How To Create Your Memorable Elevator Pitch in Four Simple Steps

As an integral part of your personal brand toolkit, your elevator pitch (or speech) needs to sell you effectively. It needs to convey a value oriented, compelling and memorable message that encourages your listener to take action.

This post will look at what an elevator pitch is, why you need it and how to create one for yourself.

What is an elevator pitch?

The pitch isn’t your autobiography or a detailed business plan, it’s an overview of who you are, what you do and how you can help the listener. It’s you selling yourself in a brief and concise manner, using a format that most people are familiar with. Whilst the elevator pitch is similar to your personal brand statement and bio, it’s delivered verbally and thus should have a slightly different wording to be punchy and memorable.

Who needs one?

People who sell themselves on a daily basis like trainers, speakers and consultants will have very polished pitches as it is integral to their personal marketing.

I would say that anyone that ever meets new business contacts needs an elevator pitch. This could be you going to an industry conference, a networking event, a seminar or just taking the elevator at your hotel – there are always opportunities to strike up business relationships. The elevator pitch prepares you for these opportunities and equips you with a powerful tool to get the most out of a chance meeting.

How do you put yours together?

Just like a personal brand statement, you first have to know the purpose of the pitch. Whether it’s to sell yourself as a consultant, get an investment for your company or getting a job interview – you have to be clear of your value and audience. In case you have a number of professional objectives you might want to consider different pitches for different situations.

To put a good pitch together you can ask yourself a few questions and the answers to these will be a good start. These questions are:

• What value do you provide?

• How do you provide this value?

• What is unique about your offer?

• What is your target market?

Four step process for crafting an elevator pitch

This is the process devised by sales trainer James Nudelman a.k.a. the Noodle.

Step 1 – Begin with an ACTION PHRASE that is NOT a noun. (”I am a X” — but don’t use a “label” in the blank. You don’t want people to put you in a box.)

Step 2 – Add a one sentence statement about what you DO. (”I do Y” — What do you help people or businesses do?)

Step 3 – Give a statement of the SPECIFIC IMPACT. (”People who utilize my process find Z” — list one or two things from the perspective of your potential employer.)

Step 4 – End with a CALL TO ACTION. (”I am looking to be introduced to A” — be specific! If you ask for something non-specific you are likely to get it. What good it that?)

Length

The perfect pitch should be no longer than 60 seconds, which is about 200 words. So imagine you are getting into the elevator at street level, deliver your pitch before you get off at the eighth floor.

Did you hook them?

Just like any good speech, your elevator should be opened with a hook to capture the listener’s attention. This could be a question or a statement that really entices them to stay with you for the full 60 seconds. The hook is critical when you are at a networking function and the person you have just met is already looking over your shoulder for the next person, seize their full attention with a powerful hook.

How clear are you?

You have to use simple language in your pitch. This isn’t a case of dumbing it down, rather ensuring that anyone can understand it whether they are in your industry or not. If you use too much jargon you tend to alienate most laymen and their minds start to wonder as a result.

Is it memorable?

Make an effort to stay memorable. You can use visual language, be witty or just very different – the point is that a pitch will only be memorable if it stands out. Imagine a speed networking event, you’ll hear 30 pitches in an hour and how would you ever remember them unless they had something special about them?

Did you end with a call to action?

At the end of the pitch, you’ll want the listener to think “how can we do business?” One way of doing this is to encourage them to contact you, give you their business card or to book a meeting right away.

Time to practice

Now that you have put your pitch together, it’s time to rehearse. Do it to your friends, in front of a mirror, on your webcam – work as many failure platforms as possible so that you can deliver the perfect pitch when you really need it.

Conclusion

A well crafted elevator pitch will come in handy in many situations; selling your services to a customer, interviewing with an employer or asking an investor to part with half a million – none of which you are likely to be successful in unless you have the perfect pitch.

What’s your pitch and is it working for you? Please let me know in the comments!

Related post: How To Create Your Personal Brand Statement.

