When people first join a social network, they often don’t know what they’re supposed to do next. LinkedIn offers a handy measurement for how “complete” a user’s profile is, up to 100%. While a score of 100% does not necessarily mean that you’re getting the maximum potential out of LinkedIn, it DOES mean you’ve spent a considerate amount of time on the site and are off to a good start.
Unfortunately, OTHER sites like Twitter don’t have something like this to help newcomers get started on the right foot. The HubSpot Twitter data that I posted yesterday shows most people are missing a lot of the basic information (name, location, bio, picture) that would help them start using Twitter effectively.
Here’s a list of the basics you need to have a “100% complete” profile on Twitter:
| Name: Do you list your full name? | 10% |
| More Info URL: Do you link to an external website? Your blog, your LinkedIn profile, your company? | 5% |
| One Line Bio: Do you have an interesting bio with industry-specific keywords? | 10% |
| Location: Do you list your location in the most common format? City, State | 10% |
| Photo: Do you have a profile picture? (preferably of YOU) | 10% |
| Protect my updates: You get an automatic 0% if you check this box |
| Post a link that is not selling your product/service | 5% |
| Retweet someone else’s Tweet or link | 5% |
| Post three original Tweets Bonus: Make them helpful or more interesting than your lunch choice for the day | 10% |
| Import all of your e-mail addresses and follow everyone you already know (click “find people” in the top bar, then “find on other networks”) | 5% |
| Find the top Twitter users in your area on Twitter Grader and follow the ones who interest you | 10% |
| Find the top Twitter users in your industry on Twellow and follow the ones who interest you | 10% |
| If you follow 500 people at once, you get an automatic 0%. Follow 5-25 new people a day, especially at first – pace yourself. |
| Have conversations with other people(@replies) – care more about them than you do yourself | 10% |
Again, a score of 100% doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re maximizing the potential of Twitter, but it does mean you’re off to a good start. Everyone uses Twitter differently, so spend some time observing how others use the site and think about your personal goals for using Twitter. Are you looking to make friends, find a job, become an expert? Whatever your goals are will dictate how to use Twitter from hereon out.
What do YOU think it takes to have a 100% complete Twitter profile? Is yours complete by this criteria?
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igster101 says:
These are great tips. Thanks for this post. I need to check my profile now
Jun 22, 2009, 3:43 pmDeAnna Troupe says:
Great tips.
Jun 22, 2009, 6:28 pmJulie Castell says:
Good info. I have an issue when people (tweeple) list their location with that crazy iPhone coordinate #’s. If your location didn’t matter, they wouldn’t ask for it.
I’m moving to new area and trying to follow folks there and it is an automatic “no follow” when I don’t see location.
Basically, the rest is just semantics.
Jun 22, 2009, 3:11 pmSocial Media Links O’ The Week | Being Cheryl says:
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Jun 22, 2009, 7:27 pm100th Post - Top 10 Best BeingCheryl Posts | Being Cheryl says:
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Jun 22, 2009, 1:52 pm