LoginSchedule demoLoginSchedule demoIt's important that your social media profiles accurately communicate who you are, and these tips will quickly improve your profiles.
We make quick judgments and form first impressions upon meeting someone, and research shows that we do the same thing when browsing social media profiles.
Today, even before someone spends any actual face time with you, they can view your LinkedIn or Instagram profiles and make assumptions about who you are both personally and professionally. That can affect your personal brand, your effectiveness at social selling, and more.
That’s why it’s so important to ensure that your social media profiles accurately communicate who you are. So here are ten tips to improve your social media profiles in under an hour and in the long-term.
No, you don’t need a stunning headshot. But what you do need is a high-quality profile picture.
This doesn’t have to be a buttoned-up professional pic in your best suit. It’s OK to have some fun and showcase your personality, especially if it fits your role (i.e. you work in a creative field vs. a highly regulated industry like financial services).
Use the same photo across your social networks to consistently communicate your personal brand and make it easy for people to identify you.
Finally, ensure that all your photos — whether they’re profile pics or header images — are the right size. Consider how they’ll look on both mobile and desktop devices or the photo is expanded.
Luckily, every social channel tells you exactly what image sizes to use.
Of course, the bio of your social media profile is a place to talk about yourself. But it’s a mistake to make it all about you.
When you use social media for business, you need to communicate not only who you are, but also what you can do for your followers.
A great place to do this is your LinkedIn headline, like Karly Wescott does in the example below.
Your posts — especially those you pin at the top of the page — should deliver this message as well.
When people first view your social media profiles, they’re not going to scroll too far back to discover who you are. So make sure your personal brand and the value you can deliver to your audience is clear and consistent in everything you post.
Speaking of pinning your best content, you should pin your best content.
For example, you can pin updates to your LinkedIn page, showcase your top tweet, and highlight your favorite Instagram photos.
Showcase the posts that best communicate your skills and accomplishments, especially those that garnered a lot of engagement.
Whether you’re looking for new job opportunities or trying to connect with potential customers, you can’t effectively accomplish either on social media unless you’re easy to find.
That’s why your social media profiles need to contain relevant keywords and hashtags in the right places.
This is important both for search within individual social networks, as well as for organic search results on Google since social media sites often populate search results, such as in the example below.
So make yourself easy to find by using Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, Ahrefs, or another keyword-research tool to determine which keywords to populate your social media profiles with.
You can do the same thing to research hashtags and select the ones that’ll be the best for your bio.
Sprinkle these throughout your social media profile. For example, on LinkedIn, you may include them in your job title, headline, experience or skills.
However, be sure to use them organically — don’t just drop them in at random or create a long list of keywords.
Finally, be consistent in your keyword and hashtag use because you want your personal brand to be consistent across your social media profiles.
Reach out to individuals in your network and ask them to provide you with reviews, endorsements, and recommendations
This kind of positive feedback doesn’t only make you look appealing to potential employers who can easily see your top-rated skills, but it also builds social trust among your followers and shows them that you’ll deliver on the promise you make in your bio.
Your profile photo shouldn’t be the only place your face appears — your followers should occasionally see the real you in photos, Stories, videos, and more.
You don’t have to post weekly selfies or feature your mug front and center as you share your top marketing tips in a social video. But you do want to ensure that you’re getting some face time in with your audience.
This improves your personal brand and makes you more relatable — and easily recognizable — to your followers.
Go through all your social media profiles and untag yourself in pictures and posts that are inappropriate, unprofessional, or have the potential to harm your personal brand.
Also, take the time to set up your privacy settings and preferences to determine who can see your tagged posts and who’s permitted to tag you in posts.
You may also want to set your preferences to allow you to approve photos or posts that you’re tagged in before they appear on your profile.
Cross-promote your social presence across various networks.
Some social channels, such as Instagram, allow you to include only one link on your social media profile. However, other networks have multiple fields for websites and links.
LinkedIn, for example, lets you include your twitter account, as well as your personal website and company site. And Facebook has several fields that let you showcase all the places your followers can find you.
It’s essential to provide your audience with numerous types of content. This not only keeps your audience engaged, but it also helps you win favor from algorithms and increases the odds that your content will appear in people’s feeds.
Take a multimedia approach and create text posts, upload videos, share memes, post links, and more. And don’t be afraid to experiment with new social features.
Not sure what to post? The most important thing to keep in mind is your audience.
Consider the kind of content they’d find helpful, interesting, or engaging, and continually ask yourself if what you create and share truly provides value.
There’s no shortage of tools available to help you improve your social media profiles, your social presence as a whole, and even your brand’s social presence.
Here’s a few to consider making part of your tech stack:
If you’ve taken all the steps outlined above, your social media profiles are no doubt looking more polished and professional, as well as attracting new followers and more engagement.
Ready to take them to the next level and enhance your overall social media presence? What about improving employee engagement and your employer brand?
You can do all this and more with EveryoneSocial!
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