What should you include in a professional profile?

Descriptions of you and your business appear in many places — from social networking sites to press releases. So it pays to get your professional profile right. Bryony Thomas offers some guidance.

A well-written professional profile is an essential part of your sales and marketing toolkit. Done well, it can bring your company to life and demonstrate your credentials through your people. Done badly and people either don’t know, or don’t believe, that you have a great team.

A key paragraph introducing your company is a must — but don’t ignore the professional profiles of your key people. Anyone who is out there networking, making calls, or working with clients is representing your business.

It’s well worth investing some time and energy, and possibly getting a little copywriting assistance, in preparing a template profile (you may hear this referred to as a boilerplate) that can then be used in the following places, amongst many others:

• On your LinkedIn profile
• In your proposals where you outline the team
• On your website
• As a footer on press releases
• As a speaker profile if you’re hosting or speaking at an event
• On directory websites
• On trade association websites

Key elements of your professional profile template

To get you started, have a think about answering the following questions:

• What do you do and for whom?
• How long have you worked in your industry?
• What is your particular expertise or specialism?
• What were the moves / highlights in your career?
• What impressive clients have you worked with?
• What examples do you have, with proof, of what you can deliver?
• Have you received any awards or accolades?
• What qualifications do you have?
• What are your values — why do you do what you do?

Start with a 200-word profile and then re-purpose it into the various formats, by cutting in down, to use in the different contexts. I would also recommend that you incorporate key search terms for online profiles. However, in doing so, don’t lose sight of how it reads to a real person.

Here are some examples of my own profile in different settings:

• Bryony’s LinkedIn Profile
• Bristol Media Profile — see key people
• Clear Thought Consultancy website
• Marketing Donut Expert Profile

Bryony Thomas is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and a marketing consultant, speaker, and author. Her first book – Watertight Marketing – is available Summer 2012. 

More on this topic:

• IT Donut offer: download your free social media toolkit
• Nine steps to getting started with social media
• What’s your personal brand?

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