How To Become 8 Times More Successful On Twitter

If you’ve been using Twitter for a while, you’ll know how important it is to fill out your profile, but you might not have realized how vital this was…until now.

Amazing stats from an article on Hubspot have shown that Twitter profiles that contain a bio attract 8 times as many followers as profiles without a bio.

Twitter users with a bio have an average of 120 followers, 8 times more than users without a bio who have an average of 15 followers.

And when you consider the number of experienced Twitter followers that these users attract, profiles with a bio are almost 16 times more popular.

This data is based on more than 1.6 million Twitter accounts collected from Twitter grader, so carries a significant degree of accuracy.

As a result, the simple advice is to make sure that your Twitter profile, including the all important bio, is filled out properly. This one simple step provides a massive opportunity for you to attract relevant followers and begin to build rapport with other users before you begin to interact.

So here are a few things to bear in mind when creating your Twitter bio. Just remember that nothing is set in stone. These are merely guidelines that are likely to make your Twitter experience more successful.

Step 1: How To Write A Successful Twitter Bio

As the Twitter bio is limited to 160 characters, this encourages many people to think that it’s not important. As we’ve seen that is a big mistake.

For many, the bio is an essential part of choosing whether to follow another person on Twitter. In fact some Twitter users won’t even consider following someone unless their bio has been completed.

If your bio is missing or incomplete, you will be missing out on potential followers and the opportunity to build valuable relationships in your Twitter community.

So it’s important to spend time crafting your bio to show the world who you are, your experiences and interests. And due to the restricted space available it’s vital to make every character count.

Your aim should be to make an instant connection with like-minded people and provide enough intrigue so that they want to know more about you.

Speak about yourself, who you are and what you do. Resist the temptation to focus on your company, your product range or your website. Ultimately, most people want to know about you. So if you have any special interests or hobbies make sure that you include them.

As you create your bio, think about the type of followers that you want to attract, as this will influence the style of your message.

Include keywords that describe what you do and your experience. Many people are looking to follow people in the same industry. Here is an example of the bios used by JamesRivers and Peter Francis;

The more information you give people to relate to, the more followers you will attract. The more accurate your bio is, the easier it will be to attract people who bring value to your Twitter community.

Finally, consider adding a talking point at the end of your bio. Something positive or unusual that will encourage people to ask you a question when they follow you. Anything that creates intrigue and provides people with an easy opening remark will attract more interest in your profile.

Here is an example of the bio that I’ve been using for the last couple of months. The last line has generated lots of questions and allowed me to start building rapport with several amazing people.

One of the best ways to get ideas for your Twitter bio is to browse through as many as possible. If you haven’t been using Twitter for long enough to build up a number of followers, look for a well established account among one of the people that you follow. Look through the list of people that they follow, or their list of followers. As you hover over each username, a small label containing that person’s bio will appear. This will give you plenty of inspiration…and show you lots of bio mistakes to avoid.

Step 2: Add Your Link

Once you’ve crafted your bio, make sure that you add a link to your main website or blog. If you don’t have your own site, link to your profile on another social networking site. The main idea of including a link is to provide other Twitter users with more information about you or the projects that you are currently working on.

Anything that expands upon your 160 character bio will help people to decide whether they want to follow you. And according to the stats mentioned earlier, Twitter users with a link in their profile have on average 7.5 times more followers than those without a link.

Step 3: Use Your Real Name

This is an important element of building trust and many Twitter users are reluctant to follow people that use a product/company name for their profile.

Ultimately, people build relationships with other people, not companies, products or fantasy characters.

So if you represent a business, use your real name. It allows you to manage your personal reputation and allows people to connect with you on a deeper level. Don’t remain another faceless person hiding behind a corporate logo.

Of course there are exceptions to this guideline, but it’s no coincidence that 50 of the top 100 Twitter users (according to Twitterholic.com at the time of writing) use their own name.

Step 4: Add Your Photo

Your photo is an essential part of building a Twitter profile that encourages people to follow you. People want to connect with other people, not corporate logos, or even worse the default Twitter logo that’s displayed when you haven’t uploaded a photo.

Step 5: Include Your Location

As you browse through Twitter profiles you may have seen people getting creative with the location field in their profile. For example;

Location: Everywhere
Location: Internet
Location: In the ether
Location: It’s a secret

This may help to show their personality, but in our humble opinion, they’re making a big mistake. When you fill out your Twitter profile it’s important to let people know the country where you live.

First, there are several opportunities to connect with other Twitter users from your part of the world.

Second, it’s a crucial part of building rapport. In general, people relate to specific ideas much better than abstract concepts. When we meet someone new, we subconsciously file away all the new pieces of information about them into various categories. For example, male, 35, Miami Florida, graphic designer, wife, 2 children, dog.

We need these mental handles to help us make a mental picture of the person and decide whether they are “our type of person”. It allows us to believe that we “know” who they are and makes it easier for us to remember them in the future.

When we don’t get this information or we can’t make it fit neatly into one of our mental pigeon holes, it makes us uneasy. This subconscious uneasiness, whether we’re aware of it or not, makes it much harder for us to build rapport and trust.

For example, if you let them know that you’re from Arizona, Canada or Scotland, instead of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, you’ll find it much easier to build your Twitter community.

So give your Twitter profile a spring clean. Make sure it contains these essential elements. Does it reflect your personality? Does it give people enough information so that they know whether they want to follow you? Does it possess that additional sparkle that will make you stand out from the crowd?

What do you think is essential for a successful Twitter profile?

Leave your comments below. And if you’d like to share your profile, or examples of other attractive Twitter profiles, with the rest of our readers, please include the relevant links.

Successful Tweeting!

Twitter Power Team

Most Commented Posts

• 8 Powerful Tools To Put Twitter On Your Website
• Promote Your Static Twitter Pages
• The Best Damn #FollowFriday Video On The Net