It's easy to create online social profiles. Lucky for you, it's just as easy to create profiles that help promote your personal brand. Follow these 3 simple steps each time you make a new profile or go back and apply them to profiles you already have.

1. Start with Your Name
It seems simple enough, but a surprising number of people still choose meaningless or non-representative usernames when creating social profiles. Unless your personal brand is built around a pseudonym or previously established username, it is always best to go with your real name, your full, real name. This makes it easier for Google to index your profiles and serve them as search results for name searches. It also appears much more professional to see your real name spread consistently across your top-10 Google results than it does to see several monikers that don't logically connect.

Take a look at the current search results for Richard Hostler. Even though my recent press release has spread my social profiles out a bit, you can clearly see why I choose to use my full name whenever possible.

When you are asked to create a username without spaces or special characters, simply combine your first and last name, preserving capitalization if possible, e.g. RichardHostler.

2. Present a Consistent, Professional Image
Grab a camera, a friend, and a professional-looking shirt; find a quiet background like a wall; and have your friend take several pictures that capture your head and shoulders. Keep your pose simple and give a natural smile to the camera. You can experiment with camera angles and creative poses after you've captured your more-traditional shot.

Next, edit your favorite image from the photo shoot in any editing program that lets you crop and resize your image. If you are comfortable with advanced editing, experiment with making a silhouette or touching up anything you don't like in the photo. Avoid filters and special effects. A clean, easy-to-recognize image should be your goal.

Save your final image as a square .jpg file in a variety of sizes: 40x40, 100x100, 200x200, and larger if you'd like. When adding your image to your profile, use the largest size supported. This information is often displayed when you are asked to upload an image.

Name your files with the shortest unique names you can that include your real name. One of my primary images is named richard-hostler-square.jpg. (You can see it on the right-hand side of this page.) Some sites will preserve the image name you supply, and others will change it to something unreadable. Either way, it's best, from a search engine perspective, to include the name of your personal brand in your image file name.

If your brand already has an established and recognized logo, use it instead of an image of yourself.

3. Write a Short, Professional Description
Some profiles limit the number of characters you can use to describe yourself, and some don't. No matter, you should always opt for a short, straightforward description. In 2 to 4 sentences, include your name (if possible), job title, general or specific location, experience (if applicable), and mainstream personal interests (these can help add character). I typically use the following:
I am a professional Advertising & SEO Copywriter, living in southern New Hampshire. When I'm not working, I enjoy camping and hiking with my family, volunteering, and racing triathlons.

Learn more at www.RichardHostler.com

If you are going to be creating a large number of profiles in support of your personal brand, you don't want to go back through all your profiles making unnecessary changes. Keep this in mind and avoid time-sensitive information or descriptions of jobs or hobbies you don't think will last.

Below your description, try to include an html link to your website or blog. Most sites don't support this kind of link, but it doesn't hurt to try. If the profile you are creating won't let you link to your site, you can still include a text url to help people find your site.

Fill 'er Up!
While these three tips address the primary areas of concern for search engines, you should always fill in as many fields as you are comfortable using. Pay special attention to fields that offer links to other profiles and websites. While many of these will be "nofollow" links, they are still worth using to connect the pieces of your online personal brand platform.

Now, get out there and build some profiles!

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