Follow Me! Creating a Personal Brand with Twitter

Chapter 4

Secrets of a Great Twitter Profile

“You are a gentleman of excellent breeding, admirable discourse, of great admittance, authentic in your place and person.”

Merry Wives of Windsor

It all starts with your profile picture, the one that says, “This is what I’m all about.”

It’s the first thing your potential followers will see, so it needs to have a serious wow factor but not necessarily big-bucks investment. Some of the best profile shots happen by accident; in fact you may already have the perfect profile picture on your hard disk. It’s the one that instantly says all it needs to about your personal brand.

Thinking Outside the Box

This chapter isn’t about giving you a photography lesson; it’s all about making you think outside the box about how you present your brand to others. I was chatting with a photographer recently who told me about a personal brand portrait shoot he had done with a businessman at his home. He had taken many head and shoulder shots — shots at the client’s desk, shots in front of framed degrees, and other corporate-type images. They had all turned out fairly standard — none really stood out from the crowd.

The photographer and the subject agreed that there were plenty of usable shots but they wanted to create something special and out of the box. The photographer suggested they try some jumping shots. The subject was hesitant at first but stepped ...