Perfect Twitter Profile

Written by: Gary Horsman

The Perfect Twitter Profile

Your profile is your foundation on Twitter. If it is not set up well, then the people you want to follow you may not. Your hard work to identify niche-focused followers and compel them to follow you will not work as well (or may even work poorly) if you do not have a strong profile.

Twitter Profile Tips

Set up a full profile with a nice image and an engaging main header graphic. These graphics need to build and reinforce you and your brand. Use hashtags in your profile description to help people find you. Create a Twitter profile that you will be proud of. Know that you put in the time to create a nice one and set the standard high.

Pro Tip: To help you select the best profile image consider using the website Photofeeler (www.Photofeeler.com). This website will provide you with important insights into how others feel about your profile image. Since your profile image is so important it is worth using this resource to choose the one that will work the best on Twitter.

Your Twitter Handle

Define a Twitter handle that is either branded, is your name, or that relates closely to your name. For example, mine is @GaryPHorsman. A shorter Twitter handle is better (mine perhaps is a bit long) but it is my name – so it works nicely for me.

Your Profile Image

I know plenty of people that will not follow someone who has a Twitter ‘egg’ as their profile image. The egg signifies the Twitter bird theme and indicates the ‘unhatched’ state of a new profile. You do not want to remain ‘unhatched’ on Twitter – use a nice profile photo or graphic.

Your Profile Link

Next, provide a link to your center of content (your website or blog) in your profile. An even better approach is to create a Twitter landing page at your center of content. I recommend using a branded shortened URL for the link used in the description area which you can create at Bitly (https://bitly.com). Besides the link shortening service Bitly also provides link analytics if you sign up for an account.

Other URL shorteners are:

www.tiny.cc

www.tinyurl.com

www.ow.ly

Your Profile Tweet – Something Often Missed

To finish off your profile, compose a nice engaging tweet and pin this to your profile. Keep this tweet in place (pinned) until you are ready to replace it with another worthy tweet. Your pinned tweet is one that you are showcasing. It is one you are proud of. Therefore, it is essential that your pinned tweet is a high-quality tweet. It needs to have a compelling graphic and needs to be well constructed. This pinned tweet becomes a part of your bio.

Here is an exceptional pinned tweet that illustrates not only what the person does but displays the value an editor may provide and the dangers if an editor is not used. This pinned tweet is both effective and humorous.

This pinned tweet is one that Andrea can be proud of in terms of its content. However, it would be even more effective for Andrea if it linked back to her center of content. She would have to do the work to find similar headlines with typos and illogical statements (which should not be hard) and develop her own graphic but this could be easily accomplished.

You want people to follow you. When someone is trying to decide if they will follow you and they do not know anything about you they typically look at 5 things.

Your:

• Twitter handle
• Twitter Graphics (your photo and header graphic)
• Bio
• Pinned tweet
• Last few tweets (including the tweets dates)

These five items speak to your legitimacy. If your handle is hard to understand or confusing, your bio is vague, your graphic design choices are poor and your tweet quality low then why should someone follow you.

Pro Tips for Twitter

Pro Tip: Your account will be better if you have access to some engaging graphics and can have the software and know-how to manipulate these graphics. Tweets with a graphic perform better than tweets without. As noted above, use a pinned tweet that goes back to your center of content. There may be some exceptions – such as linking to an Amazon selling page for a product or a Kindle page for an eBook. In general, link your pinned tweet to a proper location to achieve maximum benefit.

Pro Tip: A well done pinned tweet will even outperform the link in your bio as it relates to sending Twitter traffic to your center of content or your preferred destination. A captivating pinned tweet supports engagement and engagement is at the core of successful social media marketing.

To have a strong profile set up on Twitter is a basic necessity. Your profile will be directly related to your success on Twitter. Work to achieve excellence in all that you do. Set a high standard. This is how you build a reputation for excellence. Be proud of your Twitter profile.

Here is another post on the topic of Twitter that you may be interested in. It is on the topic of being proud of your Twitter account titled: Twitter Tips – Being Proud of Your Account

I am very interested in your comments or questions. Please use the form below.