Your bio in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms is valuable real estate on the most popular social networks. Smart campaigns use this space to let their supporters know what you’re about and call them to action.
This is not just a rehash of the long, boring biography on your campaign website, but rather an opportunity to provide context, offer value, and drive further action. Unfortunately, far too many campaigns treat their social media profiles as after thoughts. Creating social posts day to day is important, but your profile bio is an evergreen asset.
Here’s how you can write a social media bio that attracts followers.
Have a Call to Action
Before anything else, organize your social media bio around a call to action. Keep it short, like “Join my team (website URL)”, “Text TEAM to 1234”, or “follow us on (another platform)”. You’re always trying to move your supporters further up the engagement ladder and the moment they’re learning about you is the perfect opportunity.
Regularly update your call to action as you promote new content or activities. Compress your call to action as small as you can while still being intelligible. The rest of the room is for your bio.
Explain Who You Are
This is not a dating profile and it’s not about your interests. You’re explaining why you are worth following to a specific individual.
As a candidate, give the context of the office you’re running for. “Representing suburban Montgomery County in Congress” is far more helpful than “Husband, father, and PA-7”.
Offer A Why
What value will the follower get if they decide to follow you? If it’s just press release links and canned statements, that’s fine, but set the expectation. (See the Best Practice Digital Twitter feed for an example of this.)
You’ll attract more followers by promising – and following through with – an offer for unfiltered thoughts, behind the scenes photos, and up to the minute campaign news.
Use Social Proof
If you’ve got a great accolade like an award or article mention, include that in your bio. “TN Chamber’s 2021 Most Effective Lawmaker” or “‘One Tough Grandma’ - Dallas Morning News” are two examples.
This leverages validation from another source which makes it more trusted.
Create an Orientation Page
You’ll run out of room in your social media bio pretty quickly, but it’s just the lede of a longer story you’re telling. Create a “start here” page on your website (checkout https://bestpracticedigital.com/start/ for an example) that functions as an orientation for followers from social media.
This is the next step that can give really interested supporters more context and next steps.
Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks are the most popular websites and apps in the world and they give you free real estate on your profile. Think strategically about how your campaign will use this space to convince supporters to follow you and level up.
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