Have you ever decided to follow someone on social media because of their social media profile?
Of course you have!
It’s not that you deeply scrutinize each and every social media profile you click trying to decide if they’re worthy enough to be followed by you (if you do that, we have other issues to talk about). You probably only take a few seconds to decide and then you move along. Regardless of how you came about clicking on someone’s Pinterest, Twitter, Periscope, or Instagram profile, you’re making a quick decision whether or not to follow them.
Most of these things boil down to trying too hard, whereas a couple of them are more about not trying hard enough! Take a look at your profiles and see if you’re wasting space in any of these ways:
1. “I Follow Back!”
I see this little hook at the end of someone’s profile fairly often. But don’t you think it sounds… needy? Right away you’re sending the signal that you don’t really care WHO follows you. Saying “I follow back” might appear to show that you’re generous in following back, but really it just looks like you’re worried about your own numbers. Plus, you’ll end up with followers who don’t actually care about what you have to say because they just wanted you to follow them back.
Use that real estate to actually tell your potential follower something meaningful about you or your biz instead. That way they follow you because, you know, they actually want to. Not because you promised them something in return.
2. “PR-friendly”
Can we just not use this phrase any more? My friend Julie even wrote an entire guest post here about this overused phrase.Like #1, this term sounds needy. As someone who works for a major brand, this term has always made me roll my eyes.
And I’m not the only one. Here’s a snippet from the guest post I mentioned about what one person who hires influencers thinks of the term:
“I assume PR Friendly means they have their hand out for freebies (and probably aren’t very sophisticated bloggers). Most of the bloggers I work with regularly instead include media kits or thorough About Me pages which would lead a PR person to contact them.”
Plus, the truth is PR revolves around earned media, meaning getting you to write about their clients for free. When marketing campaigns come into play with sponsored posts or ambassadorships, that’s stuff brands pay for. And that isn’t technically PR.
So skip this one and read Julie’s post!
3. Being all business
Sometimes you might spot an visually great profile (good headshot, imagery, etc), but the profile description IS. SO. BLAH. Lighten up a bit!
If you’re a biz, this still applies. People do business with people… and people have personalities. Say what you need to say in your social media profile without all the goobledygook words that make you sound like a robot.
Even if you blog or share more serious things most of the time, your profile description can still be warm and inviting. Keep it casual and people will find you more easily relatable.
4. All that extra space
Unless you’re a celebrity, a quippy one-liner won’t get you very far. Luckily most social media platforms limit character count so you don’t have to worry about rambling. Someone viewing your profile already have some level of interest, so don’t blow it with, “I love hamsters.”
When you reach The Bloggess status, then and only then can you chop off all your profile but a sentence.
5. #So #Many #Hashtags
Few things look worse than an otherwise good social media profile description stuffed with hashtags. Why? Because you look like you’re trying too hard for something to find you in a hashtag search. Plus, it’s hard for someone to get a sense of your personality (unless you only talk in #hashtag). Stick to no more than three.
So What Should You Include?
Lucky you! I wrote a post about just what to do (#4 works like a charm). Hop to it, for a social media profile that actually makes people want to follow you!
Psst… I Launched an E-Book on Periscope!
Stealthily, I might add. Last week, I wrapped up my work on an e-book that not only teaches you how to get started on Periscope, but to gives you ideas of what to scope about! The e-book is actually a workbook filled with 25 prompts that I used in Periscope with Purpose challenge.
Each prompt goes into detail on how to make it work for the topics you scope about. Plus, you can directly type into the workbook to save notes on how your scope performed and how you did. Grab a copy today- it’s a good little deal!
Photo from Creative Convex
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Hey- I’m Melissa! I’m a mom, side hustler, online course instructor, and brand marketer. I run a 6-figure blog helping online biz owners find their a-ha moments with can-do tips, tutorials, and online courses. I also work at Burt’s Bees as the assistant manager of Brand Engagement (yep, it’s as cool as it sounds). Jump start your biz productivity with my free worksheet!
Love this post! I especially enjoyed it because I am new to social media, and writing about myself is really hard. I hate it, lol So these tips of what not to do is super helpful. I completely agree with showing that you are a person, its probably one of my favorite parts of a blog post or profile. Spices things up a bit. Off to check out the What to do post, thanks for including a link right to it!
Jen
Glad you liked the post, Jen!
Great tips! I hate seeing PR-friendly. For the longest time, I thought what does that even mean? It may be time for a rewrite. I’m headed off to read your article about what to write.
I totally agree! Never liked that term!
I am so glad you touched on this subject. I have been working on removing a lot of that from my profiles to make it look cleaner and more professional. Thanks for the confirmation!
Awesome Jennifer! Sounds like you’re on the right track!
Haha, these are so true! Love the bit about ‘PR-friendly’…that turns me right off!
http://www.byrosanna.co.uk
What a great reminder indeed about being Social on Social! A lot of people tend to forget that important fact to engage back with those that take their time to engage with them.
Thanks for putting this together!
Great post Melissa 😉
You seem to have a good understanding about it. When I entered your blog, I felt this. Come on and keep writing your blog will be more attractive. To Your Success!