5 Step guide to creating a professional Twitter profile

Posted on Tuesday, November 29th, 2016

twitter_bird_logo_2012-svgTwitter is one of the world’s largest social media websites, and is a valuable tool to keep up to date on news and current events, and to be able to engage with people who share the same interests as you or are a part of the same industry. It can also be a valuable asset to use to connect with people when you are searching for a co-op placement.

Here are the steps you should take to build your own professional looking Twitter profile.

Step 1: Build your profile

The first step in creating a professional Twitter profile is to fill out all the required information; nothing less professional looking on a Twitter account than one that is missing key pieces. To do this fill out the following sections:

  • Bio
    • Include a short description of what you do, what your interests are, and what industry you’re involved with. Be sure to link to any organizations that you’re involved with (Job, school, sports team, etc.)
  • Upload a professional looking image
    • Accomplishing this is fairly simple; your photo should be a headshot of just yourself, with a simple background. Your face should be the main focal point of the photo, taking up a little more than half the photo. You should be dressed in clean, professional attire that is appropriate for your respective industry.
  • Include a URL if you have a personal website, portfolio, or LinkedIn profile.

Step 2: Find people to follow

Start to build up your number of Twitter followers. You can start with friends, and colleagues or classmates, to try and build you initial following and then continue to look for other users to follow that are within your industry, and who are sharing relevant content.

Step 3: Get used to 140 characters

On Twitter you can only share in 140-character segments. This means that you have to get your message across quickly and concisely, while also standing out from the crowd. Which such a small space, every character counts; here are a few tips for composing your tweets:

  • Get rid of adverbs. They are usually unnecessary in regular writing, and are definitely unnecessary when trying to save space.
  • Keep it short and sweet. Long words will usually have a much shorter synonym
  • Cut out the noise. You have to get straight to the point when writing on Twitter, there is seldom an opportunity to build up to the point of the tweet.
  • Use multi-media. Twitter has recently updated so that media are no longer included in the 140 character count. Use this to your advantage and include pictures or gifs whenever possible.

Step 4: Promote cool stuff, but not just your own

It’s just as important to share other people’s content in addition to your own. Interaction and conversation is a massive part of social media and Twitter is no different. Be sure to share other users’ content just as often as you do your own. Finding content within your interests is easy, searching either by keyword or using hashtags.

Step 5: Be yourself

Your Twitter profile is the first step in building your personal brand and the content that you share should be a reflection of that. You should only have one account, and your tweets should be consistent with whatever you put in your bio. If you’re in human resources, it doesn’t make any sense for you to start tweeting about things related to IT. If you start sharing things that have no relevance to your earlier content or what you have stated that your interests are, you will start to lose followers. Your followers are following you for a reason, and there is usually no need to stray from that.

For more professional tips & tricks, be sure to check back on our blog at https://www.algonquincollege.com/coop/category/blog/

For more information about co-op at Algonquin College, please visit our website at https://www.algonquincollege.com/coop/, connect with us at coop@algonquincollege.com or call us at 613-727-4723 Ext.7623


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