Your social media bio is your chance to leave a good first impression. It’s your chance to grab attention.

Different platform have different limitations but one thing’s for sure – writing a social media bio is an art form. You have to fit all of the most important things about you in as little as 160 characters. You need to be professional and yet add a touch of human and approachable while being funny.

Seems impossible?

It’s really not – once you learn the rules.

Here are some of the most important rules of creating social media bios:

1. Show, don’t tell

One of the biggest mistakes people make is telling people who they are instead of showing them what they do as well as various sides of their personality in the social media bio. For example, many people call themselves experts, gurus, ninjas, evangelists and so on. We are all a coffee and pizza lover and a guru of something.

But what if you allowed your followers to see this for themselves?

For instance, instead of saying that you are an expert, reference some projects you spearheaded. Instead of saying that you are creative, reference some new ideas you came up with.

2. Tailor your keyword

“Managers want to hire experts. So, make yourself easy to find on social media. Use keywords that would attract someone from your industry directly. There is plenty of room for that in there. Any one of your bios could benefit from keywords,” says John Bale, a marketing strategist at Eliteassignmenthelp and Academ advisor.

Especially on LinkedIn, where the whole purpose is to be findable by hiring managers and companies, keywords could bring you better opportunities and set you as an expert in your own field.

3. Make it accurate

Since there is not a lot of room in your social media bios – and you want to come off as professional and legit – you want to stay far away from eye-catching spelling and grammar mistakes. In the small space they are even more noticeable and your followers will immediately notice and dislike you for it.

Fix your mistakes with these tools:

  • Mywritingway is a social media writing guide which offers tips that can help you avoid various grammar mistakes.
  • Stateofwriting and Essayroo are editing and copywriting tools that can help you write an accurate bio without fluff.
  • Study demic is a grammar checker recommended by Revieweal. It can fix your grammar mistakes.
  • Boomessays and Academized can help you create hashtags that attract just the right kind of audience.

4. Avoid buzzwords

Buzzwords – words that were once beloved among professionals but are now heavily overused and abused. Words like:

  • Responsible
  • Creative
  • Enthusiastic
  • Thought leader
  • Growth hack
  • Guru
  • Ninja
  • Evangelist
  • Expert

There are more – much more – and people use them all the time. However, none of these words mean what you want them to mean because they are overused and bland. As mentioned, everyone is a ninja of something nowadays.

Try using active language instead and power words that actually have meaning. See how your profile changes and starts attracting the right kind of attention.

5. State your value proposition

Why should your followers keep following you? Why should someone follow you at all?

These are some things that you have to clear in your social media bio. You might be funny or smart – but what do your readers get from that?

Be clear either in plain language or with what’s between the lines. Your readers should be aware of what you’ll be posting about, what your general opinions are and so on.

6. Be funny and personal

If you really want to grab someone’s attention, you should come off as human, natural and approachable. It’s fine that you wrote about your professional details – that’s what you should do – but for the love of god, add a touch of personality.

Be funny for a second. Crack a joke – preferably about yourself. This gives you bonus points in the reader’s eyes and helps them imagine that there is an actual human being behind the words. This is not that easy, especially on Twitter where there isn’t much room or on LinkedIn where you are supposed to be professional. However, make some room for that and know that your clients might appreciate it too.

7. Update often

“Your life is changing. You are not always going to be working at the same company and neither are you always going to love and watch that show that you mentioned in your Twitter bio. This is why you need to update. Some say once a year but it would be good if you could change it whenever something that you have put in your bio changes,” says Sonia Perkins, a social media manager at Paperfellows.

You have a new workplace, a new project that you are working on, you have a new favorite food or beverage – just change it. The general structure can remain and you don’t have to replace it.

8. Adapt to different platforms

As mentioned, different platforms have different requirements. You have different amount of space to write and there are different levels of being personal with your audience on each platform.

  • Facebook – Here you have up to 300 characters in your bio and you should definitely add some keywords to attract the right kind of audience. You have a free form section, Education section, professional section and so on. You can fill each one separately.
  • I Twitter – Here you have 160 characters to include your information which is displayed under your profile photo. You should add keywords too. Include the link to your website in the special section and use the space you have in the bio to add a different link.
  • LinkedIn – It gives you a ton of space and additional sections for your education, employment, achievements etc. Keywords are favorable and you can write about yourself any way you want – but steer towards professional.
  • Google + – Similar to LinkedIn, it gives you plenty of space and a lot of sections. You should also use keywords.
  • Pinterest – Keep the description short and catchy, just like the title of your page.

9. Some Basic Questions You Need To Answer

Of course, there are some questions you should always answer in your social media bios. Answering these questions helps your followers get a good idea of who you are and what you have to offer.

It also gives you the necessary structure which allows you to have less problems writing your social media bio.

Here are some of the questions that you need to answer:

Who are you?

First up is your name – make sure that your use a name people commonly know you by. If, for example, people know you as Angie instead of Angelina, use the former. This is differentiating you.

You should also use your company name or something unique to you if you want to be recognizable and unique.

Where do you work?

State your employment – use your company handle or just state it’s name. You can also use a title like ‘Front-end developer’ or ‘Copywriter’ even if you are not yet one or if you are looking for a job.

How to reach you?

Add your website address, email or any other mean of reaching you for all the people who want to get to know you.

What are your interests?

This is the fun bit because you get to be yourself and add a bit of flair to your bio.

Conclusion

Creating a social media bio is stressful but necessary. If you want to create the perfect bio for you or your company, use these tips to guide you.