9 Ways To Improve Your Personal Social Media Profiles

Having a bangin’ social media presence is a great way for business owners or entrepreneurs to further promote their business. If you’re looking to grow your personal social media profile so that you can use it to promote your business in an effort to reach more potential customers, gain additional brand awareness, and establish a stronger relationship with your audience, then you’ve come to the right place. 

This blog post will run you through nine of our top tips for stepping up your personal social media game, so that your profile is fully optimised to help promote your business. 

Ensure that your profile is optimised

Take a good look at your profiles, and make sure you’ve filled out every relevant field.
Go a step further and pay particular attention to your Instagram bio. There are a few ways you can optimise your Instagram bio by doing simple things like adding your profession to your name.
Are you a Digital Marketer? Fitness Coach? Executive Chef?
Instagram can act as a mini search engine. People are unlikely to be searching for your name, but they might be searching for someone in your profession. Adding what you do to your Instagram Name will give you better chances of showing up in search queries.
Give a brief description of what you do and how you add value.
People want to know how you can add value to their lives, how they’ll benefit from giving you a follow, what kind of content you’ll be posting, and how you can make their pain points go “poof!”
What are pain points, you ask? They’re specific problems that your audience or customers are facing. Among a bunch of other things and depending on who you’re targeting, this can include struggling to find simple dinner recipes, feeling time-poor, or finding that their social content strategies aren’t bringing in the type of success they’re hoping for. And who better to solve these pain points than you, right? Let your audience know that you’re up to the job in your Instagram bio.

You can also tag your business’ Instagram profile or add a link to your business’ website in your bio so that people can easily make the connection, and click on it – and before you know it, you have more eyes on your business!

Need some inspiration? Take a look at brands, like Starbucks Australia, that have well written Instagram bios, and think about how you can scale it down to fit your profile on a more personal level. 

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Post consistently

Notice how I said “consistently”, not “everyday”?
You don’t need to have a post go up each day, but whether it’s on-feed posts or on Stories, your followers are more likely to stay engaged with you if you’re consistent. While it’s totally fine to post every day, it’s more important to find a frequency that suits you. Some people are able to post every day, and some simply aren’t. But finding a number of posts each week that suits your lifestyle – whether it’s 5 posts or 2 posts – will help make sure that you don’t end up posting every day for two weeks… only to go radio silent for two months (or more).

Follow and interact with people in your space

I’m sure you’ve heard of this before but remember it’s called social media for a reason!
Get excited about being as engaged with your audiences as they are with you. Responding to comments that are left on your posts and heading over to the explore page or sifting through hashtags to leave genuine comments on the posts of others is a great way to spark a conversation with others on the platform. Don’t be afraid to share the posts of other people too, if you find them interesting or relevant. By tagging them when you share their posts, they’re likely to get curious, click on your profile to learn about you, and may even end up following! Another bonus would be to have them reshare your post on their profile, even just to say “thanks for the share!”, which will get you in front of their audience and extend your reach.

You can also join a plethora of Facebook groups that are relevant to you, your business, and your interests. If you can add anything of value to the conversations that take part in your Facebook groups, don’t be afraid to leave a comment or create a post of your own. When you’re active and continuously adding value in Facebook groups, you can be more easily seen as a thought leader in that space – building up your credibility and some awareness around you and your business or brand.

Try a variety of different types of posts

Social media can be extremely visual – especially Instagram. In addition to still images, try to post videos, Instagram/Facebook Stories, and Instagram/Facebook Lives too. Having a variety of posts can encourage your audience to engage with you more by giving them something new to look forward to. Additionally, things like Instagram or Facebook Lives can definitely feel a lot more personal – and people love to see the face behind brands, so it’s a great opportunity for you to talk to your audience on a deeper level. 

Post quality images and video

If you’re taking photos or videos, make sure your camera is clean by giving the lens a quick wipe. There’s often no need to invest in expensive studio lights, especially when you are just starting out – but you can still keep your images and videos bright by using natural daylight when possible!
When it comes to cropping your content for posting, try and keep your images or video cropped square, or even better – vertically. This will help make sure that your post takes up more space on the news feed, so try to avoid posting landscape.

Write engaging captions

It’s been said that a picture can say 1000 words, but when it comes to social media, captions are just as important as posting the most breathtaking, crisp images. Take some time to put just as much thought into writing your captions as you would with taking your pictures. Think about your use of emojis and whether they’re appropriate for the type of caption you’re writing. Whether it’s long or short-form captions, be sure to add as much value where you can, and when applicable, add calls to action too. 

There are many different calls to action you can use, and your choice will depend on what next steps you want your audience to take. Do you want them to visit your website? Give you a call? Or maybe you simply want them to answer a question. Ending your captions by clearly directing your audience to your website, encouraging them to give you a buzz, or asking them a question can be a good way to increase engagement in your comments section, or generate leads.

Enable Facebook Follow

Did you know that by setting your Facebook posts to ‘Public’, it can be shown to anyone – not just your Facebook friends? This is a great tool, because it allows other people to then follow your profile so that they can stay up to date with your posts, without having to send you a friend request!

Add relevant hashtags

Hashtags are a great way of being found on social media, particularly on Instagram, which is why it’s a good idea to put some thought into the hashtags you’re using. Search for hashtags that are relevant to you and your content, and group them into the first comment of your post. Spice things up and use a variety of hashtag sizes too! Especially if you’re just starting out, having a variety of hashtag sizes will be in your favour. Something to keep in mind is to try and use hashtags that have less than a million posts in them. This will give you a better chance of being found within the tags you use, rather than getting drowned out beneath the millions of other posts that are categorised the same way.

Tag relevant people and locations

Did you have a delicious lunch at a great restaurant with friends or your team?
Another way you can get discovered and increase engagement is by tagging locations or people that are relevant to your post. Users may often search a location to have a look at the type of content that’s been taken there – giving you another opportunity to pop up for a new customer. Additionally, tagging people in your posts gives them the opportunity to share it to their audience too, thereby extending your reach a little more. Your post will also appear in their Tagged Posts feed, so anyone going through that feed can stumble by your post as well. 

And here’s a quick bonus tip, because I’m feeling generous: be authentic!
Remember, we’re talking about your personal account, so try to make it as true to you as possible – while still presenting yourself as a business owner or entrepreneur. If your audience sees you being yourself on your account, they’ll more likely enjoy engaging with you. Additionally, it will attract the right people to you, and soon after, your business. 

Taking the time to elevate your own social media profile is an excellent way of getting noticed as a thought leader in your industry. Of course, it’s all well and good to have amazing content but ensuring that your profile is active and highly optimised can put you ahead of the game!