Branding Your #SocialMedia Profile Series #3: Your BSMP One Sentence
When you push your sleeves up and start your work on your branded Instagram/Twitter/TikTok/LinkedIn/etc. profile (also called “BSMP“), the best and most effective way is to use it effectively is to tell YOUR* story, and by doing so to differentiate yours from the other 4 billion social media profiles.
How do you do that? By hyper-targeting people who care about what YOU* do.
Today I will share, based on my experience, how to do so with the descriptive text YOUR* use in your profile bio.
PS/Do this only as long as it’s “YOU”**
In This Article:
- 1 — That Only Your Community Will Understand
- 2 — Limit the Number of Words
- 3 — Dialogue It
- 4 — Emotions are Welcome
- 5 — Us Us Us is Me Me Me
- 6 — Tell the Same Story
- 7 — The Rest is Up to You*
- What Do We Mean by YOU*
1 — That Only Your Community Will Understand
So we said that the best way is to tell your story to people who care, right? What can be a better way to do so than an almost encrypted message that only YOU* and the community you are building will understand it’s meaning? This way they will hear you very well, they (which together with you is “we”) will know they/we are a part of your family, and they/we will appreciate you. And if you keep this focus all the time, they/we can be your very loyal followers and even your friends!
Here is a good example:
What is “IMG / WME” one will ask, right? My answer: exactly! Emily’s community/followers will know EXACTLY what it means, and THAT is the perfect message, that is the perfect profile description, my friends!
PS/Do this only as long as it’s “YOU”**
2 — Limit the Number of Words
I recommend that you limit the description of what you* do (i.e. your story telling) to 4–5 words.
Here are some examples of such minimalism:
"We do it for Chicago."
"Beauty for cool kids"
"Sassy, Classy & A Whole Lot Of Cute"
"We Belong to Something Beautiful"
"riding for @marchisio_bici"
"All we need is glow and rose"
"for women ready to boss up their lifestyle"As you can see, the message is short and sweet, with an attitude, love, pride and what not — whatever it takes!
PS/Do this only as long as it’s “YOU”**
3 — Dialogue It
If you look around long time enough, you will find that a text that brings some kind of dialogue brings the best responses. This is not even a bit surprising — after all social media was built for community building, and you* build communities (hence followers) by creating a dialogue, a back-and-forth discussion.
Dialogue ===> Discussions = Comments on your Posts = Engagement = High visibility through the social media platform algorithm
4 — Emotions are Welcome
Emotions are very welcome in your profile description. The reason is that although we — humans — sometimes try to hide it, our decisions and actions (and definitely our love-affairs) are based on emotions. We even buy based on emotion (and then we rationalize it with logic…). Be passionate, and/or have an attitude, show respect or disrespect, be angry or sad (or offended), even curse… You got the picture — feel free to be emotional in a way that is…you*.
5 — Us Us Us is Me Me Me
When you write your bio description on LinkedIn then — guaranteed — it’s about you* — so you will say something like:
General Partner at Sequoia & Cyberstarts,
I help Taiwan companies to grow their brand internationally and to get more clients
and/or
Content Producer | Project Coordinator| Creative Generalist | Fun Haver.
However, that’s uncommon and will usually not work (unless sarcasm is used, which is excellent sometimes..) with other social platforms. As contrarian as it sounds, your profile description on platforms such as TikTok, Insta and YouTube is about your audience, NOT about your brand, your title, your year of establishment, etc — those are usually considered to be super boring on those platforms.
So, something like that on Instagram is NO NO NO:
Manufacturer of the StandLabel line of industrial label & sign printers. Leader in workplace education resources and solutions. ** Celebrating 50 years! **
Here is a yes example: “We Belong to Something Beautiful.” It’s WE here, not me, and who is my CEO, that you are “the leader,” and when my brand issued stocks on NASDAQ, Kappish?
PS/Do this only as long as it’s “YOU”**
6 — Tell the Same Story
The BSMP description must tell the same story (yours!*) as your profile picture, your extended name, your hashtags, and even your URL. If they aren’t all talking in same language, there will be a disconnect in your message, you will then need to change the other BSMP components accordingly, so you might not be successfully telling your story.
And so, if in your BSMP description you are all about laughing and humor, your picture should laugh too… I think you’ve “got the picture” — you need a unified message across your BSMP.
*BSMP = branded social media profile, a term that was coined by… me.
See the below example, by A Color Story — what a great representation of “#AColorStory”, right?
PS/Do this only as long as it’s “YOU”**
7 — The Rest is Up to You*
All the rest is up to you — choosing fonts, adding hashtags, emojis, special characters, etc. Be creative — express yourself. Dare. Go Crazy! Because if you just do what your neighbor from the same area-code did, people won’t “see the you* in you” and it won’t work.
Pro Tip: Test test test… Try different variations of text at different times of the day, different weeks, different festivals. It’s OK to make a mistake, it’s OK to leave it open ended, see what works the best and nail it right there. Testing through mistakes is the only way to find out!
PS/as long as it’s YOU*
What Do We Mean by YOU*
*YOU= Since it’s your name, it has to be…you. What I mean is that — yes, you can add attitude, special characters, emojis, a unique photo, wording, whatever, as long as it comes from you, and as long as it reflects your brand, who you are, and where you want to be. You should revisit this constantly, persistently, and methodically. If you need 1:1 personalized consulting on how to do this and what makes sense for your brand, you can sign up now.
Pro tip: Consider adding 2–3 hashtags with <500k posts & Emojis to your BSMP description area.
Enjoy the process, my heroes!
Sincerely yours,
