Considering how much time people spend on social media everyday, it’s kind of funny—or is it sad?—that most of us find ourselves too busy to actually update and improve our profiles.
Everyone’s busy, yet so many improvements to your social media profiles can be made in just a few minutes. Here are 14 easy ways to improve your social media profiles that, altogether, shouldn’t take you more than an hour.
Time to close that game of Solitaire and get to work.
13 easy ways to enhance your social media profiles
1. Make sure you’re using the right social media image sizes
Take a few minutes and optimize your profile photo and your cover photo on each channel. This means ensuring that photos fall within the dimensions recommended for each network—often all it takes is a quick crop.
Many people think that a square is a square, or the social networks will make sure the image fits right. In reality, you never know when profile images will be reused elsewhere on a social network. How will it look when expanded? How does it look when it’s small in people’s streams? How does it look on mobile compared to desktop?
The social networks provide us with optimal image sizes knowing that these photos will be used in a variety of instances. You should probably trust them. The following information comes from our post, Social Media Image Sizes: A Quick Reference Guide for Each Network.
Standard image sizes for major social networks are as follows:
- Facebook profile picture: 170 X 170 pixels
- Facebook cover photo: 828 X 465 pixels
- Twitter profile photo: 400 X 400 pixels
- Twitter header image: 1,500 X 500 pixels
- Google+ profile picture: 250 X 250 pixels (minimum)
- Google+ cover photo: 1080 X 608 pixels
- LinkedIn profile photo: 400 X 400 pixels (minimum)
- LinkedIn custom background: 1584 X 396
- LinkedIn cover photo: 974 X 330 pixels
- LinkedIn banner image: 646 X 220 pixels
- Instagram profile picture: 110 X 110 pixels
- Pinterest profile picture: 150 X 150 pixels
- YouTube profile picture: 800 X 800 pixels
- YouTube cover photo: 2,560 X 1,440 pixels on desktop
Once you’ve optimized for size, you can optimize the picture itself—using a survey to judge how competent, likable and influential you’re perceived to be. This post by Andy Raskin will walk you through the process.
2. Make your profile photos consistent across all channels
Do you really like some photos of yourself and hate others? We all do. Let’s face it—we’re not always ready for our close-up. So how many of your profile photos are current images you actually like? Right. That’s exactly why you should be using the same profile photo across all of your social networks.
Recognition is key, especially as people quickly scroll through their feeds. For this reason, having consistent profile photos will increase your chances of having people follow you on different social networks.
The more people see your logo (or face if you’re a social media influencer) as they scan their various social networks, the more likely you are to be top of mind when they actually need your product or service.
3. Untag yourself from bad photos and inappropriate posts
Being vigilant about tagged photos can help you quickly clean up your profiles and project a more professional image on social media.
The first thing you’ll want to do is check your photo tagging settings, making sure this reflects your social media policy. Who do you want to be able to tag your business in posts? Would you like to approve these tags before they show up on your profile?
- Facebook allows you to review and approve tags on your photos, as well as untag yourself from other photos
- Instagram allows you to approve photos you’re tagged in before they appear on your profile
- Twitter allows you to restrict who can tag you in photos, and remove any tags
Make sure you review posts you’re tagged in regularly to catch any bad photos or inappropriate posts.
Note: Some might ask why you don’t simply shut off tagging altogether. That’s because there are benefits to allowing people to tag you in photos—especially for businesses. On Instagram, for example, you want customers to tag your business in photos of your product or service, so that they appear in the “photos of you section.” These tagged images are valuable for engagement purposes, providing additional photos of your product for anyone scanning your profile.
Don’t close off this source of content. Be aware of it and spend a few minutes cleaning things up.
4. Ensure your handles are consistent across networks
Just like with your profile photos, consistency is key when it comes to names and handles on social media. With photos, consistency is really about recognition. While that’s one reason to have consistent social handles—in this case, the real driver is searchability.
When you want to mention a brand on Twitter, for example, you probably just throw an @ symbol in front of their name and start tweeting. It’s kind of frustrating when you realize that their handle isn’t just their company name, but some mishmash of words with city names, area codes, or SEO terms.
A simple handle that reflects your name or company’s name will increase the chances of you being mentioned. It also makes it easier for people actively seeking you out to find and follow you.
5. Add keywords to your profile for SEO
What do you want to be known for? Is it family law? Curtain sales? Whatever your niche is, it’s essential that you make yourself discoverable in that field. When people Google or Facebook search ‘curtain sales’, you want your company logo to pop up.
Believe it or not, simply adding relevant keywords to your social profiles can go a long way to helping you get there.
How to do it:
- Identify the terms people…
