How to Write a Professional Bio with Examples

Updated: Dec 6, 2021
By Umar Farouk Kabir
9 Amazing Northern Nigerian Books to Read

9 Amazing Northern Nigerian Books to Read

Literature in northern Nigeria dates back to the 1900s, though, not wildly popular, a number of quite amazing works were published back then. Over the decades, northern Nigerian literature has shown immense improvements in style, genre, and a wide range of topics, but...

Improve Social Skills: 7 Most Important Social Skills

Improve Social Skills: 7 Most Important Social Skills

We use social skills to communicate and interact with others effectively. But most importantly, these skills are essential for our personal and professional development. In business and entrepreneurship, professionals must have a good set of social skills to build and...

The Top 10 Entries from the Mediahooch Creative Writing Challenge

The Top 10 Entries from the Mediahooch Creative Writing Challenge

The winners have finally emerged in a creative writing challenge organized by Mediahooch. The contest, which was planned in partnership with Northpad Nigeria and Poetic Wednesdays Initiative, who served as the judges, received over 50 entries from 31st December to...

5 Amazing Stress Management Techniques You Should Definitely Try Out

5 Amazing Stress Management Techniques You Should Definitely Try Out

Stress management skills are highly needed in our everyday lives because the body isn't robotics in nature that has no feelings. There is a limit to what the body can do without burning out physically, chemically, mentally, or emotionally. The burnout period is termed...

At one point or another in time, we have been asked to describe ourselves, and more often than not, we end up fumbling it. Writing a bio can be like that sometimes.

We all could use some home every now and then. That article serves as a guide for all those having trouble writing a proper bio.

Whether it is a bio for blog  LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or any website, this article will help you learn the various steps taken to write a professional bio like a champ.

What Is a Bio?

Before we dive into the do’s and don’ts of writing a bio, you must first acquaint yourself with what a bio is and why it is important to learn how to write one.

A bio is basically short of Biography. Now, normally in literature, biographies are quite lengthy. Some come In the form of an article, others come in the form of books. In the online community, however, bios are short paragraphs where you simply introduce yourself. You find bios on social media pages and other networking sites.

The primary objective of a bio is to give a brief account of who you are. Whether it’s for business sake or otherwise, giving an insight to who you improve transparency and trust.

When writing a professional bio, there are certain points that must not be overlooked.

These points are:

  • Job title and workplace
  • Recent Educational background
  • City of residence
  • Personal and professional goals
  • Skills
  • Hobbies

How To Write a Professional Bio

The Best online bios are short and concise. Write a professional bio for Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram and other networking platforms by following these steps:

  1. Introduction
  2. State your brand name or place of work
  3. Explain your role in your place of work
  4. State professional achievements
  5. Briefly Discuss your passions and life values
  6. Mention your personal interests

1. Introduction

The obvious first step is to introduce yourself by stating your full name. Professional online bios are written in the third person, so ensure your full is what comes first before anything else. This builds some form of connection between you and the person reading the bio.

Here’s an example:

Muhammad Abubakar is an Administrative Assistant…..

2. State Your Brand Name

Depending on what type of bio you’re writing, it could be a personal or a bio for a business; in this case, you’ll have to State the name of your brand at the beginning of the bio.

Do not be worried if it sounds ‘lightweight’, it’s perfectly okay. For instance, to say Muhammad Abubakar is the Founder of Northpad.ng is very acceptable.

This ‘lightweight’ line has served the purpose of introducing you and your brand at the same time. You see the point?

For example:

Firdausi Sule Dauda is a serial and social entrepreneur who is best known for her most recent and most successful venture, Jannah shoes.

3. Explain Your Role in Your Workplace

What comes next is explaining your role in your workplace. It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of the company or a secretary. What matters is that you State your role and briefly explain it.

Do bear in mind that the readers of your bio might not necessarily know what your job entails, so a brief explanation offers some insight into what you do and what you’re capable of.

Example:

Muhammad Abubakar is an Administrative Assistant with 5 years of experience working alongside the executive team of the Green Bay energy company.

Muhammad specializes in administrative tech, and is responsible for educating other employees on using innovative systems and applications, including accounting software, mass communication procedures and organizational applications.

In the example above, Muhammad’s role in the Green Bay energy company was clearly explained.

4. State Professional Achievements

After briefly explaining your role, next you talk about what you achieved on a professional level. Do not worry too much if you have not won any awards. You can simply discuss the contributions you made in finishing company projects and the ideas you brought to the table in order to solve problems.

For example

Muhammad Abubakar won the employee of the year award for two years running due to his outstanding performances in administrative tasks.

Do not be afraid to show off a little.

5. Briefly Discuss Your Passions and Life Values

This is one of the most vital points to consider when writing a bio.

You have to think about what drives you, what motivates and why you do the things you do.

What is your mission?

Is it to serve others, to develop interpersonal relationships between others? Ensure smooth administrative operations? Well, whatever it is, do not be afraid to clearly state it as your audience will like to know the driving force behind your actions.

