The Social Media Bloke

Developing Personal Profiles on Social Networks

Posted on 29. Dec, 2010 by Andrew in Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube

There have been many questions regarding how to develop a personal/business profile on the various social networking sites. Here are some of the top tips on how to build your profile and “own” your personal search engine results.

Choose the right social media platforms

The most common mistake is to sign up for every social media platform out there. This is not the way to get the best results. In fact, this could be more detrimental than being picky when it comes to social media; especially if your message can be condensed and then advertised on the choicest social media real estate.

For one, signing up for all the possible sites will take up to much of your time and thus, inevitably become inconsistent. The best sites to build your profile on are Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook. Only registering with these sites is not enough. You also must be active on these sites. The fortunate thing is that most of these sites can be linked to where you only have to post or participate on one site and have it populate all the others.

Additionally, you must remember to follow some guidelines when it comes to building a profile:
• Participation – if there is no activity on your page, people will stop visiting.
• Keep the material relevant – no one wants to read old material. The content must always be fresh and up to date.
• Name your profile correctly – make it easy for your followers to find you. Use your complete name or brand name.
• Always reach out and make new connections on each site that you register with. Once you do, start commenting or participating on that connections page. People will be able to connect to you through them.
• Fill out the profile completely – Why register just to leave the information blank? You want people to find you. Take advantage of what the site has to offer and fill in as much information as you can.
• Use your address book and connect with your contacts on each of the social media platforms your register with.

Create a bio with links

You want your presence on the web to be consistent. Each of your profiles should say the same thing. Create a consistent bio that includes links to all your other sites. These bios will follow you throughout your public life, it is important that it remains.

Start and alternative blog

This is Business 101; especially in the social media circuit. Everyone now-a-days is talking about blogging. This is a way for you to get your opinion out there; but you don’t have to just stick to you your area of expertise, branch out into your hobby area. Branching out to different areas of interest increases your visibility on the web. Contacts from places that you would never have thought of will start appearing.

WikiPages – Yes or No?

Not only do you want to own your information but you want to be able to control what is put out there. Avoid Wikipages and other sites like them. Other people can add or edit the material that you have so diligently created. Most times it is edited or changed without authorization or even verification of the material. It is not worth the hassle of contacting the site in order to have the page taken down. By that time the damage is already done anyway.

It is important to build a reputation that you can be proud of; not only in the real world but in the cyber world as well. The only way to do this is to “own” your brand, name, or domain. Be active in your profiles and most importantly, be cognizant of what is being said and posted about you.

Tags: Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube