Purely by coincidence my blog this week could almost be considered a Part 2 of sorts to what I wrote in last week’s post. It was something I saw between putting that one online and now that made me realize there was more ground to cover on the subject.
I’m referring to what it says in your bio, although this week I’m specifically thinking Instagram and Twitter (a.k.a. X).
And to drill down even further, my target is locked in on people who are wasting the precious space – the limited characters that they give us – on unnecessary text.
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It’s ironic that it took seeing someone’s Twitter bio last week to make me think of writing a blog about this because I remember talking publicly about the subject, either at a speaking gig that I did or to someone who was interviewing me.
I’m going to address Instagram first because that one will go quicker.
I spend lots of time looking at (music) artist profiles on Instagram, but this applies to other industries too. The folks that I’m checking out should be using their bio to refer to, say, something like, “Singer, songwriter, guitar and piano player who performs nationally and just released Song Title.” Now, don’t call me out on character limits (whether I fell short or exceeded it) or, “Is that exactly what you think I should be writing?” It’s more about what you shouldn’t be writing.
If that comes pretty close to describing you, don’t instead say, “Just a country girl who loves riding horses and being in my reliable ol’ Ford truck in my blue jeans.” Huh? How does that tell me that you do music?
They should just look through your pictures? Nope. I’ve said it here in my weekly blog and over and over on my “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast that it’s just that quickly (snaps fingers) that someone will move on to another profile.
On Twitter (X), it’s not so much the above (although I do see people guilty of committing that offense on that platform too). It’s more about this trend that I see where people use their bio to state what they don’t like, what they don’t want, what they’re not on Twitter for, and so on.
I’ve seen things like, “NO PROMO NEEDED,” which I get because there are so many accounts that want to hit you up to try to sell you their promo services. But again, use your Twitter bio to promote yourself, not for rejection notices.
Others will say, “No politics,” or, “No DMs,” or, “Keep your (public figure) content to yourself.” And here’s the thing. People send me private messages on Twitter. Do I want them? No. Does it say that on my Twitter bio, though? No, it sure doesn’t. So how do I deal with them? (Lean in real close now because I’m going to whisper my secret to you.) I just don’t even go in to read them. At all.
It’s just that simple.
Use your Instagram and Twitter bios for positives, not for negatives. We all wish there was space to write more, so take advantage of what they DO give you to try to get what you want out of being there, not to tell people what you DON’T want.
What’s cool is that you don’t even need to private message me. You can call me through the Owwll app and we can actually talk (while maintaining the privacy of our phone numbers). Let’s have a conversation about social media or whatever it is you could use help with. Take advantage of my almost 20 years of working with indie music artists, authors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, and small business owners from around the U.S. Ring me up on there and let’s chat.