[Social Networking] 3 Ways To Power Up Your Profile

June 20th, 2008

· Filed Under: Bob The Teacher Training · Business Blogging · Business Building · Social Networking · Web 2.0

By Bob Jenkins

Would you like to know how to get better results with social networking? Start with your profile.

In a moment, you will learn 3 simple ways you can capture viewers attention, and magnetically attract clients and partners to your business with your profile.

But first, make sure you understand why this is so important to your success.

Like Your Business Card, Your Profile Creates The First Impression

All social networking sites work on the premise of connecting people together who can mutually benefit. To help with this, the user profile is a standard feature.

Your profile includes your username, your photo, and a very concise description of you (typically 40 words or less).

The information you put in your profile is going to turn people on to you or turn people off from you. You don’t want to make them say, “Ah, that’s not really somebody worth knowing”. So you need to make sure your profile is something you’re going to spend a lot of time tweaking.

The better the profile is the more likely you will get people to be attracted to what you’re doing.

Now let’s turn to the 3 steps to creating a powerful profile, and get you the results you are looking for.

• Use The Same, Brandable Username For All Social Networking Profiles
• Create An Action-Based Description In Your Profile
• Put Your Best Face Forward With The Profile Photo

Brand Yourself With An Obvious Username
When you first create your accounts on social networks, you have to come up with a username. This is something you can’t change later within an account, so get it right the first time.

Your username must have these characteristics:

• It’s obviously you
• It’s easy to spell
• It’s easy to remember

Your own name is the best username to have if it’s still available because it’s what people who know you already will search for. If your name is hard to spell or is too common, though, you’ll want to get a second account that fits the characteristics above.

For example, my friend Scott’s initial Twitter account was ScottTousignant which is not the easiest thing to spell. So he has started to use “thefitb” as his Twitter user name instead.

Same thing with Bob Jenkins. There are so many Bob Jenkinses out there that I came up with BobtheTeacher quite a long time ago for my username on a forum. In fact, it’s been so effective as a username, many people don’t know my real last name!

Whatever your name is just make sure that you’re branding yourself as that name. Don’t use some adjective that doesn’t really hone into what you’re really all about.

Use the same username for all of the social networking sites because some people will find you on Twitter or Facebook or MySpace, and they’ll say, “Well, I’m not really on one of those sites. I wonder if they have a Twitter account or a Facebook account.” If they then just go randomly over to that other site and type in your name and somebody else has it, then you have confused your audience.

In the social networking game, your username is your brand – so grab yours at all the sites you can, even if you simply point the profiles to your main marketing hub and never use the account again.

Create An Action-Based Description In Your Profile

Most people quit social networking sites because they feel they are a waste of time. This is usually due to a poor profile description that attracts the wrong people.

When people see your profile, they want to know what you can do for them. So tell them, very succinctly, what you provide.

This is not a popularity contest, but an opportunity to brand yourself as the expert you are in your specialty area so you attract potential clients and partners – not a bunch of friends who are going to spam you with chaim mail, jokes, and crappy YouTube videos.

So provide a short 1-2 sentence benefit-focused description of what you do for others. This is traditionally called your USP – unique selling position – or what separates you from the rest of the pack.

You must also include a link to your marketing hub – your central location online. This should be your blog, but it can be any website you control and have a specific domain URL for. (If you don’t have a blog or website yet, then link all your profiles to the same Squidoo lensmaster page or profile page on your favorite social networking site until you get one.)

You need to make that link clickable so your visitors and new friends can go to your website when they want to find out more about you.

To do this, you need to type the full URL, such as http://DiscoverSocialNetworking.com. On most sites, simply typing DiscoverSocialNetworking.com will not create a clickable link.

After you create your profile, test the link to make sure it goes to the right page!

Put Your Best Face Forward With Your Profile Photo

To gain attention, trust, and referrals, you need to have a very good profile photo. A professional photo is always a good thing to have in business. But you don’t have to spend a hundred dollars for a half hour sitting or more right away. Keep in mind that social networking sites are not unlike a dating site. And fairly or unfairly, you will be judged by your picture.

Be sure your photo captures your energy shows off your personality. Typically a good profile photo is a head shot that shows you in a positive mood, and energized, looking directly at the viewer.

No matter what you look like, your charisma, personality, and energy are going to be what people are looking for. They’re not looking for a model. They’re looking for somebody who’s confident and who’s happy with their life. And even if you feel that’s a stretch for you to do, that’s the kind of picture that you want to try to have in your profile.

Improving Your Profile Will Improve Your Results

Implement the strategies you’ve just learned in the last few minutes and you will see improved results. And remember – unlike a business card you’re stuck with until you get rid of all 500 – you can change your profile at anytime.

You want your visitors to feel like they must get to know you – and perhaps that they already do in some way.

With a great username, clear mission statement linked to your blog, and an attractive photo, your profile will put you ahead of your competition in the social networking arena.

Bob Jenkins teaches business owners how to use internet marketing strategies effectively to attract more customers and get more sales – without spending a fortune on advertising. Discover more ways to power your business with social networking at www.DiscoverSocialNetworking.com.