Image credit Angelo Gonzales

Filed Under: Bio, Networking, Personal Branding Tagged With: ,

How to Craft Your Personal Brand Statement

writing your personal branding statement
Before you write blog posts for the masses, before you apply for those positions, before you even set up your LinkedIn profile there is one thing you should do – craft your very own personal brand statement.

Your bio, elevator pitch and any other descriptive text about you will invariably start out with your personal brand statement.

What is a personal brand statement?

Your statement is 1-2 sentences answering what you are the best at (value), who you serve (audience) and how you do it uniquely (USP). It sums up your unique promise of value. Your personal brand statement is distinctive to you and you alone. You could liken it with a tagline, strapline or even a catchphrase that product brands will have.

The personal brand statement is not a job title. A job title is what others will try to classify you with, what employers and others want you to be to fit you into a corporate setting. You deserve better than that.

It’s also not your personal mission statement, career objectives or even life purpose. These are much more long-term concepts intended to guide you through life and not aimed at marketing you to anybody.

A personal brand statement is memorable, punchy and solution oriented. As opposed to simply saying “John is a boiler man”, why not “John keeps families warm through bespoke heating installations”? To be continued…

Why do you need a personal brand statement?

How many times have you been asked what you do? Do you feel like people really understand what you do or is it merely pleasantries? I bet you can tweak what you say and leave a lasting impression with that person, an impression that might just lead to business one day.

Just being another hairdresser or plumber is not going to allow you to stand out. When you don’t stand out, you will have to compete against everyone else on price which isn’t a great situation to be in. To be successful in today’s economy you have to specialize; you have to choose a topic and master it. Your statement will clarify exactly what you do, how you do it and for whom. By communicating this, you and your target audience will know exactly what you are capable of.

How do you write a personal brand statement?

Start with listing your key career or business attributes on a piece of paper. Once the list is complete, take a good look at it and pick out the ones that make you unique. These will form your unique selling points, or USPs.

Look at your unique values and key attributes and you should be able to develop a 1-2 sentence brand statement, answering these three questions:

• What value you provide (what problem do you solve)
• How you do it uniquely (your USPs)
• Whom you do it for (your target audience)

Remember to be clear on the value, don’t confuse anyone with any fluffy terms that don’t mean anything. Furthermore, what makes you unique in one place may not be unique in another, e.g. big cities will have lots of specialists and experts in certain fields, small towns only one and that makes him or her unique to that location.

Target your audience

Whom are you aiming your services at? A particular industry, geography, age demographic? Try to stay somewhat focused on a sector of the market and don’t spread yourself too thin. The reason personal branding has become critical for business and career success is that nobody wants to buy from the person that does everything for everyone. Look at what target audience would benefit the most from your services and zero in on this.

Stay authentic

When writing a personal brand statement it’s easy to get carried away and putting down what you’d like to be one day. The old “fake it until you make it” approach does carry some merit but don’t overdo it. Never call yourself a guru, ninja, samurai, expert or even thought leader unless you truly are one. Only your audience can determine whether you are an expert and you will know if that is the case. The aim of your statement is to inform and inspire the reader, not to scare them off with fancy titles.

Make it punchy and memorable

Using technical or big words could alienate your target audience. You want a seven year-old to understand and be able to repeat what you do. Whenever you introduce yourself at a networking event, stay punchy and memorable. Ideally you will want that person you were talking with to tell other prospective customers what you do – this will cover a lot of ground, trust me.

Keep it reasonably short

Less is more as they say. Your ability to describe exactly what you do in one sentence says a lot about your introspection and professional focus. In some cases you have to take up two sentence but always aim for one. I will give you a special dispensation to write more if you have done more things in your life than Tim Ferriss.

It ain’t cast in iron

You will soon find that you are going to tinker with your statement after it’s written up. It’s easy to change it but just don’t get carried away and change it every week. On the flipside, some people will never look at it again. Even though it’s time consuming, your personal brand statement should be revised at least once a year to reflect changes and advancements in your professional career. In order to be effective, it needs to stay current.

