Whether you are establishing your credibility with your community or industry or promoting your skills to a prospective client, a cleverly written professional bio — also called professional biography — can add to your reputation. It can also help your business enhance its appeal with prospective workers.
The secret to writing a powerful bio is to keep it concise, yet include all essential information that will call attention to your experience and expertise.
Check out these five steps you can take to write a compelling professional bio:
1. Determine a standpoint
– A professional bio is generally considered as more professional if you use a third-person perspective, although you can write in the first-person point of view, too. Writing using a third-person perspective not only makes it easier to write about yourself, it also allows you to include your first and last name in a more natural way.
Another reason to use a third-person point of view is that it works well for SEO purposes because it provides distinct details about you. However, avoid using your name too often.
2. Add an introduction
– Begin your professional bio with a brief introduction that includes such important details as your name, education, position, certifications and other achievements.
3. Include information to reinforce the intro
– After developing a powerful introduction, incorporate your passions and values. This can help evaluate your personal values (values that have shaped you into who you are and piqued your interest in your career), professional values (values that incorporate the aspects of your organization that you find most crucial along with your professional goals), attributes (traits that help you to excel at work) and skills (accomplishments that you make you an asset, whether through education, training or experience).
This section is where you can write about information related to your current position, including your responsibilities. These details allow prospective employers to pin you down as an ideal candidate.
4. Keep it succinct
– The ideal length of your professional bio depends largely on its purpose and the platform for which it is written. For example, social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, typically have a word limit for a bio. Therefore, try to keep the length of your bio between 300 and 500 words when writing for a job search site or resume. On the other hand, a bio for a professional website could be between 1,500 and 2,000 words. Irrespective of the platform, it is best to keep your bio as uncomplicated and to the point as possible.
To help ensure that only the most relevant details are included in your professional bio, try organizing it in a way that the most key details are addressed first. Also, make sure to remove any information that does not serve the purpose of your bio.
5. Proofread the final copy
– Your professional bio shows your communication abilities and attention to detail to the reader, so it’s important that you edit and proofread your work meticulously. To make sure there are no unnatural phrasing or spelling and grammatical mistakes, you can ask a friend or family member to do the proofing for you.
