Thursday, March 5, 2009

Does Your Twitter Bio Measure Up?

I’m always the experimenter. This week was no different, as I found myself modifying my Twitter profile—again.

Did you know that it pays to have a solid Twitter bio? Being too abstract and not enough concrete can cause a prospective follower to not follow after they read something like “I think I’m funny” or “I like PR.” Many times I find myself helping Drew filter through the number of people following AxiomPR to see if we might follow back, and the first thing we look for is a compelling bio. Some Twitterers don’t have bios and therefore take a risk in relying solely on their tweets to carry them. If you can do this effectively, more power to you! Knowing I can’t, I have to allow my bio to do some of the talking.

Your social media profile is forever out there in Web 2.0 world; that is, until you modify it. Search metatags will pick it up and put it up on Google numbers, and broadcast discrepancies. Somehow at one time you were a fireman who loved sliding down a pole, and now a modified profile suggests you’ve become a budding entrepreneur. Who are you really?!

It’s never a good idea to play a guessing game with those people following you on Twitter, but I’ve been guilty of it a couple times now. In creating a Twitter bio, there’s one major thing we will learn about ourselves: if we’re interesting. Social media separates the phony from the tried and true genuine article.

So… what did I come up with? Something that entirely suits me now and far into the future, or at least I think so:

Media relations and kulture consultant. Budding entrepreneur. Determined to make a difference in society. Food junkie.

Let’s examine this:
I’m very much love in with searching out online and print opportunities for clients both at Axiom and part of my freelance consultancy, Quac Kulture. I definitely am on the track to becoming an entrepreneur or at least exuding the passion to be one. I most certainly want to impact the community in which I live; not just take up space. And… I love sitting down at a good restaurant and digesting the best of the best a city serves up. Viola!

When things weren’t so concrete and I tried to rely on my creative spin within my Twitter bio (back when I was trying to be funny), I averaged about one person following me per day, even though I maintained similar tweets. With my new Twitter bio, I’ve seen more followers pop up in my Gmail than when I first started out. I’m finally me.

Is your Twitter bio really you, or are you having an identity crisis?