5 Tips to Make Your Online Profiles Better

Here are a few great tips to make your online profiles more effective:

1. Ensure that your bio expresses gratitude. It can be tempting to try to make yourself seem as experienced and credible as possible by writing your bio in 3rd person and putting yourself up on a pedestal, but in my own experience, I've found that people respond better when bios express gratitude and are written in first person. As an example, rather than saying "Martin Bentsen's work has been featured in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal," it's better to say, "I've been grateful to have had my work featured in
   ​The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal." By making yourself more human and relatable, others will feel more comfortable reaching out to you, which could lead to more opportunities down the line. Plus, you still get to mention your accomplishments!
2. Be wary of posting things that could cause controversy (unless that's what you want)! Some people use their Facebook or Twitter pages to post political or offensive messages. Unless you specifically want people to get angry at you, avoid posting that sort of content and stick to things that won't get you in trouble. You never know when you might be up for an important audition - what if the casting director considering you stumbles across an old post that offends them?
3. Make yourself human and approachable. It's very important that your online profiles feel friendly and approachable. If things are written too stiffly (or professional/corporate), people will be less likely to contact you because they might worry you're not going to be friendly or that you'll ignore their messages altogether. The more human and friendly your profile seems, the more willing people will be to connect with you. You can even add a note on your profile or website saying that you always respond to new messages that come in!
4. Use a professional headshot. As a headshot photographer, I have to recommend this! LinkedIn has done numerous studies that have shown you have up to a 14X higher chance of being taken seriously and considered for jobs when using a professional headshot on your LinkedIn and other social media pages. But when it comes to actors, it's even more crucial! I would hazard a guess that actors have at least a 50X higher chance of being taken seriously if they use a professional headshot.
5. Focus on others instead of yourself. You should definitely include info about yourself in the Bio and About sections of your social profiles and website, but for your day to day postings, aim to post about others and share helpful, free content. If you spend one hour per day using social media, just take 10 of those minutes to read your friends' posts and help share their stuff (and let them know when you do it). Eventually it will come back around when all those people happily agree to help promote your projects or connect you to important people when you ask them to. Remember... if all your posts are just focused on you, everyone will habitually start to ignore you.

Hopefully you found some value in these tips!

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