Personal Profile
March 27th, 2010 // 6:28 pm @ John Piro
PERSONAL PROFILE ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
Many people believe their personal profile is not an important part of marketing. The fact of the matter is your personal profile lays the entire foundation for your Social Media Marketing Campaign(s) – especially online!
I hear so many people say – “But I want to promote my business. People don’t need to know who I am!”
If this is how you are thinking I have to blatantly share you might seriously want to become a student of internet marketing and learning how to promote yourself AND THEN your business online. Why? Because people do businesses with people they feel they Know, Like & Trust (KLT). They don’t do business with the name of a company! PEOPLE do BUSINESS with PEOPLE!
Marketing online is all about ATTRACTING YOUR MARKET to you vs PUSHING YOURSELF or YOUR BUSINESS on others! In another section on my site, I share how the world reknown MLM / Home Based Business Top Producer, Mike Dillard, took this basic marketing concept and proved this is what works extremely well no matter where you market as he generated over $10M in revenues over the last five (5) years marketing HIMSELF online by creating several internet marketing information products with his first being his MAGNETIC SPONSORING “funded proposal”.
(I will explain what Funded Proposals are in another section I wll post)
After the first impression your picture makes on your viewer, your profile is where your prospective contact will find out information about you. It is also a great place to insert keywords where people can find you in the social network’s search field and other places online. If you already have a profile on a specific social network such as Facebook or Myspace you use to keep in contact with closer friends then I recommend creating a brand new profile specifically for business and networking. I refer to this as a “Professional Personal” profile.
LinkedIn is more professional, business network in its nature vs Facebook where you may have a more personal or closer network of friends & family who may already be on your list of contacts (ie friends) as well as Myspace. However, I would not discount a social network to brand yourself & market online.
You may be incredibly surprised by the results you achieve on some of social networks. Remember, people are people. Most are interested in improving themself as an individual and are probably online trying to promote their business or what they do to earn money.
With this in mind, your LinkedIn profile may be well positioned already however your Facebook & Myspace profiles may need a little work. Or as I suggest – create a new professional personal profile page for your business networking on these sites. This will allow you to create a targeted list of friends in your niche market or are interested in what you have to share on this profile vs the original you created which is typically more personal. By creating a more professional personal profile you could avoid negative comments, inappropriate photos, etc posted on your page from your old school friends and buddies who may not understand your social network marketing strategy!
If you would prefer to keep your more personal profile on a social network platform such as Facebook & Myspace, again, you may choose to add a Professional Profile targeted to your Business Networking interests to separate your business from personal contacts.
HOW TO BUILD A PROFESSIONAL PERSONAL PROFILE
1. Profile Picture
If you are looking to portray a professional image with your social network marketing then I recommend adding a professional photograph to your profile. I don’t recommend putting an image or logo as your profile picture. This could be seen as less personal and there will be a percentage of people will not accept you as a friend. Depending on your type of business, product or service I would tailor your profile picture to suit. Remember you only get one chance at making a good first impression!
2. Information Section
Depending on the social network platform there may be sections for information on your profile or where you can create an “About Me” section. Since Facebook is the number one social media platform currently I will direct my suggestions to it.
On Facebook, the first box is just underneath your profile picture. All you have to do to edit it is simply click on the pencil in the top right corner of this box and start writing about yourself. To add a website address make sure you add http://www.YourDomainName.ext or http://YourDomainName.ext . This will ensure that the link is clickable (It’s not necessary to add the “www” however you do need to use the “http://”).
The next information section is just below the first box. Again click on the pencil and you will be given options as to what you would like to be shown on your profile wall. This includes – Birthday, Current City, Home Town and Website(s). Fill this section out by clicking on the edit information link once you click on the pencil.
The third and most important information section is the ‘Info’ tab located on the top tool bar in your profile. There is a basic, personal, contact, education and work sections. Complete all of these sections in detail. This is where people will find out information about you to see if they share any common interests. Write with passion and tell people about things that interest you. Your target market will resonate with you and is the first step in building a solid relationship.
In the personal information section the words appear as a hyperlink and are in fact keywords used in searches and advertising on Facebook. Try to include keywords based on your target market.
