Create a Consistent Bio on all Social Media
When you are being researched by a potential employer or client, you can be sure they are going to check all of your social media, not just LinkedIn or one of the other platforms. Most likely they’ll go directly to Google and search for your name. What comes up could determine whether or not you get the client or job. Make sure your bio in each profile for all your social media is consistent and matches your brand.
This implies one of your tasks for branding is to clean up your presence on the web and social media, which is a topic for another blog article. Another task is to ensure your profile, including your photo, is consistent among all of your social media accounts, blogs, and profiles. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same (in fact, it’s better if it is not identical site to site) but all of them should say roughly the same things.
For example, I was interested in a particular resume of a potential employee named Mike. His LinkedIn claimed he’d done hundreds of projects over a ten year career in database administration. Yet his blog didn’t say much about his database skills, while his Facebook page mostly seemed to be about getting drunk and partying. He had other social media profiles, and none of it was consistent. None of this information matched his resume, and when I did a phone interview even more inconsistencies were uncovered. Needless to say, he was not hired.
That’s an extreme case, but spend the time and search for your name, with various misspellings, on Google. For each profile that comes up on the first ten pages or so, ensure that the information is correct and consistent with your brand. Or, alternately, delete any profiles or accounts which are no longer needed.
Long version of the Bio
Begin by writing your bio out in a Word (or other editing package) file. Even the long form should be relatively short, less than a page, or at most 2 pages. This should be written in third person, as if someone else were describing you. Keep the focus on your personal branding message, but include a few personal, but not too sensitive, details to show you are a human being. Your favorite sport, a couple of hobbies, or some books you enjoyed can be included.
Remember, this bio is for your professional personal branding. It’s not for dating sites or your personal Facebook account (which should be protected from prying eyes.)
Make sure everything you say matches your resume and anything else that might be available publically either online or offline. Make any corrections needed to your bio or your public data.
Once you are complete, ask others to review it. You can start wit family and friends, but don’t expect an honest review from them. It’s best to find a peer or a colleague, or better yet, a professional such as a recruiter to help. Make sure you review it thoroughly for spelling and grammar. If necessary, use an online grammar checker such as Grammarly to check it for you.
Shorter Version of the Bio
Once you have the long version complete and it has been reviewed by a few peers, spend the time to boil it down to a much shorter version. Keep this one to a few paragraphs, less than half a page. Review it thoroughly and check for spelling and grammar.
Short Version
Now make a very short version, just one paragraph.
Sub-Brands
If you have any sub-brands make a separate, yet similar, bio for each one. The purpose of these is to spotlight your talents, experiences and skills in specific areas. For example, I am writer and a wordpress implementer, so I have a bio for each one.
Media Page
Make sure all of these bios are on your media page, but ensure they are differently worded than those on your social media. Don’t just move words around – rewrite each bio for your media page. This avoids duplicate content penalties.
Conclusions
Now that you have your bios written and reviewed, go to your various profiles, social media accounts, blogs and websites and make the necessary modifications. As I said earlier, while you are doing this task, evaluate if you need all of those accounts and profiles; delete any that no longer apply.
Now when prospective employers and clients look for you on the web, they will find your brand and your message, delivered in a consistent way. This makes it more likely they will hire you or retain your services.
Richard is the Owner and Senior Writer for The Writing King, a bestselling author, and ghostwriter. He’s written and published 63 books, ghostwritten 40+ books, as well as hundreds of blog articles.
