160 characters. That’s what you get on popular micro-blogging site Twitter to showcase to the world what you’re all about and what you have to offer. Newsflash, 160 characters is around 20 words. Yikes.

Nonetheless, your Twitter profile is largely going to determine whether you are able to easily connect with other like-minded individuals. Thus, your profile is crucial to establishing how you want to appear in search results (obviously your profile username also has a big impact on the results).

So, what are some quick tips to keep  in mind when writing your profile?

1. Fill out your profile. Sounds simple right? At the very least, put something in there. I’m sure there are others out there like me who assume that an empty profile (plus no tweets) means the person is A) a spammer or B) set up a profile but never uses the platform.

2. Don’t try to tell your life story. 160 characters means you can’t possibly get it all out there. Instead focus on one word descriptions or short phrases.

Example:  Harvard grad, online marketer, web developer, soccer mom, joe six-pack, travel nut….

Think about the types of words you or someone else would search for and frame your profile around those descriptors. Short and simple – that’s how we search.

3. Mix personal and professional interests. This of course depends on your purpose and intent behind using Twitter, but like any social media tool that includes a profile, it helps to see that you are a real human being with real personal interests.

4. Provide a website link. Do you have a blog? Are you on other social networking sites? It’s always a good idea to include a link (there is a separate area in your profile to add this so this does not count as part of the 160 characters) whether it’s to your company’s website or some other place you’d like to connect or reference followers. Your LinkedIn profile or blog are good examples.

With that in mind, get to revamping that profile!

-Scott