Drum Roll: I Have a New Online Social Media Bio
By • Leave a commentA friend is forwarding my bio to his agency’s new social media director who might need some outside help. As I was touching up a paper copy to send as an attachment, I asked myself, “Are you nuts?” Paper bios and resumes are so 20th century. My entire business life is there for everyone to see on my blog. I tooled around the web to find out what other social media consultants are doing and, sure enough, they have online bios.
Paper bios are so 20th century
Then another “boing” moment. I should add my new bio as a page on my blog, with a new tab “Social Media Bio.”
When I finished writing, I looked at my About page and it seemed bland in comparison. Dull actually. From me, the word mechanic (as someone once called me after I told him what I do). So I immediately ditched the About page.
This is not contest, in the sense that you won’t receive any prize, but I’d welcome your comments on my new Social Media Bio. I’m still tinkering with it. Think I’ll move the search box further up, and make a couple of other tweaks.
But I’d love to hear from you, dear readers, about what you like, don’t like or what I might add or delete. Thank you.
P.S. Since writing this post, I’ve updated my bio based on advice from readers and several experts, and also changed my navigation tab back to “About.” I’m still not sure I’m keeping that term. As always, your thoughts would be appreciated.
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Resumes are still very much used and they swiftly enable your potential customers to get an idea of your qualifications (or should do).
My solution to the debate you are having was to attach a “view my profile on Linkedin” widget that people can click on and then proceed to my Visual CV if they want more information. Maybe something to consider for you as well?
In my opinion your social media bio is too much text and I’m not sure people will read it unless they have more or less decided to hire your services.
How about displaying the information in a more visual way to make people want to find out more? Maybe a creative bullet points list of what you can do for a client, giving them your bio in a few seconds?
Everything looks good, but I feel it needs to be shorter. Everything other than the bio feels necessary to keep, so the bio itself needs to be shortened just a tad. That’s just my opinion. It looks fine just the way it is, but it’s in my nature as a graphic designer to make what people are reading clear and concise, because I have to keep in mind that there are people who just don’t like to read. Keeping it as short as possible without losing the essence is key. I hope that helps.
Well written though shorter would more likely entice a reader to start and keep on reading. I also agree with Catarina in that a link to LinkedIN provides for a deeper view of what you offer.
Thanks for raising an awareness of this type of bio!
Jeannette, I think your profile looks great. You have done such a good job with your website!
Jeannette, It looks good. One idea would be to use a different page format for your bio and lose the sidebars. I think it would stand out more and make the page look “special”. It may look more professional with fewer distractions,
Hi Jeannette,
Good information Jeannette. Tend to agree with the others and to add to Sherry’s point those posts you have could go to the side bar so you can free up space on the page.
I like that you talk in the first person. That’s the first sign that you understand the new world of social media. I also think the statement that you make about not existing if you’re not using social media is powerful. If you want people to lean forward in their seat when they are reading what you’ve written, present the problem first, then your solution, as you’ve done. Your client list is impressive to say the least and the quote speaks volumes about your skills. Well done.