Features and blogging

A small but often called-for aspect of my work is creating biographies for clients, from About paragraphs for LinkedIn and Facebook to full website Profile pages. I’ve also written Q&A interviews for people to use on their pages and interviewed myself here on my own website (#narcissist).
If you attend regular networking meetings you’ll know they involve chatting to strangers you’ve only just met and, often, giving a one or two-minute talk about yourself to the group, and most of us get through this just fine. For some penning a biography is a much more painful concept, but you can do it.
This is your chance to shine: get up on stage and go for it.

• Begin at the beginning There will always be a temptation to dive right in but your profile should also tell us who you ARE, so start with that. This is not just a case of ‘state your name, location and job title’ but you do need to put all that in sentence form using an upbeat warm tone, chatting about the motives behind your business.
• Go bite-size Organise your content into specific areas. After that warm and direct intro, tell us about your past career, what you do now and what you love about it, wrapping up with brief details on family life, eg: ‘I live with my husband, teenage son and several massive spiders in leafy north London.’
• Don’t go back too far Unless it’s relevant that you tell us about your GCSE in Woodwork, you can skip it. If it’s important that we know about your childhood passion for sculpture, tell us more.
• Picture this Choose the right portrait to go with your profile, one that’s recent and recognisable in case we want to meet you in real life. Keep it current, and if you really don’t want to be immortalised then at least choose a picture that’s relevant, like a product or office shot.
• Why you? Everyone has a USP. If you’re efficient, fast-working, have a good head for figures and just love running a small team, now’s the time to tell is.
• Don’t exaggerate We’re happy to hear your site is full of ‘unbeatable offers’, but is it really? Unless you can prove it, let modesty prevail and use words like ‘competitive’. A calmer sell bags the long-term clients.
• Really stuck? Pick someone to emulate and study their profile. If it works well, why? You can’t copy directly but there’s nothing stopping you following the tone and structure of a profile that you love.
• This is not a drill You’ve got one chance to make an impression and hook the client, so be as concise and interesting online as you would be in real life. You’ve got this far: tell us why.