviting? An otherwise amazing photo can look like crap or just confusing once shrunk down to social media user pic sizes. Test drive that baby, and choose something else if your usual pic isn’t working. In general, know that people who use photos of themselves as their user pic tend to do better on social media than those who use images of something (or someone) else.

Need help getting your profile up to snuff? 4MileCircus can help you build an effective profile you love that reflects your unique presence. Let us know how we can help!

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