How To Build A Better Bio For Twitter

Do you have a Twitter account yet? If you don’t, you really should consider setting one up. Like…today would be soon enough!

If you are a blogger or plan to blog at all, having an active Twitter account is essential to ensuring success and generating traffic to your blog. You need a great bio for Twitter.

One of the first things you’ll need to do after setting up your Twitter account is to begin following other people who you find interesting or have something in common with.

When you decide to follow someone on Twitter, what’s the first thing you look at?

Probably the bio. At least that’s what I look at.

Let’s assume you’re on Twitter because it’s part of your plan to build a blogging platform. Have you written a bio that’s likely to attract followers or turn them off?

When it comes to your bio for your Twitter account, there are four basic components that you will need to take into consideration:

1. Photo
2. Name and handle
3. 160-character bio
4. Link

Photo

Your photo will be showing up in a tiny square. For that reason, I recommend a clear and closely cropped image of your face, with good contrast.

I’ve also seen successful use of illustrations, cartoons, and logos for Twitter avatars—and of course some kind of recognizable logo is usually the default for companies and organizations.

This photo is part of your branding strategy, so make it a good one.

Name and Handle

Choose a handle as similar as possible to your actual name, or to your blogging theme. My personal Twitter name is “Charles Specht” and my handle is “Charles Specht” as well. You may need to be somewhat creative as there are currently many millions of Twitter users already, so your name may already have be taken by someone. (Perish the thought!)

Even if your handle isn’t exactly what you were hoping for, you can and should add your actual name or the name of your blog.

Bio

Here’s the heart of your Twitter account. What do you say in 160 characters or less? Sometimes it’s easier to show you what to avoid rather than what to do. See below—which is what my bio looked like a few days ago, before I changed it just now.

A strong bio will give people:

• information about your brand and your blogging strategy, if that’s why you’re on Twitter
• a good indication of what you’ll be tweeting about (explicitly or implicitly)
• a little personality and/or where you might find common ground

Notice what I did NOT say was part of a strong bio:

• a list of every category that you might write about on your blog
• a laundry list of all your qualities, hobbies, or interests (e.g. see my old bio pictured above)

Below is a picture of the bio for a brand new Twitter account I created just this afternoon for GodlyWriters.com, one of my other websites. Under that is what I revised my personal Twitter bio to as well. What do you think?

Link

Twitter gives you the opportunity to list one link in connection with your bio (though you can clutter your bio with more—not recommended, since you may come off as a self-promoting spammer).

The best place to link is almost ALWAYS to your own website with your own name (e.g. www.CharlesSpecht.com or www.GodlyWriters.com). If you don’t have a website yet, and you’re planning to be a serious author or blogger, then what are you waiting for? Your efforts on social media will go much further if you have some place for people to visit and uncover more about you and your blogging ministry.

What Should You Do Next? Allow Me To Suggest Two Things:

1. Please leave a brief comment or suggestion below and let me know what you think about this article, whether good, bad or otherwise.
2. Look down. See those social sharers? Would you mind tweeting, sharing or “liking” it to your social media followers? (You’re awesome, by the way. Thanks!)