Many people pay a lot of attention to social media. However, do those same people pay as much attention to their social media profiles? There are many different reasons why people don't update their social media profiles regularly, such as lack of time or simply forgetting about them. However, honing your social media profiles effectively and regularly will produce positive results.
The information in your social media profiles
If you haven't updated your social media profiles lately, it is probably time to do it now. It should take you a long time or a great deal of effort. However, once you have accomplished that task, you will see what a difference it makes to your business. When you finally take a good look at your profiles, you will probably find all sorts of outdated information, not to mention missing information and/or information that needs to be eliminated.
It is important for you to be consistent with the information that you have on your social media profiles. That is another really important reason to keep tabs on your profiles regularly. If you are putting off updating your profiles, you may be doing that because you think that it will take you a long time. However, ironically, you can make effective changes in a matter of minutes and those few minutes will make a tremendous difference to your business. In fact, there are several ways that you can affect changes with barely any effort involved.
Make little tweaks
The first thing that you will want to examine is your photo. That is one of the most important elements in your profile(s). What type of photo do you have posted? Is it a professional looking image? Is it a head shot or a full body shot? Is it your face at all? You should make sure that your photo looks professional. You don't want to use a photo of you partying on St. Patrick's Day, for example. Your photo should be a headshot and, if you can afford it (unless you know someone who is pretty good with a camera), have it done for you. By no means should you use a selfie as your social media profile photo! Additionally, it is extremely important for you to make sure that your profile photo is optimized. That means that you follow the guidelines on that particular social media channel for photos. That is very important. The guidelines will specify dimensions. Make sure that you follow them. The fact is that your photo may end up in other places, which is all the more reason why it should look professional and appropriate.
Use the same photo for all of your social media channels
This is very sensible. However, with that said, if you don't really care for your photo on your social media profiles, you should change it. However, remember to change it everywhere. Remember that your photo is part of your brand. People will get used to seeing your photo and they will relate to your face in that photo no matter which social media channel you share. After all, you want other people to see your photo (anywhere that it appears on the Internet) and associate it with you and with your business. That will help them to think of you first when they happen to need what you are selling. Your consistent photo will also give you more of a chance that he or she will start to connect (and interact) with you on other social media channels as well.
The reverse concept
On the other hand, if you happen to be using a photo anywhere on the Internet that is not one that you want to associate with you or your business, you should disassociate with it. You don't want to be connected to it for exactly the opposite reason. You don't want people to associate you with something that is any less than positive. It may ultimately hurt your reputation. You want to create the best perception possible, not the worst one. Many people on the Internet tag photos that you are in. You should probably be careful about making sure that those photos are satisfactory to you. Some of the social media channels allow you to review those photos before they are posted and some do not. It is also a good idea to monitor your tagged photos regularly. However, remember that you will probably find that the photos are a valuable source of content for you and your business. You just need to be careful about what appears on the Web.
Use the same name every time
The concept that applies to your photos being consistent also applies to your name. Make sure that you use exactly the same name each time and on every social media channel. Again, it is a part of your brand. If you don't do that, people will have a much more difficult time finding you online. The bottom line is that you want people to find you so that you can build a relationship with them and so that they will eventually buy what you are selling.
Use keywords and key phrases intelligently
The bottom line is that you want people to search for what you do and you want them to find you. The way to do that is by using the appropriate, most effective keywords and key phrases. Part of your branding is your use of keywords. The right keywords will lead those people right to your business. Not only do you want those people to find you and your business once but you want them to find you over and over again. That is an important part of your brand recognition. You will want to use them in various parts of your social media profile, including your biography, your list of interests, the description of your expertise, etc.
Connect your social media profiles
The changes are pretty good that you will have several (or at least a few) social media profiles. It is very important for you to link them to each other. You want to make it as easy as possible for your online connections to find you on all of your social media channels. This is an effective way to do so. It is very easy to get them to where you want to be with a single click.
Tweak each of your social media profiles individually
In addition to tweaking your profiles generally, you should also tweak each profile in a more specific manner. Each one is a little different and there are some things that may need to be adjusted, which may make a tremendous difference. It is interesting how much people will notice if they are involved with you online. Even little changes can make a big difference.
Conclusion
Once you start to hone your social media profiles, you will probably find that it won't take a lot of time to do each one but it will make a big difference to your business. If you devote just a few minutes a day until you are done tweaking, you will be finished before you know it. You will want to review the language in each profile and make sure that it is great quality and that it says exactly what you need it to say. In addition to what has already been discussed here, another helpful change is social share buttons on all of your profiles. Giving your visitors options is always a good thing and you may increase traffic.
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