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Please leave comments below, and include links to your Twitter and Facebook profiles.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Ning.

Five Ways You Can Build Your Reputation With Social Networking

Five Ways You Can Build Your Reputation With Social Networking
By Bob Jenkins

Are you using social networks to build your reputation online? Whether you already are or you are just getting started with sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Ning, building your online reputation is your biggest responsibility.

Here are five ways to make sure you do it right.

#1: Be Proud Of Being You

The first thing is, you have to be yourself. You have to be who you are. Because although you can get away with being fake for a little while, as soon as one person realizes that you’re not who you say you are, your reputation is destroyed almost instantly because of the power of social networking.

So be yourself. And don’t be afraid of being yourself. Realize that you have some gifts and some knowledge that people need to know about, and those that want to learn from you are going to gravitate towards you. Those that don’t think you’re worth listening to are basically going to ignore you. And it’s at their peril, so don’t worry about them.

#2: Transparency - Never Hide From Your Audience

The second thing about your reputation is you should try to be transparent at all times. This means you keep everything real with your audience.

For example, over the last year, I used social media to show you my move from Maryland to North Carolina, including drama with the movers, picking the house, and getting it set up. I also pulled back the curtain to show what it takes to run a product launch.

When I did my last product launch, I was Twittering every day what I was doing to get ready for this site. Most of the gurus out there would keep everything under lock and key, and I was being very clear, saying, “This is what I’m doing to get ready for this launch.” It actually helped me have a better launch, even though I told everybody exactly what I was going to be doing.

They didn’t think that they had some surprise or whatever like most people teach; they just were excited to be part of it and part of the story. So be transparent. Let people know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and they’re going to learn how to trust you.

#3: Be Positive For Positive Results

The third way to build your reputation is to be positive.

There are folks out there who generally can do a good job of being negative. I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that to be a very long-term profitable strategy.

It may get you some attention at first and spark some controversy, but that’s not the way to go. Be looking forward to the optimistic of your industry, of your business and what the results are going to be.

It would be easy for you to go onto Twitter or onto Facebook and talk about how you’re having a bad day or this product sucks or this week sucks or this relationship sucks. But you’re not really there for a support network, per se.

You’ll find some of that. If you have something bad happen in your life, sharing it with your followers will be very therapeutic for you and you will get a lot of support back. But when you’re just blasting negative things out, you’re going to get negative things in return, usually.

So try to be positive as much as possible and look for the opportunities that are out there and look at them from that positive perspective.

#4: Build Your Reputation And They Will Come

The fourth thing you must do is to be patient. This is because, initially, your reputation is going to be built only by yourself and the first initial people who get to know you. But as time goes on and you get more followers and you build a larger network of friends and peers, your reputation will solidify to allow your business to grow.

Once it hits a tipping point, your reputation and business accelerates at a very quick pace.

So be patient and let it happen. Don’t try this stuff out for a week and then come back to me next week and say, “Well, it didn’t really work. I didn’t really get any results yet.” You’ve got to let social networking play out over a few weeks and then a couple months and so on. A year from now your business is going to be tremendously different compared to where it is right now.

#5: Contribute To The Conversation – Every Day!

The fifth thing about your reputation is you need to be someone that people look to as a contributor, not as a leech, not as a mooch, as a contributor.

You have to be willing to be involved in the conversation, and you have to be willing to give as much or even more than what you’re going to get in return. The people who do that are growing so fast it makes my head spin.

I feel that I’m a pretty giving person but I see some other folks out there that just keep on giving, giving, giving and they just build up a huge following and that social capital is a real asset to your business. So you need to make sure that you’re contributing as much as possible to the conversation.

I don’t mean that as just go around randomly and try to help people. Within your specific task, your specific industry, the things you know well, you need to be at the forefront of letting people know how to do what you know how to do without charging them money at first.

They’ll come and find your site and your products and they’ll pay you for that as time goes on and their needs grow. With social networking you need to be building your reputation up first.

If somebody has a question, you should be one of the first people who answers and you need to answer without reservation not just, “Oh, I answered that in my eBook; go buy it”. They’re going to find your eBook if you just talk to them and give them solutions to the problem they are struggling with at that moment.

Give people your input, your encouragement for them to get better at what they are trying to do.

Any little quick free advice you can give, give it.

Actively Build Your Reputation With Social Networking And Reap The Rewards

You’ve got to be in this for the reason of having fun and really building that relationship. Dollars will come, there’s no doubt about that. But first, connect with people and really help them out. Understand that they’ll become loyal followers of what you do and see you for who you are.

Follow these 5 steps to building your reputation online and you’ll not only beat your competition, you’ll have more fun doing it!

Bob Jenkins teaches business owners how to use internet marketing strategies effectively to attract more customers and get more sales – without spending a fortune on advertising. Discover more ways to power your business with social networking at www.DiscoverSocialNetworking.com.

Please leave comments below, and include links to your Twitter and Facebook profiles.

You can find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Ning.