Example brand statement

Back to our Scottish boiler man, here’s an idea for a statement:

“John keeps families in Edinburgh (target audience) warm (value) through bespoke heating installations using only the most advanced German boilers (unique)”.

This clearly tells you what John does, for whom and gives you an insight into how. I would say the statement is memorable, I for one think of a family keeping warm and snug over Christmas all thanks to the fantastic boiler man John.

Call to action

Finally it’s your turn to start looking at your statement. Don’t put this off, you’ll find that it’s a wonderful marketing tool that you are going to use over and over. Most people haven’t really thought about their statements so you will stand out with an effective one. Over time I would think personal brand statements will be part and parcel of any successful career or business.

Do you have a personal brand statement? What is it?

Be sure to check out The Seven Rules to Effective Personal Brand Statements as well.

photo by: colinlogan
Filed Under: Bio, Personal Branding Tagged With:

5 Ways to Boost Your Twitter Profile


How important is Twitter to you? Chances are you have more followers on Twitter than any other social media network, mainly because it’s less personal and acceptable to follow complete strangers. I would venture to say Twitter is as important to you as your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts. Some tech recruiters even say they won’t deal with candidates with little or no Twitter presence.

Yet for some reason we tend to neglect what our profile looks like, perhaps because we think nobody really cares or don’ t have the time. I believe that’s a mistake for a number of reasons.

Why you need to do it

First off, if you are tweeting in your own name, your Twitter will come up very high in your Google results. Anyone (that’s including employers, recruiters and headhunters) will be able to find your Twitter profile and it should be consistent with your personal brand across other platforms. Second, some tweeters are really particular about who they follow back. Unless you have a credible profile, they might take you for a spammer and you stand to lose followers.

Third, you will want to be searchable for what you do and how you can help others. Imagine a customer searching the net for your type of services, your Twitter account is one channel that you must make the most of.

Here are five simple steps to boost your Twitter profile today:

1. Add a decent photo

The obvious one! Either dig out a nice nice mugshot or see a headshot photographer that can take a few snaps for you. As the photo space is tiny, you will want to get as much of your face in there as possible, the closer up you are the more trustworthy you will come across. Whatever picture you upload, try to keep it the same on your other social media profiles, website and or blog – personal branding is all about consistency. Not having a photo will definitely deter any potential followers, as will your favorite cartoon character.

2. An informative bio please

Right, you only have 160 characters so let’s keep it short and to the point. I would list the main value I am able to add to people starting with the highest value activity. So put your job title, what services you provide and try to inject a little bit of personality at the end. Or if you have it, put your personal brand statement here.

3. Fill in the location field

This field is becoming increasingly important with local Twitter directories such as Twellow listing fellow tweeters in your area. If you are an offline networker, you need to put your correct location on your profile so that you attract the right followers. A final note on location; think what anyone searching for you would enter. If you live in Hoboken, you might want to put Greater New York City – Twitter is a global tool that used correctly will connect you to people from around the globe.

 

4. Link to your site or blog

This is your free backlink from the good folks at Twitter Inc, don’t waste it by leaving it blank or entering your LinkedIn addresses. Always use your own real estate in this field as you will be able to track how many clicks you get from your Twitter profile with the help of analytics software.

4. Set up some lists

By starting to categorize the people you follow in list, you will look like a serious Tweeter. You can have lists broken down to geography, interests, friends or whatever you choose. You will also find that people love getting on to these lists as it adds to their Twitter credibility.

Bottom line

There you have it, five simple steps to pimp your Twitter profile today. Twitter doesn’t give you much space to play with so you have to get it right. Tinker a bit and see what others think of your changes. If you don’t like it, change again. I know from personal experience that whenever I feel like changing my bio I will test it on Twitter first as it’s fast and the updates aren’t sent to any of my friends’ feeds like on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Tell me what you think, would your Twitter profile impress an employer?

Furhter reading at Top 7 Ways to Kick Off Your Twitter Job Search.

