It's A Cat's Life: 9 Lives of Your Social Media Profile
An ancient proverb says “A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays and for the last three he stays”. That’s what concerns cats. What about inanimate things, such as social media, for instance?
Did you know that your profile can also live 9 different lives? I bet you did not. Are these lives similar to those of cats? Keep reading and you’ll see.
Your social media profile is, virtually, a representation of your life treatment, your attitude to life, and the way you live it. Business social media profiles are also reflections of their owners.
Usually, business owners try to achieve popularity and revenues by targeting social media marketing. More often than not, they are buying followers and friends through their social media accounts. Advertising has become a tool of the highest income for many of them. It has become a tendency that ads are more likely to repel clients and audience from the brand.
It should be on the contrary, through social engagement and honest communication in social networks that will make people follow you and respect what you do.
The self-representation of a business is seen through its social media account on a definite period of life, or stage of life, the profile is having.
Interestingly, your profile and cover photos can say a lot about you. When you have only a fragment of your face or body set as a cover or profile picture, it implies that you would like to convince people that you are a very creative, amusing, and friendly person. Wedding pictures say that you want to be perceived as a mature person, while your party images will persuade people that you are still a child that hasn’t grown up yet.
And it is not only about visual signs. Every piece of data in your profile is a separate source of information about you.
So, what are those lives your social media profile can have? Let’s take them one by one.
Life #1: Goose’s Egg
What profiles can boast of eggs? Yep, Twitter profiles that have just been created. The first step when your account is created is the first life of your social media. It doesn’t refer only to Twitter (just like the egg). It’s about every profile you create. It’s a period when you have not uploaded your profile photo yet and there is no additional information about you (neither contact details, nor “About” section). You are practically not yet perceived as a meaningful part of a social network space.
Sometimes, a profile can never be transformed into to the next life and it has that look of a goose egg.
Life #2: Animal (Newborn)
It usually takes a very short period, because that’s where you show your face, i.e. your photo. Many of us upload it immediately after we’ve created the account. This type of life is about your appearance. You choose your profile photo and a cover picture on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Canva helps you take it easy and create a great unique cover photo, for example. A newborn animal is actually a sign that you are somebody.
There is virtually nothing else in your account – no posts, pins, tweets, etc., sometimes no friends or followers, or a very rare activity. And your hometown won’t save it:
Life #3: Animal (Mature)
Then you start making your social profile look actually yours. What I mean here is adding something to the “About” section (for this, you need to know well how much space you have for different social media). That’s where you become a particular species. It commonly happens that you upload photos (profile and cover) and complete the “About” section at once.
Facebook, for example, gives you the opportunity to choose your favorite movies, books, TV shows, music, etc.
A vital thing for your social media account during this period is your contact details if you do want your audience to reach you. For LinkedIn, you have to indicate minimal information – your e-mail address, phone number, Twitter account, and your website. Skills are an essential part of your LinkedIn profile if you’re interested in a job search or some business opportunities.
An incomplete profile is one of the deadly errors you make in your social media marketing strategy.
People will start contacting you if they see that you are a serious and mature person who is ready to cooperate.
Life #4: Human (Newborn)
Like a newborn baby, you can’t speak here. You can only make some strange sounds – rare tweets, random pins, incoherent posts, likes, and shares. They are so rare that nobody notices your presence until you post more frequently.
No likes – you have no interest so far or you have no time for that. It’s a period when everything remains still unfamiliar, particularly when you don’t know anything about the characteristics of various social media.
So, you learn how people behave on certain social networks. It may be a surprise for some Facebook users to know that its main purpose is to share and connect (especially with friends and family).
Others staff Facebook with advertising (that is also good when you do it in moderation). Nevertheless, some businesses make their Facebook pages really good-looking and relevant.
The main 2016 tendency for Twitter is messaging, whereas Pinterest was initially created to give the possibility to remember some cute and important things they liked and wanted to keep and share.
And here’s the deal: you should learn everything about the particular social network before you register an account, but first you should also have the social media sharing icons on your blog to avoid the common website mistakes. Otherwise, your profile will be treated as a huge pile of garbage.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Life #5: Homo sapiens
At this level of your fifth life your profile looks serious and really businesslike. You have a custom URL and you are active (post every day). A custom URL is a crucial thing for your further profile development.
Compare the following profiles. Imlegendary? Really? I bet you are not, if you have to emphasize that.
Life #6: Human (Mature)
Just look at the privacy settings of your social media. All of a sudden, you may notice that your profile isn’t public (usually on LinkedIn) and the timeline/feed is spammed (usually on Facebook and Twitter). Sometimes, your contact information may be hidden.
As soon as you see it, you start dealing with your privacy settings. You can easily remove yourself from the search results in Google, avoid being tagged in abysmal videos, photos, and everything else that will spoil your reputation. Look at the list of other privacy settings, for example, on Facebook to avert unnecessary activity (such as links) on your timeline:
Life #7: Social Nerd
Such a life is peculiar for celebrities’ profiles. It differs dramatically from that of a mature human.
Celebrities have heaps of friends/followers, they are well-known, but they don’t engage in any useful activity (at least, something that is relevant and worth people’s attention).
To lead a life of a positive social nerd, you should start communicating with people. You shouldn’t make friends with everyone at once or follow all the accounts you meet on your digital way.
Send invitations to several people (one of the first steps when you are creating a LinkedIn profile), follow only those you consider professional and earnest.
Here are a few helpful tips:
- Avoid #followback or #followforfollow thing;
- Initiate a pleasant conversation with an outcome – don’t just send “thanks for following” messages;
- Engage your audience – don’t just post/tweet rubbish, try to see what your audience would like to hear from you;
- Join only those groups you are able to participate in.
Life #8: Zombie
Not by an accident there is an article on Wikipedia about social media and suicide. This life is often led by teenagers and by those who don’t know how to behave in social networks.
It’s a life that provokes a negative influence of social media for many of us. Teenagers are prone to committing suicides because of cyber bullying. Some do this because of the lack of attention, too.
The businesses that live through this life post too much and spam everyone all the time. Such a behavior looks unnatural and people do feel that you’re not sincere with them. Here’s how you should post on Twitter, according to Buffer:
Life #9: Genius
Lastly – the life of a network genius. The name talks by itself. Have you seen such a profile? Here’s one that is likely to be such. It’s not about the number of followers, of course, but still it has something to do with that, too.
You should rock to make a successful profile. Breaking news is always a trump in your hand, as well as big pop culture phenomena that you share with your followers.
Which life have you gone through and which are you aiming at?
Continue reading here: Pros And Cons Of Mobile Marketing
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