Introductions in Person and in Text
I’m on a quest to organize my social networking. I don’t want a model — one that balances relationship and connection to ensure high return on the time I invest — not a dashboard that tracks everywhere I’ve been. To that end, a modified version of the writing process is working well.
In a recent discussion about networking, we talked about how to introduce ourselves. We agreed that it helps to know about the person or the situation that brought us to the introduction. It seems obvious I would introduce myself in one way to a client and in another way to my son’s newest friend. Introductions are relational and situational.
We know to adapt our personal introductions when we’re face to face, but forget online. Text looks like text.
Do Your Social Media Profiles Raise Your Net Worth?
What’s the first thing we do when someone we don’t know asks us to connect? It makes sense to go to their page to find out who they are. Unfortunately, most of us wrote our profiles before we knew anything about the people on the site. Have your read your profile the day you signed up? Have you thought about the people who have?
The second step in the writing process is Drafting. I’m using this stage to define settting up our presence on a social site. Possibly the most important thing we do in developing a successful presence is define who we are on our profile page. The profile pages serves as an introduction for anyone who wants to know who they’re about to meet or who they’ve just met. Does your profile raise your profile
Use these tips to get more mileage from your social media profile pages.
- Research the culture of site.
- Form a description of the primary group and secondary groups who use the site.
- Make note of the groups they form and the kind of activities and information they share.
- Most importantly, read their profile pages to learn the customs and language of the site. Read how your heroes and friends describe themselves and decide whether what they’re doing works.
- Write an authentic, but targeted profile for that social group. Think about how you would introduce yourself if you were in the same room.
- Choose a picture that reflects the spirit of the social group. Including a picture makes your profile more memorable. Including the right picture makes that memory good.
- Write formally or informally to match the culture and your goals. If you could only say one thing to this group, what would it be? Underscore that idea in the information you choose. Limit the extraneous details that might distract someone from seeing your most important thought.
- Check the amount and type of information you share against the profiles that impressed you most. It naturally follows that the folks you want to connect with will find the same things important.
- Check back often to review your profile to be sure it’s still relevant and up-to-date.
A great social media profile can open doors and make connections that we might have missed had we done less. Like the about page on a blog, it represents us when we’re not there. Time spent to communicate with the audience who visits is a high-return investment.
Have you checked whether your social media profiles add to your net worth?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need help with your profile? Ask Liz!!
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