When setting up your profile, whether it’s on your blog, your eBay page, your youpublish account, your twitter page, your qassia page, or whatever, there are a few important things to include. Here’s a short list to get you started:

1.  Your viewpoint

Always, always, always let your personality show through. You have a few seconds. Use them wisely. First impressions count. Don’t forget that you are a unique person, so be sure to demonstrate that uniqueness. Ease up a bit on the pitch and be tastefully revealing about your thoughts and feeling. Talk about what you value, your passion and goals, and your hopes in what they will get out of meeting you. If you have a motto, mantra, or catch phrase, weave it in skillfully, but weave it in somehow.

2.  Benefits of interacting with you vs. others

Think of what you offer in terms of how it benefits the visitor and in terms of your difference in the market place. If most others in your marketplace are weak on customer service, you’d mention your great service (assuming it’s your specialty). If you cater to a specific, underserved market, say so. Give people a reason to pick you instead of the next person. It’s not so much about competition but rather focus on what you can give that no one else does.

3.  Your picture

Pick a recent color picture of your face relatively close up and post it. In some markets a caricature or a creative avatar could work, but not most markets. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a smiling picture - sometimes gravitas is what you need to demonstrate. And avoid the fakey Glamour shots thing. Remember that this is another opportunity to demonstrate yourself as a personality, a real person. It’s not a prom photo, mugshot, or a formal posed shot. This picture should be another motivator that spurs people to get to know you better. 

 4.  Contact Information

Be sure that you give information on how a person can contact you, either via email, through your website, or whatever. It’s important that you honor whatever terms of service apply here, so don’t post external links on sites that don’t like you doing that, or include your personal phone if that is forbidden. Be safe, be smart, but give your visitors a way to contact you easily. Your profile is essentially an invitation to get to know you more, so assume they like you and ask them to move forward with you.

 5.  Goodies

If you give a free ebook for signing up for your newsletter, it’s good to mention that in your profile. It’s good service to inform someone as to what they could get if they took action. Then, be sure that the link you give them takes them to the page where they can sign up, not just your general home page. If you simply dump visitors into a general page that doesn’t take them to where they need to be to get their prize, they will get frustrated and blow you off. They’ll feel duped and that’s never good.

When writing your profile, be somewhat concise but don’t be afraid to blow your own horn a bit. Tailor how you say what you say to appeal to your ideal customer. That way, the people that won’t like what you’re doing won’t even check you out and no one’s time gets wasted. The whole point of targeted marketing is to know your ideal customer intimately enough that you know what matters to them and then, simply give them that. They’ll love you for it.

Only spammers have empty profiles. Go check yours out and make sure they’re in shape. There’s no crime in them not being in shape yet, but it’s a real shame if you leave it that way. People care about your story and your viewpoint. Give them a chance to discover them!

Together, we are stronger.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman