How To Create A Winning Social Media Profile?

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn have offered small businesses an effective means to connect with their customers. And since the social media profile is the first thing visitors to a page see, it’s advisable to ensure its attention grabbing and professional looking. What the visitors see first when they click on your profile will determine if they want to hang around longer or not. Below we offer you a list of things you can do to craft a winning social media profile.

Elements of a Social Media Profile?

Display Name

The first thing that the visitor will do is search your business using the name they know and they need to find it exactly as it is spelled to be sure they are in the right place. So, your business name should be used as the display name on your social profile. Patel (2020) says that in platforms where you don’t have to use real names like Twitter, you can add a pseudonym but it has to be a name you are identified with in your industry.

Create Username

Ensure to choose a username that reflects your business or your own name in some platforms. For instance, you can use @yourname on Instagram and @yourcompany on Twitter. Social media platforms add the username you choose to your URL. The username can be completely different from the display name.

It’s advisable for businesses to use the same username across all social media platforms. It makes it easy for you to give out your username and for your customers to find you on social media.

Profile Picture

As a business, you don’t want to be faceless on either of the social media platforms you join. Add a profile picture on all platforms to help customers easily identify your social profile. If you are the brand yourself (artist) or when running a small business, you can add a headshot of you as the profile image. If you are creating a profile for a huge business, then add your company logo as the profile picture. Having the same profile picture across social media platforms is advisable. It makes you easily recognizable.

Cover Image

Another important part of the social profile is the cover image. It’s the larger image behind your profile image, making it perfect for sharing additional information about your business. The best way to go about it is to ensure the cover photo is branded. Some brands are adding short clips about themselves as covers on Facebook. Facebook cover videos are great but they should be focused on introducing the brand to new visitors.

Website Link

Having a website link on your social profile should bebasic. One requirement for creating a professional bio is ensuring you have aCTA prompting your audience to visit your website by following the link you have added there. Social media platforms have customized their profile section to help you add your website link right in the eyes of your audience. Your followers or visitors can easily follow the link by just a click to see your website. You should know that although the link on the profile works, you have to keep sharing your website on social posts to attract more traffic. For instance, you can share blog content or product links on your posts to draw more traffic to your website. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn make that very easy but for Instagram visitors must visit your profile to access the hyperlinked URL to your website.

Your Social Media Bio

A short and very informative bio or description ofyourself is more preferable especially with platforms like Twitter that hascharacter limitations or Instagram where you don’t want to be wordy. LinkedInis very different from other networks when it comes to writing a bio. This iswhere you need to explain with much detail about your business since you aregiven up to 2,000 characters to do so.

The bio is like a perfect elevator pitch with keywordsfor your business or persona. For instance, you can tell your audience whatyour business is about, achievements, your purpose and then finish your biowith a call-to-action (CTA) like contact us, learn more about us, or join ourteam by following the link provided.

Interests

In some platforms the profile section allows you toadd some extra information about your business. Here, you can say the movies, television shows, books, and other interests you have. This is very important because there are lots of people with the same interests as you and would be excited to learn their favorite brand share the same movie genre with them. It also adds some credibility especially when you share you love some books written by renowned people in your industry.

Social Media Optimization

The same way you work hard to ensure your website is SEO optimized, ensure to work on your social media optimization (SMO). Kenton (2020) defined social media optimization (SMO) as the use of social media platforms to manage and grow a business’s message and online presence. You can ensure SMO by including specific keywords into your social media profile and also adding them regularly on your social media posts. Add just enough, don’t overdo it. Having too many keywords can have you penalized.

Promote Your Other Social Media Platforms

It’s important to have links to your other social media platforms on your profiles. It’s an effective way to help your fans connect with you across platforms. Customers may prefer to follow your activity where they are most active, so having options is a good idea. Since some social media platforms offer this option to add links in form of usernames to other platforms, you should take advantage of this opportunity.

Stay Consistent With Your Info

Always keep your social profile info consistent across all the platforms. Not necessarily word for word. Having a consistent branding across platforms makes you look professional and your brand will stick in the minds of your audience.

How is your profile looking? And do you have something to add about creating a winning social media profile? Please let us know below.

References

Kenton, W. (2020, March 3). Social media optimization (SMO). Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media-optimization-smo.asp

Patel, N. (2020, January 24). 10 elements of a successful social media profile. Neil Patel. https://neilpatel.com/blog/successful-social-media-profile/

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