Filed Under: Bio, Twitter Tagged With:

Twitter Bio: How to Write one to Attract Recruiters

Signed up on Twitter? Struggling to get interest from recruiters, headhunters, HR and hiring managers? I’ve got the answer for you, fact is that your bio on Twitter will be critical to attracting new followers, it’s even been said that you will get up to eight times more followers with a good bio. Get it wrong and people will run to the hills, get it right and you will build up a loyal fan base. It’s worth investing some time in a good bio as it could potentially attract your dream job.

Staying congruent

One of the most sacred laws of personal branding is consistency. In an ideal world, you’d have the exact same bio across your website, blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and so forth. Due to space constraints this isn’t really possible on Twitter and you have to be more concise. What you can do is taking inspiration from your LinkedIn or blog bio when you construct your Twitter bio.

Twitter bio guidelines

Any great bio should be based around your personal branding statement. This consists of one or two sentences describing who you are and what your unique promise of value is (what you offer that is unique in other words). Have a think about what problem you solve for others, what solution you provide to your customers for instance.

What content should go in

As you only have a tiny space for your Twitter bio, you have to get to the point straight away. Be specific and start with something like “I provide banks with insurance solutions” or “I help people achieve fitness through Pilates”. Make sure you get your relevant keywords in there so that you will appear in search results. List any product or service names that you can expect potential customers to enter in search boxes.

Second, list a few specialties that sets your personal brand apart from the pack, such as “first certified scuba instructor in Greenland” or “passionate about your customer experience”. You can also drop any notable achievements or people you are associated with, such as “author of the best selling book Twitterati”, “previous owner of the Springfield Isotopes” or “special advisor to Henry Kissinger”.

End it with a call to action, statement or question. You can go with “contact me today for further information” or “satisfaction guaranteed” or simply ask “how may I be of service to you?”. It’s optional to list further ways to contact you, some Tweeters will add a URL at the end, you can do this but be aware it won’t turn into a hyperlink.

 

What to avoid

If you are looking to attract business from your Twitter bio, please omit any references to your political, religious or any other potentially emotive bits. Stay within the realms of political correctness and you’ll be fine. If you want to express your non-PC side, consider setting up another account for that purpose (and keep this away from your customers!).

Conclusion

Your bio is short, it’s likely to be scanned in a matter of seconds by any recruiter or HR person. Make sure you have stuffed it with the correct and relevant information about who you are and what you do. Failure to do this will result in an uphill struggle to gain followers and you won’t do your personal brand any favors. Set some time aside to really give your Twitter bio the makeover it deserves today.

Related: How To Search and Find Jobs Using Twitter.

Filed Under: Bio, Twitter Tagged With:

Who Needs a Bio and Why?

Most job seekers will use two documents in their job search; their resume and cover letter. That’s a good start, but how about professional bio as well? They are no longer just for authors, musicians and politicians. Anyone that has an online presence across social media and blogging (which is just about everyone nowadays) can benefit from one. This article looks at what a bio is, where it is used and why you need to get one written up sooner rather than later.

What exactly is a bio?

A bio is the story-based version of your professional life. The information provided is similar to that of your CV or resume but the format is less formal. You are free to highlight the bits of your career you are proud of and omit anything that won’t help you. As it is a story, you can throw in interesting snippets about yourself and thus injecting some personality into your bio.

The purpose of a bio is to tell the reader who you are and what you do, listing your experience and achievements, and backing your claims up with facts and figures. All these parts will form the credibility of your personal brand.

When is a bio used?

Your bio can be used a across a number of situations, here are a few:

• The “About” page on your website and/or blog, visitors click on this to find out about YOU, not the version of WordPress you use.

• The bio/summary/about section of your social media profiles. This is what most people will find when Googling your name. You will need a longer bio for sites like LinkedIn, a micro version for Twitter.

• In any marketing materials, proposals and quotes you send out to prospective customers.

• Submitted for public speaking, presenting or training pitches (for speaking, you could also use a one-sheet). Designed to give the event organizer a quick overview of what you can do and hopefully book you.

