If you want to promote yourself online then a Twitter account is a must-have.
Unless you have a domain name that is associated with your name or the name of your business, the first thing that people will see when they search for you is your Twitter handle, and you will want to leave a good first impression when they visit.
A good place to start is your Twitter bio. Usually, this is just a few sentences about yourself or your business that can sell you immediately. Think of it as an elevator pitch, but on Twitter.
Twitter only lets you write a few words in your description, so you will have to make the best of it.
In this post, we will be looking at the best ways to go about your Twitter bio using the best examples.
How to Write a Professional Bio For Twitter
The first step to marketing yourself effectively and efficiently is to create a powerful professional bio. A typical Twitter bio or description of who you are should be no less than two sentences, but not more than four.
This may seem like an arbitrary number, but I’ve seen the same kinds of profiles that go on for paragraphs that have absolutely zero information in them.
First, know who you are writing for. Write what you think will impress your friends, don’t worry about impressing most people on Twitter. Unfortunately, most people aren’t going to read your profile anyway (the median of followers per user is around 130).
Then define the purpose of your profile. If you can’t convince your friends that you’re cool, then there is no way that you’ll convince your potential customers.
Remember, the whole point of a Twitter profile is to be easily digestible by the masses and totally self-expressive.
Let’s say, if you’re a music artist, you must state your purpose. “Check out my new album” isn’t the purpose, but “I created this music so that you can enjoy my interpretation of life’s subtleties and sighs” could be.
How to Write Your Bio, Step-by-Step Approach
Decide on the purpose
If your purpose is to promote your product or service, then I’m not sure why you are reading this article instead of writing a press release. However, if you want people to find out more about who you are so as to become interested in doing business with you, then read on.
Write what matters the most
Are there characteristics in your personality that would lead someone to do business with you? What makes them attractive? Use them. Are there things that interfere with other people wanting to do business with you (a strong accent, paralysis on one side of your face)? Don’t hide them. Be honest and people will respect you for it.
Select the right words
Should you write a bio to be included in an article or blog post? Then say “articles” instead of “blog posts”.
Do you want your bio to come up during search engine queries? Then use the most important word or phrase in your bio (you probably have more than one) as a key phrase in your profile’s headline tag and description meta tag.
Include the word “bio” once or twice within the text but not as its only purpose is retrieving search engines that may ignore many other words.
Keep it short
“It’s better to have a short bio than no bio at all.”
Keep it positive
As an author, you know the importance of negative space. You can also learn from this important design principle and eliminate any negativity in your bio.
What do I mean? Don’t talk about what other people should (or shouldn’t) make or post online but rather provide information on how you do things well, as an example.
On a different note, try to avoid typing errors or bad grammar as it’s usually noticed and may hinder your credibility. If you’re not used to proofreading your work then ask someone else for help.
Keep current
If you’ve already published books or articles online in the past, don’t let people know that they’re out of date.
Even if you are still writing new content on an ongoing basis, it is important to provide a single source where interested parties can come to learn more about what you do when there is no more news available.
This seems obvious but many of my social media friends have over 100 posts available online and yet their “bios” talk about published works from years ago.
Have some fun
If there is a place where authors love to show off their sense of humor above others, that would be Twitter. So why not take advantage of it? Here is mine:
If your name is John Smith, go ahead and write “I am The Smith”. If you are named Matthew Smith that will work just as well, but if your last name is not Smith then it will point out how ridiculous the text looks.
Best Professional Twitter Bio Examples
1. Hello Fresh
HelloFresh’s Twitter bio is an example of one that sells the brand.
It is brief and yet it manages to explain what the business is about and offers its products in a few words.
This shows that you can include promotional callouts in your Twitter bio to generate leads and new customers from the platform.
The Twitter bio also shows how you can grab attention with a pointer to their website after a promotional offer, and judging by how long they have retained this bio on their Twitter page, it is safe to say that they are reeling in a good number of customers from the bio.
2. Notion HQ
I’m sure you have a lot to say about your brand or yourself, but sometimes, the best route to take is the shortest one.
Interestingly, Twitter has taken a lot of the choice from your hands by limiting you to just 160 characters to use on your bio, so you wouldn’t want to waste them on meaningless and unimportant buzzwords.
For example, if you are running a tech startup, you will probably be tempted to use words like ‘Disrupting the tech space’.
While that may sound good in your head, think about what good it can do for your business.
NotionHQ is the typical example of a brand that passes the message of its brand with a short and straight-to-the-point bio.
3. Dove
Transparency is one of the best ways to establish brand trust. If you want to generate loyal customers, there’s no better way to do so than to be as honest and open as possible.
I mean, you won’t find fans and followers that will be more loyal than those who believe in your cause and fully understand it.
Dove knows this which is why they opted to include a brand-specific message in their Twitter bio.
They capitalized on the space to talk about their cause to improve inclusivity and highlight the ways they are going about it, and they have almost 200k followers to show for it.
