So you’re on twitter or any social media platform with big hopes and dreams. Your writing will reach thousands of people, making your name and ideas famous.
But after two months. Nothing has happened.
The same thing happened to me until someone suggested I switch up my bio.
“Well that must be the problem!” I thought.
This led me down a long rabbit hole of researching the best twitter profies and accounts. I looked at all the ones that grew fast and built a large follower count.
I found the best bits and will share them with you below.
How I started Testing My Bio
First thing I did was check out a thing called Birdy. Its a website that will test your bio for free. I did that for two months and it gave me all the info I needed.
Eventually I opted in for the paid version. Only because I wanted to run test my banner image, profile pic and newsletter link too.
What follows is what works for the the experts and what works from my own private tests. I hope you find it helpful.
The End Result My Twitter Bio Tests
When I started, my conversion of profile visitors to new follower was around 4%. I say ‘around’ because that was the result of the first test I ran. I went for years with a lower conversion then that.
To get 4% I was already using some good practices instead of using a bad profile picture and unfocused bio.
As of right now, I’ve finally got a 13.04 % conversion rate. My first measurable jump in twitter followers came after reading some advice from Dan Koe on twitter.
Dan said to top putting “coach” or “copywriter for XYZ niche” in your bio. People don’t want you to start selling your services before they know how you can help them.
Tell people what you talk about and how it applies to their life. He gave this example: I help [target audience] with [pain points] so that they [desired outcome]. I’m working towards[end goal].
That’s a great place to start because it puts you into the mindset of how you help your audience. The question they want answered when they read your bio is “What’s in it for me?” So after working on the above template from Dan, make sure it’s clear WHO you help and HOW you help.
Getting the above combo right, is what converts visitors to followers. The reader is going to ask themselves these 3 questions: Why I should follow you? What kind of content do you write? Do you have any social proof you know what you’re talking about?
Your bio is your sales pitch to convert that reader into a subscriber or follower. And you only have about 10 seconds to do it. Harsh, because we want to be witty. To show everyone how cool we are. But noone cares, sadly.
You have to help as many people get what they want out of life in order for you to get anything you want.
Why You Shouldn’t Bother With Any Of These Optimization Tips
Basically – despite a mountain of statistic and opinions, a high converting bio comes down to testing and writing an answer to the question that is inside the head of you ideal client.
Listen to no-one and test everything. The whole internet is the blind leading the blind and the few great gems of wisdom, are hard to discern as truth.
Some people give advice on how to optimize your bio when all they did was scam the results and take a screen shot.
To look like a Twitter bio writing pro…
Just follow a ton of people while you run your A/B test and then screenshot it. The followbacks will inflate your conversion percentage.
Instant twitter bio optimization expert.
As a matter of fact…
After I split tested and optimized by bio. I achieved a good conversion rate, but in the end I threw it all away.
I don’t know why. The hyper specificity of a high converting bio felt so limiting for long form content. For getting clients and followers on twitter, it works. You have to get to the point on one topic or your wont stand out.
For writing articles on Medium, perhaps not.
I had to allow wiggle room, flavour and personality back into it.
Is this ego? Probably… but people are not only interested in specific solutions. They are also interested in egos, personalities, entertainment and icons.
Sure, you’ll pick up clients being a “High converting copywriter.” But you’ll never get true blue fans that want a break from their day and some human interaction.