• Included in any publications such as books, e-books, reports, professional documents and even guest blog posts you author.

• Job search, employers will definitely look at your online bio and oftentimes request it along with your CV or resume as it is more concise than your other documents.

Why should you get a bio?

To stay professional and credible in the eyes of current and potential clients and of course potential employers. Every job seeker, career advancer and professional should develop his or her professional biography today. Whenever you email or leave a message for someone you never dealt with before, you can expect to be checked out online. Your bio is a brand building marketing tool that will entice the reader to want to contact you.

There is stiff competition out there and for you to differentiate, it’s imperative you have a well crafted bio that points out what makes you unique. Your professional bio gives a quick showcase of what sets you apart from the crowd. A bio tells whoever reading it that you are not just doing your day job to pay the rent, it’s your passion and you are proud to tell the world about it. Your bio is the foundation of your personal branding toolkit and it’s potentially the most important text you write in your professional life.

Conclusion

A winning bio can tip the balance in your favor. It’s all about first impressions, and your bio is probably read before you even meet the reader. A convincing bio allows recruiters, HR representatives and hiring managers to understand your strengths and achievements, hopefully leading to that great job opportunity coming your way.

The best part of having a great bio is that it can be used again and again, and you are free to update it whenever you feel like it.

Related: Write a Bio Like a Pro in 8 Quick Steps.

Filed Under: Bio Tagged With:

Elevator Pitch or Take the Stairs?

“Have a nice day”, I love New York Tee shirts, Canary Yellow Cabs, and Elevator pitches. Being a true Brit my instant feelings towards an elevator pitch is clear – a collision of Anglo-American culture that is hard for everyone in Britain to instantly align themselves with. Admittedly, the benefits that can come from a smooth, well-groomed few lines of self-promotion are effectively limitless but it takes courage and practice.

The brief is simple, you walk into an elevator (lift for us Brits) and you meet your future employer or future business partner – someone who could change your life considerably – even if they don’t know it yet.

One important aspect is that it doesn’t have to be an elevator to make this pitch and I would also advise against dwelling in a lobby as you may get some strange looks or even some kind of injunction. You have two options either let the opportunity walk away or take those moments of coincidence to deliver a brief, snappy, memorable introduction regarding your person. Simple! However, this is when the palms start to sweat, you get the shakes or your stomach is growling for lunch, brunch or even elevenses. STOP! Always run with the ethos that not only does practice make perfect it also makes permanent.

Let’s prepare

Spend time practicing your pitch before it is released into the world. Remember elevators are small places and usually when moving only has one place to go – through the ceiling and that isn’t easy. Take some time to learn your words and don’t feel odd about practicing in front of other people or in front of a mirror.

Content is king

I always find that the use of a mind map is a great way of working on getting my ideas from my brain onto paper and then they breed to concepts and ideas. Only your mother or your Gran wants to hear your life story so keep it relevant and don’t get stuck in the details. The total time you have to deliver your lines is anywhere in the region of 1-3 minutes. Sell yourself, what can you do that no one else can – introduce any unique selling points you possess. Don’t be afraid of telling them your achievements especially if you’re involved in sales – tell them how much money you could make them.

Stand and deliver

A balance is needed – don’t come across too scripted and monotone, saying that don’t come across too flamboyant. Unless you are industry that requires either of those character traits but generally speaking stay in that middle range. Enthusiasm is important; if you can’t be enthusiastic about yourself no one will be able to.

One of the most important things you own is your name – use it twice in the opening sentence. When introducing myself I always say hi, my name is Benjamin, Benjamin Eddy. I do this to increase the likelihood of my name sticking in the head of those being pitched.

Once you are confident using it, I would always do it in front of a colleague or friend who you are happy taking constructive criticism from so you have a feedback loop that helps to develop your pitch further. I would recommend that everyone has this up there sleeve, you never know when you get the opportunity to advance your career, business situation

Remember, this is your door way to potentially a greener more prosperous future so take it seriously and nail it.