For example: If your niche market is Personal Development include keywords such as The Secret, Law of Attraction, Think and Grow Rich, etc. The Movies section, Books, Interests, etc are great areas to load with valuable keywords. Spend a good amount of time on this section; people want to see that you are a real person with real interests.
Since marketing is all about building your list and then developing a relationship with those on your list I suggest bringing your reader to a “Call to Action” and give them the opportunity to “opt in” to your list.
You can see an example on my http://facebook.com/johnpirojr info page. At the end of my info section, I suggest my reader click on my http://johnpiro.com link.
[NOTE: I know I have stated you want to stay away from posting links to your business however I was refering to links to your business or opportunity before people get to know you. You will note I am suggesting to my readers if they are interested in learning more about how to brand themselves and develop their internet marketing knowledge they can go to this page and it may entice them to opt in to my list at that time because I am offering massive use value for their benefit!]
3. Photos
Like the info section, people want to see that you are a real person so add some photos and albums. Include pictures of travel, adventure, family, vacations, business conventions, etc. If you have pictures relating to your line of work or have pictures with people of influence then include them in this section too as it will add credibility to your profile.
4. Applications
Once you have filled out the basic tabs, you have the option of adding applications. To view all applications you can go to
http://www.facebook.com/applications
Here you can search for and view the different application types, check their star rating, description and add them to your profile.
Some great applications to add to your profile include:
Networked blogs – Skype me – Social RSS – You Tube Box – My html / Profile html – Web Presence & more.
There are quite a number of applications you can add to your profile to customize it to your ideas.
To add the applications, type the heading in the Facebook Search at the top of the page. Sort by ‘Applications’, click the heading, add to profile and allow. Once you have added your applications to your profile you will need to go to your application setting link located in your account tab on your profile (top right of screen). Once here, you are able to edit the settings for each of your applications.
One application I suggest adding to your profile is the ‘My Html’ or ‘Profile Html’ tab. This is where you can place a banner image with a link leading back to a website (or fan page, but I will get to that in another post) or you can place an opt-in form to capture details of visitors to your profile.
5. Adding Content
The most important marketing strategy on any of the social network platforms is to add valuable content on a consistent basis (relating to your niche market). Every time you update your status, write a note, add a link, photo, video or any other content it will not only appear on your profile, but on Facebook it will be seen on the wall of your friends as well. If you are adding quality content you will find people wanting to know more about you and what you do.
When you add quality content on a consistent basis you will start to build a reputation with your friends as someone who is always adding value (and doing things differently to 90% of people on Facebook). In the future when you promote Groups, Pages or Events you will get a much higher opt-in rate as people will already know who you are and what you have to offer. People will start coming to your profile to look at your page even if they don’t see your posts on the wall! Adding regular content doesn’t have to be hard. A great way to add good content is to add the YouTube box application and search YouTube for some great videos relating to your niche market. Videos are a great way to engage your friends and if you can tie it in to your business, product or service then that are even better. It doesn’t have to be something linked to your business though; it may be an inspiring video, a quote to your status update or an article link that you found interesting. Keeping consistent in this area is very important. It doesn’t take long but has a big effect on how you are seen on Facebook. Aim for one post per day and make sure you spend some time commenting on other friends posts too!
6. Privacy Settings
Social media is about establishing and building relationships, whether they are personal or business connections. In many cases, you may find that some connections will blur the lines between the personal and business realms. It is also important to be transparent and authentic when using social media to market a business. People like to connect with people, not faceless brands. Furthermore, it is these personal connections that will lead to business, referrals, and word of mouth marketing for your company. If you are concerned about exposing portions of your profile to these different connections – perhaps you still don’t want your business connections to see your personal photos – Facebook fortunately allows you to customize your privacy settings to control who sees which portions of your profile.
You simply need to go to your account tab and scroll down to Privacy settings. Go to profile settings and choose from there. You can even customize down to specific people if you wish. You can also set your contact information, application and websites, who can find you in search results and a block list from this section.
At this stage you should have ideas for a Marketing Plan and a new Profile with information, pictures and applications. Now it is time to start adding friends and building a targeted list of followers.
In the next section I discuss Building A Network by finding the right friends and also discuss social network etiquette.
Category : Personal Profile
