The Key Elements of a Successful Social Media Profile

A social media profile should be an extension of your company’s brand, and it should clearly convey your business’s personality to potential customers. To do this, you need to create an attractive profile that people will want to follow and interact with. However, crafting the perfect social media profile can be challenging; you have to use your brand’s colours and fonts while also creating posts that will hold followers’ attention. To help you craft the perfect social media profile, here are the key elements you need to get right.

1) Social media display name/username

Many business owners don’t realize that they can edit or create an entirely new name/username for their social media accounts. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to use your legal name in your branding and website. However, if you don’t want to share your full legal name on Facebook or Twitter, you can create an alias. You should also choose a unique user ID (which is what appears after @). For example, if you used johnDoe as your username and John Doe Co. as your display name, using johnDoe for both could confuse potential customers who might end up following or messaging John Doe rather than John Doe Co.

2) Your profile picture

It might seem trivial, but many social platforms allow users to include photos or graphics in their profiles. This photo should be one that you feel comfortable sharing with others, whether it’s your face or something else entirely. Facebook users often use a headshot that clearly shows their face; on Twitter, they often opt for an image showing off their hobbies or interests; and on Instagram, people post photos taken using one of Instagram’s mobile apps. Choose your picture carefully, so it represents you accurately and makes you want to share it with others.

3) Your social media profile link

Your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media profile links allow people to connect with you on those platforms. Use your profile link as often as possible when sharing content to build your audience on each network. Keep in mind that not all links are created equal. Even if you have 1,000 followers on Twitter and 5,000 fans on Facebook, they won’t necessarily be able to find you easily if they click your link unless they’re signed in to an account with their username already in it.

4) Your profile bio

Your profile is your first point of contact on social media. In that spirit, we recommend using it to introduce yourself, give people an idea about what you do and post links to your best work. But if you want to keep it short and sweet, just remember: less is more! The perfect profile bio should be no longer than two lines. And in case you’re wondering, yes—you can leave room for emojis. (But don’t go overboard!)

5) Your profile’s background or cover image

Your visitors will first see when they come to your profile page is your cover image or profile background. When choosing your background, look for an image that makes you stand out from other profiles on social media—something that can help you show off who you are. If you have a business logo, use it as your background; otherwise, try to find a unique graphic online or choose an interesting photo that showcases something about yourself. Determining what’s suitable for you depends on what looks best and truly represents you and/or your brand.

6) Your profile’s privacy settings

When you’re creating your social media profiles, remember that some information is public by default. Privacy settings are an easy way to keep certain parts of your life secret. You should at least make sure your profile and photo privacy is set to friends only on all social media accounts. Even better, head into your settings and review what other pieces of information you’re sharing; they could even be searchable through Google depending on how much detail you include! Better safe than sorry. Also, if your profile is personal, you can keep it private. If it’s a business account, you’d want to maintain privacy public so people can reach out to you.

7) The activity level on your profile

This is an easy one. The more activity on your profile, and in turn engagement, means you’re more likely to show up in searches, and if people are searching for you, they’ll find your profile first. A lot of times, social media users look for people with similar interests or those who could be potential business contacts, so it’s essential to actively post (at least once a day) to make sure there is always something fresh on your profile page. This will also show others how engaged you are in social media, and that can help them trust your recommendations and advice when you share them.

8) Promoting your social media

Promoting your social media accounts is also essential, but make sure you do it in an organic way. If you aren’t in control of your feed or have to pay for promotions, you might want to rethink how much value that social channel has to your business. Twitter is great if you know what you’re doing—but Facebook and Instagram are better if you don’t have a lot of time or money. And remember that most metrics (views, likes) don’t matter as much as engagement rates (shares and comments). Think before just getting started; take some time to think about how best to use each platform for your business.

Conclusion

The first thing you want to do is try to make your profile more personal. Many people ask us how they can connect better with others through social media, and one thing we tell them is:

Be yourself.

Don’t worry about trying to sell yourself or create an entirely different persona—your followers don’t need you to be someone you aren’t.

For starters, take a look at your profile picture; although it doesn’t have to be professional quality (trust us, we know), avoid anything that makes you look like a stock photo model.

You want people to think of you as someone they could actually meet and get advice from.

Authors Bio 

Hardik Mody is a Digital Marketing Manager. He plans and coordinates marketing activities of ValueHits, a full-service Digital Marketing Company in Mumbai, India. With his experience and Expert knowledge in the field, he identifies potential customers and develops marketing campaigns. Also, he is efficient enough to meet the client’s requirements and well-organized in handling Multiple tasks.