Benjamin Eddy is a SAP recruitment professional working at Europe’s leading SAP recruiter Red Commerce. Working in the German market Benjamin is working with some of Germany’s leading firms in delivering SAP experts. You can find him on LinkedIn.

If you are interested in writing a guest post, see the guidelines here.

Filed Under: Bio, Career Management Tagged With: ,

Action Verbs for your Resume, CV, Cover Letter, Bio and Linkedin Profile

Work these verbs in to your resume or Linkedin profile and you will inspire the reader to take action!

Accomplished
Achieved
Adapted
Arranged
Attained
Built
Captured
Commandeered
Completed
Converted
Crafted
Created
Cut
Delivered
Demonstrated
Designed
Developed
Devised
Directed
Distributed
Doubled
Drove
Earned
Eliminated
Encouraged
Enforced
Engineered
Ensured
Established
Expanded
Expedited
Founded
Generated
Guided
Identified
Implemented
Improved
Improvised
Increased
Initiated
Inspired
Installed
Instigated
Instructed
Interpreted
Introduced
Launched
Led
Liaised
Modernized
Motivated
Negotiated
Organized
Promoted
Redesigned
Revitalized
Started
Streamlined
Strengthened
Structured
Supervised
Transformed
Uncovered
Widened
Won

Filed Under: Bio, LinkedIn, Resume Tagged With: , , , ,

Do me a Favor and Spruce up Your LinkedIn Summary and Specialties

linkedin summary and specialties are important fields

Two often neglected sections of a your LinkedIn profile are your summary (basically your bio) and specialties box. The specialities is a bunch of keywords that recruiters, customers, suppliers will use to search and find your profile. In spite of this, all too often people don’t even bother to fill either section in.

Summary section

Why should you fill it in? For starters, it gives the reader a quick overview of who you are, what you do, what you are looking for and most importantly, what you can do for them. No one is going to scroll down and scrutinize every position you have ever had or take their time to deduce what skills you possess by looking at your groups and associations.

You want to start out your summary with who you are and what you do most of the time. Then write what you can do for others and why people would want to engage with you. This is likely to be a list of achievements, and if so make sure you quantify them as much as possible. You want your summary to stand out and the reader to think they need to take action and speak with you pronto. In the example I have once again used Chris Brogan, his summary is a bit on the long side but then again he is spinning a lot of plates at one time.

Example: Chris Brogan’s Summary

“As president of New Marketing Labs, my role is to build and execute strategies for companies seeking to engage their community via the social web. We focus on four core areas: listening, content marketing, community management, and outreach programs. Acting as a hybrid social media PR/communications organization, New Marketing Labs extends your other channels into the new world of the web.

I also operate the Inbound Marketing Summit conferences, a series of events dedicated to educating businesses on the potential of Internet marketing and communications and featuring the brightest practitioners available. We run several single day Inbound Marketing Bootcamp events all over the US as well. (Contact me to discuss scheduling one for your area).

Outside of work, I speak at several conferences a year and blog about social media business strategy at http://www.chrisbrogan.com. My blog is in the Technorati Top 100 and the Advertising Age Top 20.

I am co-founder of the new media community conference series, PodCamp, and am co-founder of the Secret Society of Marketers. I am co-author of the New York Times Bestselling Trust Agents, with Julien Smith.”

Specialities

So what’s specialities all about? This is a bit simpler than the summary as it’s only a bunch of keywords strung together for others to find you via the LinkedIn search tool. Think back 5-10 years ago when web pages were cluttered with keywords as it would help their search engine ranking. This is no longer the case on the Internet but still applies on LinkedIn.

The keywords can be your past titles, your skills and names of companies, applications, industries, countries etc that you have experience from. It can sometimes be hard to come up with more than 10 keywords so break out your thesaurus and have a look at your co-workers’ profiles and get some ideas. The example here is from my own LinkedIn profile.

