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Feature
Dos and Don'ts of Creating Your Internet Profile
After reading my Internet profile, would you want to spend 40 hours a week working with me? Okay; how about 20? Do I hear 10?
Your profile - also called a bio or About page, is your cyber calling card; it provides vital information about you to fans and future clients.
Writing about yourself in a succinct, yet entertaining style
is challenging, even for experienced professional writers. But it's one
of the most important tasks you'll undertake when building your social
media presence.
Try these three Ps for creating the perfect profile:
1. Personal
Online bios are intended to impress. But the most impressive bios
use a light touch. Here's an example of what not to do.
I ran across a
bio for a public speaker who describes herself as lucid, elegant, compassionate, alive with meaning and purpose, motivating, and able to deliver powerful, soul-piercing keynote presentations.
Aaaack! That's laying it on thick. Frankly, I'm not too anxious to
meet this person who seems so fixated on herself. And I want to decide
for myself whether her presentations are soul-piercing.
Instead of telling us about all her wonderful qualities, this writer could have showed us how she motivates audiences by including a short video snippet. She could have showed us her compassionate nature by sharing a brief anecdote from her life.
Use your bio to give us insights into who you are and what matters
most to you, rather than trying to impress with a string of adjectives.
2. Professional
Companies are increasingly using social networking biographies to
screen prospective hires, writes a reporter for the Associated Press.
You never know who might stumble across your online profile, so
treat your profile as a sales brochure for you. Polish it. Update it
frequently. Scan it for off-color comments from your fans and delete
them. Eliminate profanity.
While your profile will deliver your vital statistics, it doesn't
have to sound like a dry, boring resume. Inject a little humor. Come
across as energetic, but not hyped on steroids. Don't just tell us what you do; help us understand why you love what you do.
Oh, and use your real name, particularly if you're branding
yourself or your business. Search engines index profile pages, and
people need to be able to find you!
3. Polished
I was mortified when a client pointed out that I'd misspelled my last name on a contract. Twice. Granted, Christianson has 12 letters and it's easy to transpose an a for an i, but that's no excuse. I should have proofed that document more thoroughly.
Here are several funny bloopers I've caught on other people's bios:
With a comfortable job at the First Baptist Church of ____, I began work on a doctrate from ____ Theological Seminary.
I am a successful entrapenuer.
(If you can't spell doctorate or entrepreneur, you should consider a different line of work.)
______ has poured out her poetic spirit on the pages her blog, sometimes rhyming and sometimes not.
(This writer's poetic spirit interferes with her ability to write a coherent sentence.)
Preparing for fulltime Christian service, my family moved to Texas where Christian values are upheld, just in a bigger state.
(I had to throw in this garbled sentence, because it makes me laugh every time I read it.)
If you don't have a gift for copyediting or proofreading, spend a
few bucks and hire someone who does. A good editor will help you polish
your profile to perfection.
Quick Tip
How to Find Out Whether Google is Indexing Your Site
Here's a quick trick to learn whether Google's "spiders" are crawling your site (or someone else's site).
Type the site's URL into the search box. Example:
www.bloggingbistro.com
If the site is indexed, it should appear at the top of the search results.
Now look at the entry for the site. After the description, you
should see a link that says "Cached."
Click the link. It will take you to the site and show you the date the site was last cached (the date the
search spider last crawled the site).
Why do this?
Because a good way to move your site up in the search engine rankings is to have lots of incoming links (called backlinks)
from high-ranking sites. If a site you're seeking a link from hasn't
been crawled in three weeks or more, chances are, it's not a
high-ranking site; thus, an incoming link isn't going to increase your
own site's rankings significantly.
For more tips on how to make Google love you, click on the sidebar links from "At the Barista's Blog."
I invite you to reprint any of the articles from this blogzine in your own e-zine or on your Web site/blog, as long as you include the following blurb and a link to BloggingBistro.com:
Laura Christianson founded BloggingBistro.com, a company that serves made-to-order social media solutions for individuals and businesses.
Please forward Bright Ideas Blogzine to others who want to maximize their social media marketing.
To start your e-mail subscription, send a blank e-mail to bloggingbistro@aweber.com. You'll immediately receive an e-mail confirmation notice. Click the link and you're subscribed.
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