Building Your Online Business Profile

One of the hardest things for most business owners is creating their online profile. They don’t want to get too personal and add the details about who they are. Picture - yikes! And listing all of your awards, accolades, skills, talents, etc - it’s hard to talk about yourself.

If you don’t, who will?

People like to know who you are, who they will be working with, and what your story is. That’s how we get to know each other. It’s how we build a relationship.

I suggest you develop your profile in a Word document, and save it so you can use it again and again. It’s much easier developing it once and making it a complete resume of who you are.

Also invest in a great photograph - yes, use a professional. This is your image - make sure it represents who you are.

How To Build Your Profile

1. Start with your background. What degrees do you have? What training or certificates? What positions have you had that qualify you to be doing what you’re doing now?

2. What stories can you share that will build up your expertise? Share stories of how you’ve worked with other clients, helped out in your industry, or developed a name for yourself. Sometimes past experience can be just as powerful as having credentials.

3. Provide natural progression. Develop your profile in a timeline fashion so people can see how you moved from A to B.

4. Develop what you want to share - and what you don’t. Then stick with it. When you move from LinkedIn to Facebook to your Blog to your website, you should be reading a similar profile from place to place. In some places you may develop a more detailed profile, but the overall story should remain the same.

For instance, on LoriOsterberg.com I share a short bio from beginning to end. You get an overview of who I am and why I am where I’m at today. But on my VirtualPhotographyStudio blog, the about us section is written to show more of my photographer side.

Now that you have your details, use them to add to all of your online profiles. People will follow you from one place to another, always seeing you as an authentic business person.