Example Specialities (from my own profile)

“Social Recruiting, Personal Branding, Social Recruiting, Consultant, Trainer, Blogger, Speaker, Sales, Management, Recruitment, Headhunting, Resumes, CV, Cover Letter, Bio, Social Media, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Writing, Technology, SAP, Marketing, Personal Development, Life Skills, Online Strategy, Toastmasters, Seminars, Germany, UK, Sweden, USA”

Call to action

As the title says, please do me this favor and fill these in as you will increase your chances of being found by anyone on LinkedIn. This not only applies to job seekers but to everyone that is open to opportunities in their industry. Let me know if you have any questions?

Be sure to check out How To Make Google Love Your LinkedIn Profile as well.

Filed Under: Bio, LinkedIn Tagged With: ,

8 Steps to Writing a Bio like a Pro (Chris Brogan in fact)

 

chris brogan writes a great bio

A short professional bio has become increasingly important as most of us suffer from information fatigue and cannot be bothered to read lengthy documents about anybody. Experts such as Matthew Levy reckons your bio is the most important document you will ever write.

A bio is useful for a host of reasons such as applying for a job, publishing an article or guest blog post, general networking etc. It’s basically a great vehicle for quickly communicating who you are and what you do.

You are likely to have a bio somewhere on the Internet already. If you write a blog, it will be your About page. If you are on LinkedIn, it will be your summary. If you are on Twitter, it will be your, wait for it… Bio! These three most probably have different lengths, with the minnow being Twitter that only allows for a 140 letter bio.

As writing a professional bio is the hottest thing since sliced bread, you best get on with it and follow these simple steps to do your personal brand proud. Here are the a few tips followed by a sample bio by Chris Brogan.

1. Identify your purpose

Why are you writing this bio? Who will read it? You need to take some time to think about your readers and what you want them to think about you. People write anything from professional bios for getting free lance work, a comedy bio full of in-jokes for your friends or a bio for the back of their next piece of pulp fiction. Keep your audience in mind when authoring your bio.

2. Third person perspective

This is your Harry Lime moment. Your bio should sound as though it were objectively written, although it is obviously anything but. If you look at any book cover, the bio will be in the narrative mode even though the author has probably written it themselves. So instead of writing “I have lived in Switzerland and I speak 3 languages”, try “John has lived in Switzerland and he speaks 3 languages”.

3. Micro, Short and Long

You will need a micro, a short and a longer bio for different purposes. You will find that your bio will be requested in different lengths and therefore it’s advisable to keep three or even more versions. The micro bio is basically a sentence that you can use as your elevator pitch and on your Twitter profile. The short one should be one paragraph long and cover all the need to knows. The longer one adds the nice to knows and should sum you up completely. As a rule of thumb, the shorter one should be roughly a hundred words; the long one could be up to one page.

4. Start with your name

You will want to put your name in the first sentence of your bio so the reader catches on and realizes what they are reading. Just like when you are introduced to somebody, you will start with your name and then move on to pleasantries. 

5. State your business

Just like a resume, you want to drop your occupation and accomplishments in there early. The reader needs to be hooked and enticed to keep reading. An example would be to write that you are an “open market sales person” and you have “increased sales by 200%” in your current position – music to the ears of any sales manager.

6. Throw in some personality

Add some flavor to your bio by including something unexpected. This can be a bit of humor or just curious information that you think people will be interested in, such as you being a fine wine connoisseur – already a topic for conversation. I am sure you have read words to this effect at the end of a bio: “and in his spare time, he really enjoys writing about himself in the third person”. A little witty twist at the end can tell a lot about your personality.

7. Contact details

End your bio with your contact details or hyperlink the content to ways of contacting you like your email or your LinkedIn profile.

8. Read and rewrite

Get your friends to proof your bio before you publish it anywhere. Remember that your bio is a living document and you should review it on a monthly basis. As it’s fairly short it won’t take you too long to make changes that can be quite important to the reader.

Sample Bios

Now let’s have a look at how a pro does it. Chris Brogan is a well known social media guru and on his eponymous blog he has a micro, a short and a longer bio.