4. Pampers
Pampers Twitter bio page is proof of how much success you can get on social media by being informative.
With their bio, they have established what their users will see when they follow them right from the outset.
They are pretty straightforward with the type of content they will share, which is ‘news and exclusive deals’, so if you are not interested in getting any of those then it’s probably not a good idea to follow them in the first place.
It is also worthy to note that aside from giving the users an idea of what they will get if they follow the page, the bio also clearly includes a call to action to follow the brand which will definitely drive conversion.
5. Hootsuite
As good as it is to go global, it still pays to be local and you can leverage that on your bio.
Fortunately, Twitter allows you to add your location to your bio so that your followers can know where you are based.
This feature is especially important if you serve a specific area. By adding your location to your bio, people around the same location will be able to find and follow you.
Even if you are a global brand, it’s still a good idea to identify with your base as Hootsuite does.
Despite being a globally successful business, they still showcase the fact that they are based in Vancouver, Canada, which gives them a homely feeling.
6. Old Spice
Being relatable beats almost anything else nowadays because your audience wants to feel a connection with you or your brand regardless of whether they have met you in person or not.
Old Spice shows this authenticity and consistency in their Twitter bio and within their overall content, which makes it quite easy for almost anyone to subscribe to what they are selling.
You can easily tell that they are a brand for men’s grooming products from the indicators on their bio.
It is interesting how they are able to fully pass their message along with as few as four words.
7. Econsultancy
Keywords are not just important for websites, they are important everywhere and that includes on Twitter.
This means that the best Twitter bios have the most targeted keywords depending on which industry you identify with.
Think about it, the Twitter search box is like a search engine of a sort so when your target audience is searching for something they are likely going to use specific keywords.
It’s your job to identify those keywords and incorporate them in your bio as Econsultancy has done.
Using hashtags like #ecommerce and #digitalmarketing will not cut it. Instead, tell your audience what you do using clear terms.
8. Kim Garst
Your accomplishments are a big deal and should be part of your brand for the world to see.
Kim Garst shows with her Twitter bio that including your awards and recognition can be the conversation starter that you need.
We are often familiar with including our social proof in our CVs and pitches, but placing them as the first thing that a potential client would see isn’t a bad idea.
Of course, because Twitter only gives 160 characters, you will have to be smart about it and put your best foot forward especially if you have been the recipient of many awards.
Aside from your awards, you can include information about the books you have written, lists and magazines you have been featured in, etc.
9. Tom Hanks
A little humor on your Twitter bio will not hurt anyone. Instead, it will likely make your page stand out and your audience will remember you for it.
Personally, I love it when I come across a page that has a bit of humor in it. For one, such pages tell you that the author gave it a lot of thought, and most of the time such pages turn out to be interesting and entertaining.
One obvious page that comes to mind is Tom Hanks. Of course, he’s a pro and needs little help in trying to make you laugh, but his page is iconic when it comes to humor on Twitter.
10. Burger King
The last time I checked, social media drives more than 30% of website referral traffic, so if you add your website link to your Twitter bio, you can easily grab some of those visitors that your website needs.
It’s not just a link to your website you can add. You can add links to your posts, a landing page, or a link to another of your social media handle.
Burger King included the link to their website on their Twitter bio for as long as I have been following them, and surely the link helps them to grab some of their Twitter visitors to the website.
Top Challenges to Creating an Awesome Twitter Bio
Twitter only gives you 160 characters
I’m sure you have a lot to say, but there’s not a lot of room to do that. 160 characters are all you get and not even a period more.
See, the above paragraph is already 131 characters and I haven’t said much.
Twitter will appear top for your name on Google
Not even your Wikipedia page can beat Twitter. If you are in it, your bio will appear first when someone searches for you on Google.
Depending on how you take it, this can be a blessing or a curse.
You will end up being predictable
Like it or not, we’ve seen your Twitter bio on someone else’s page before.
If you compare bios, you will see that there’s really no much difference which is why many take the easy route – they use a Twitter Bio Generator
You may not be as funny as you think
Humor is a tricky thing. Some bios tend to be funny, while others fail in the attempt.
Simply accept the fact that not everyone is as gifted.
It is hard to be creative
The pressure to deliver a creative Twitter bio is up there, but how creative is creative enough.
Chances are that you will have a rethink of your bio after you have read someone else’s.
There is no doubt that some of the genius bios out there were thought through very carefully – but others not so much.
The only thing we can do is to give it our best shot and smile about it later.
Being authentic is hard (but try)
If you are not honest, it will come out eventually. No one is perfect and being human should be something we embrace.
So there you have it! There’s no right or wrong when coming up with a Twitter bio. Be yourself and don’t go overboard with the references to your status online
Wrapping it up
The online space is already saturated, so it is the little things you do that will help you stand out from the crowd.
Your Twitter bio is one of those places that determine whether people will follow you or not, so it must be as appealing as possible.
Give it some thought to check if your bio is lacking anything and implement the ideas above to see better results.
