How to Create a Successful Social Media Profile:

When it comes to wired personal or business branding, the conception of social media profiles is absolutely essential. Whether you are just trying to get more revelation online, connect/ with your fans or customers, or working to purify your online reputation, social networking profiles are the way to go as they will rank highly in search engine results when people search for your name. It’s a very common trend in Uganda and world over today for people to look out for News and latest happenings from the different brand Social Media Accounts Hence the need for a professional social media profile set up.

I want you to think of each social media profile you create as a landing page for your brand. This landing page is possibly the first encounter that someone is going to have with your brand, and you will want that first impression to be golden and make the visitor want to know more about you. You do not want those looking out for your brand or business online to start having questions as soon as they take a glance at your social media profile, that’s why it’s important to fully understand the different cardinal parts of creating a successful Social Media Profile.

The following are the most important elements that are recommended during the setup of a brand of Business Social Media profile. They are crucial elements that must be put into consideration if brands are to create prosperous profiles;

Profile Brand Name

For a while, I thought that your username or the name that usually shows up in the URL (such as http://twitter.com/Ugaman01 ) was extremely important in getting your profile to rank in search results. I found, however, that unlike usual website SEO that says that the URL counts in ranking, the real ranking for social media profiles happens with your name. So be sure to enter the name you want to be found under. Ensure that your business or brand name used on your Social Media profiles is the same across all the various social media platforms where you have established your presence. Do not ever alter your brand name while establishing a social media profile irrespective of the social web platform.

Profile Username
A username is an identification used by a person or Brand with access to a computer, network, or online service.  So where does the username emanate into play? Some people who can’t find your social media links may just assume it is something obvious and type it in directly. Ruminate about what people would search you under, and make sure that your username that is included in the URL. Be sure to think of brand supremacy when it comes to this part, otherwise you’ll end up being hard to discover on the web. Take note that your name can still be used as your username but not the other way round.

Profile Picture
There is a boundless debate when it comes to profile photos / avatars on social networks in terms of whether you should go with your brand logo or the face of a person. My usual thought is that if you are a big enough brand or business with a well-recognized logo, definitely go with the logo. If you’re building a personal brand or you are a public figure like a blogger, politician, musician, artist, etc., go with the personal picture. Despite the fact that people are more likely to want to engage with a person than a brand logo. Business Social media profiles must use the business logo for clarity to all those looking for the brand not individuals behind the brand. Once you have selected your default photo, be sure to stick with the same picture as your default photo from one network to the next, that way people easily recognize you across all social networks. Another thing that helps in SEO value is naming your photo file appropriately before uploading it. Be sure you have named it yourname.jpg or yourbusiness.jpg as opposed to uploading IMG0153.jpg.

Web page Link
How and where you place the link in your social media profile differs from one platform to another, however most of the platforms allow users to situate their website link within the profile bio.  Another good idea for your links is to create a social network specific landing page so you can track which profiles are bringing your site the most traffic. You can use these pages to offer a special discount for people who have found you on Twitter, or share information that is specific to a network, like recent blog posts you have written about Facebook.
Brand/ Company Bio
Your main social profile’s bio is usually just a sentence or two about yourself or your business. Think of it as a perfect place to put your elevator pitch and include your main keywords. I don’t mean in a salesy way, but just if someone were to ask you to tell them briefly what you or your business is about, what would you say? Be sure to fill out your bio to its full potential. While some networks allow you to only have a limited amount of characters, others encourage more robust and lengthy bios. Take advantage of this to share only the best about yourself and your brand

Interests

Some profiles permit you to have additional protracted information about yourself in the form of favorite books, television shows, movies, and so on. A lot of people skip over this, especially when it comes to business profiles, but that is a big mistake.  Businesses can fully discuss their passions, values and interests to all those following their profiles.  Look at these fields as an additional place to get some great keyword value.

 Background

Although this one is limited to select networks, such as your Twitter and YouTube channel profiles, this is one to invest in for those networks that allow it. A customized background will allow you to share additional information that may not fit in the fields of your profile, as well as share additional links and icons to other networks so people know your brand can be found elsewhere. Cover images are a great channel to communicate more details about your brand.

 Profile Privacy Settings

So after you have all of your profile filled out, pictures uploaded, and backgrounds designed, the next thing that you will need to take a look at are your privacy settings. These vary from network to network, but you will want to make sure that the information you would like to be public is viewable.

Online Activity

Once your profile setup is complete, your on-going mission will be to maintain a healthy level of activity on your main social networks, which for most will be Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest  and LinkedIn. These are three open ended yet imperative guidelines to follow on any network.

• Don’t just add friends – engage with them!
• Don’t just join groups – participate in them!

• Don’t just post updates to update – think about what your connections want to see and share!
Promote Your Brand

Finally, there is nothing like a little health promotion of your social network profiles to help more people find and connect with you, giving you more people to engage with! Be sure to add your social networking profile links to:

• Your website.
• Your email signature.
• Your forum signature.

• Your business card.

Also, don’t fail to recall interlinking your profiles to each other. If you can share multiple links on a social profile, make sure some of those are to your main social profiles!

By Mwebya Fred

mwbyfred@gmail.com

www.twitter.com/Ugaman01