Over the past week, I’ve been helping put together a teleseminar series with a bunch of experts. One of the things I’ve needed from them is a 70 word bio – and let’s just say that getting it has been a lot like herding cats.
The problem isn’t with them though. I’m just as guilty. Every time I need to send in a bio for a new venue, I’ve have to scramble to get an updated one together!
I’m sure there are a lot more people out there with the same problem. Either they don’t have a bio yet, or they have one – and it’s out-of-date or not specific enough.
I think this is because creating a self-promotional bio feels really weird. Many of us were constantly told “don’t brag” when we were younger – and that’s exactly what a bio does!
Yet, when you’re trying to brand yourself, it’s vitally important to have a good, concise bio that describes who you are and what you do.
Otherwise, you end up with disorganized mishmash that impresses no one. Or, in the scramble to put everything together when you actually need a bio, you overlook the very details that will impress your potential clients or employers the most.
So, to help everyone out (and myself too), here’s what you need to know to create a short, effective bio for yourself.
First of all, focus
Most people think an effective bio tells everything about them. They throw in everything from their golf handicap to their 8th grade spelling bee championship.
For example, here are a couple things I love to tell people about me:
- My college major is in 5th century BC Ancient Greek and Latin. (Really.)
- I exercised polo ponies in Malta during grad school.
- I used to run hurdles in track – until I accidentally forgot to jump one.
Those things are all a big part of who I am, but they don’t belong in my official bio because they have absolutely nothing to do with the services I provide.
In fact, the more irrelevant information you throw in to your bio, the less effective it is. People get distracted by all the details and completely miss the important information (aka the reasons why they should hire you.)
Second, forget about easing into it
There’s a huge tendency to ease into your bio with a roundabout introduction. You might try starting off by being cute, or telling how you got to where you are today. Don’t do that.
I was MAJORLY guilty of this in my LinkedIn profile. When I created it, I was trying to be approachable and friendly. So, I wrote:
I fell in love with creativity and ideas when I was 11, and haven’t looked back since.
Since my undergraduate college degree in Ancient Greek and Latin is completely impractical, I spend hours and hours looking out for the coolest new ideas – just to prove I understand the modern world too…
It’s lighthearted, but it’s not going to convince a potential client or employer that I’m the person they want to hire. In fact, it takes so long to get down to my actual attributes that potential clients might discount me before they even get there.
This is the kind of biography that belongs on your more approachable mediums – such as a Facebook page or blog. If you’re blogging for professional purposes though, make sure that you have a professional bio on top of the friendlier one.
Third, remember to make your English teacher happy
I remember in high school hearing my English teachers continually nag about the 5 W’s and 1 H. The questions Who? What? Where? Why? How? were the essential building blocks of our essays. If they were left out, my teachers were not happy.
When I abandoned my literature classes for good, I thought I’d escaped them. Not true! They’re absolutely essential for writing a good bio.
In fact, if a stranger couldn’t answer most of those questions when reading through your bio, it’s not very effective.
Your potential clients want to know:
- Who are you? Make a brief statement about yourself.
- What do you do? Tell readers how exactly you can help them.
- How do you get the information to them? Tell them the method they can expect: workshops, speeches, newsletters, phone conversations.
- Where are you? If what you do is location-specific, you need to state that.
- Why hire you? Let readers know why you’re qualified for the job.
So, while you’re writing your bio, make sure you cover all those bases.
Fourth, don’t make your bio all-purpose
If you’re like me and have multiple target markets, you need to have multiple bios. For getFreshMinds.com, I write for an audience interested in
creativity and ideas. To them, it’s important that I earned a Masters degree in innovation and that I worked for a Lateral Thinking guru. It’s even relevant that I competed in creative problem-solving competition from elementary school on.
But my social media clients don’t care about that. They want to know how I help clients develop content that shows thought leadership and how I’ve been successful in using social media to get attention. And they want to know how I know what personal branding strategies will work for them.
If I tried to serve both audiences with the same bio, the whole ordeal would be a miserable, miserable failure. Both groups would be confused and distracted by the information that had nothing to do with them. Plus, I wouldn’t be able to show excellence in either area because I’d be trying too hard to cram in all the information.
Instead, people with two target markets need to come up with two completely separate bios that are specifically tailored towards the information each target market needs to know.
Finally, keep it under 100 words
It’s easy to write a long bio describing who you are. You can throw in
all of your qualifications and really prove that you’re worth hiring. Plus, you have plenty of room for important-sounding adjectives that will surely impress your target market! (Right?)
Short, concise bios are much, much harder to write. It’s really difficult to both tell what you do and prove you’re a good investment in under 100 words – which is exactly why you need to do that.
When you force yourself to chop down your bio to a certain number of words, you figure out what’s really important. You don’t have time for flowery descriptions or unnecessary details. You need to just get to the point and make it effective.
It may feel weird spending a lot of time to come up with a bio – especially when it’s easy to just dash off some things about yourself – but if you want your personal brand to be taken seriously, you need to have that concise description of what you do.
And, if you have it all ready to go, you’ll be able to quickly send it off whenever someone asks you for it. That will save plenty of headaches for both you and the person who needs it!
Author:
Katie Konrath writes about “ideas so fresh… they should be slapped” at getFreshMinds.com, a top innovation blog.