This micro bio is a good example of an informational sentence, starting with his name, what he does and ending with his contact details (from the blog front page):

Next are both the short and long bios from his About page. The first paragraph on its own serves as a short bio, all four paragraphs constitute Chris’ long bio. He has cleverly stuffed his bio with hyperlinks, so that the interested reader can learn more instantly by clicking on the links.


The text again starts with his name, tells more in detail what he does and lists a number of achievements Chris has to his name. Most of us won’t have as many accomplishments to stick on a bio so here is our chance to add our own character to it. Big thanks to Chris Brogan for letting me use his bio in this post!

Conclusion

Your bio is getting more and more important and you should make sure it sells you and brings out your personal brand. I hope these tips and sample bios have been helpful, do let me know if you have any other thoughts and ideas on bios. Now that you have a great bio, remember to reach out to the right people and make sure they read it!

Be sure to check out How To Write Your Personal Brand Statement as well.

photo by: Randy Stewart
Filed Under: Bio, Freelancer, Professional Tagged With:

Why Your Bio Is More Important than Your Resume

 

Most job seekers understandably think that their resume is their most important written job search tool. Why? Because most people associate resumes with landing their next job. Resumes are important, even critical, to your ultimate goal of landing your next job. However, resumes are best used only when you are applying for a specific position. After all, that’s the purpose of a resume – to articulate your background, skills, abilities and credentials – with the hopes of garnering an interview.

However, any savvy job seeker in this current employment market knows that blindly applying for jobs using your resume is a recipe for a long bout of unemployment. Generally accepted statistics demonstrate that only 20% of all jobs are filled via job boards and newspaper ads. And of that 20% the majority of the time the hiring manager knows who they want to hire before the posting goes up. The other 80% of jobs are filled through networking with friends, family, current or former co-workers, or through extended professional networking through LinkedIn and professional organizations.

One page biography

 

This is where the concept of a one page biography or bio, for short, comes into play. The bio is the document that you can most leverage during your networking activities – and if networking is the key approach needed to land one of the 80% of jobs that are not filled through traditional job posting channels, and then doesn’t it stand to reason that a bio should be a more important tool? Remember, a resume is best utilized when you are applying for a specific job. A bio is best used to convey your background in a crisp narrative format before, during or after your networking meetings.

Benefits

 

You may be thinking, “Why can’t I just use my resume during my networking meetings?” Good question. Probably the biggest reason is that a bio speaks much more about your reputation, attributes, tone and makeup than a resume does. Written in the third person and without the rigid structure of a resume, you bio is much more readable and conversational than a resume. Another reason is because your networking partner may equate seeing your resume with applying for a job and they most likely will not have a job for you at the present time. When a networking partner feels like they can’t help you, they may recoil and not provide you with the resources you were hoping to gain from the conversation. Another reason for not providing a resume during networking sessions is because networking partners may get sidetracked wanting to provide you with resume feedback.

So, the bio gives you an opportunity to explain a bit about yourself in a disarming, easy to read format. Because of the way you’ll construct the bio, it also allows you to convey more and different information about yourself then you could ever do with a resume.

OK, so now you agree that a bio is an important tool in your arsenal. How do you go about building one? Keep in mind that you want to write this in the third person and don’t be bashful!

How to write one

 

First, you’ll want to start with a summary which states your name, basic profession and what your experience and expertise is. Second, you’ll want to add career highlights and significant accomplishments. Third, let people know what you are known for.  Fourth, don’t forget your education and other credentials and fifth, feel free to sprinkle in a few of your hobbies and interests (as long as they are not polarizing hobbies!). You’re welcomed to review my bio as a sample. It can be downloaded here.

Now that you have written your bio, you are ready to utilize it during your networking discussions and you have document that you can also use for speaking engagements, press releases and other related announcements.

More reading at 8 Steps To Writing a Bio Like a Pro.

Matthew Levy is a well-rounded HR professional and Career Coach with fifteen years of broad experience in both specialist (e.g., recruiting) and generalist (e.g., HR business partner) roles at blue-chip companies, including Merck, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. Follow Matt on his blog.

Image credit Paul McGreevy

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