Example:

Muhammad Abubakar is driven by the desire to always perform at an optimum level. The need to ensure smooth operation and maximum effectiveness in any task he is assigned to is unquenchable.

6. Mention Your Personal Interests

Lastly, talk about your personal interests briefly. A bio doesn’t talk about professional life only, it also touches your personal life. Here, you can talk about what you do in your leisure time. Perhaps you’re working on a personal project, you hit the gym or you just spend time with friends and family.

This gives a snapshot of the type of person you are outside of work.

For example:

Muhammad Abubakar likes to spend time with his family on his days off. Creating a good and strong family bond is of utmost importance to him. Muhammad also hits the gym whenever possible in order to remain fit and healthy.

Difference Between Short Bios and Long Bios

As you can imagine, there are long bios and short bios. Depending on the platform and other needs you may have, you will need either of the two. Below are some examples for short bios and long bios:

 Short Bio Example

Muhammad Abubakar is a Junior Web Developer for Media Hooch Technologies.

He is a decorated coder and programmer, and he enjoys using his skills to contribute to the exciting technological advances that happen every day on a global scale.

Muhammad graduated from Ahamadu Bello University, Zaria in 2016 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Software Development. While in school, he earned the 2015 award for his exemplary academic performance and leadership skills.“

Long Bio Example

Muhammad Abubakar is an accomplished Financial Analyst with over 18 years of experience in financial markets. Muhammad always ensures the viability of multi-million naira financial portfolios long-term.

He’s so efficient at his job that he considers himself a “financial portfolio guru.” Muhammad has the ability to take unhealthy portfolios and transform them into healthy and thriving ones. Because of his skills, he can produce productive and long-lasting results for high-level clients.

He caters to major companies, non-profit organizations, and hospitals. He works well with senior corporate executives and can provide consultations for international corporations.

More than her role as a Financial Analyst, he is also effective at persuading and influencing high-ranking individuals. His opinions are highly valued, people trust and respect his judgments. Muhammad earned a degree in BS Political Science back in 1996. Through his course, he developed a passionate interest in the geopolitics of northern Nigeria.

In particular, he focused on topics like sustainable development, self-government, and political economy. After he graduated, he worked hard to attain her role as a Financial Analyst for 12 years. Then he spent a year working at the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget in Kaduna.

Here, he managed bond deals worth billions of naira while handling the quantitative analysis needs of the office too. Muhammad also contributed to the development of policies and writing the legislative language in debt service structure and bond issuance areas.

For his most recent eight-year tenure as a Financial Analyst, Muhammad had successfully nourished his insatiable passion. He did this by conducting research about the investments of emerging markets and international natural resources.

He wants to engage more with influential decision-makers and thought leaders in international public policy. He’s open to challenges, conversations, and an exchange of ideas from the top players in the financial industry.

His long-term goal is to become a national-level policy adviser. He wants to use his untiring commitment and drive to bring more dignity and autonomy to the citizens of his country Nigeria, especially arewa. After getting a Graduate degree in Public Policy, he will start working towards this cause.

Muhammad had a lot of significant professional experiences as a Financial Analyst. He created several tools to help his company evaluate operational requirements more accurately and improve the forecasting of finances. He also monitors and assesses the performance of sales groups, evaluates market conditions weekly, and examines revenue trends. Apart from this, Muhammad also created a model of analysis that improved the sales of the company’s main product by a whopping 125%. He did this by correlating the sales data based on advertising and marketing expenditures.

Moreover, Muhammad supervised the transition of the company to a computer-based ordering system. This eliminated warehouse downtime and redundancies which, in turn, generated over millions of naira in savings each year. He works closely with the company’s executives to come up with budgets through the financial analyses.

These two types of bios talk about the same thing. What makes one different from the other is that there are significantly more details in the long bio.

The long bios are best suited for platforms that allow long texts.

After reading the two samples provided above, you will be able to determine which one suits you best.

How To Write  A Bio on Social Media

Basically, writing a professional bio on these social media platforms covers the same steps mentioned above. What you should bear in that is that different social media platforms have varying word-count for their bios. You have to take that into account in order to properly convey the most important bits of information that’ll make your bio look professional and concise.

How to Write a Bio for Twitter

When writing a bio for Twitter, you have to bear in mind that you’re limited to 160 characters. It feels like it isn’t enough right? Well, 160 characters can still be enough to write a good Twitter bio. 

To maximize those 160 characters, you must introduce yourself briefly, State what your Twitter page is about, add some links to your business page and ask for a follow and retweets.  Here’s a good example of a professional Twitter bio:

Sample of how to write a bio on Twitter

How To Write a Bio For Instagram 

If you thought Twitter bio is too limited, wait until you check out Instagram! Instagram gives its users a maximum of 150 characters for bio. This is where you have to choose your words carefully. In 150 words, you must be able to summarize what your business is about. 

Pro tip: use hashtags! Instagram is the home of hashtags.

How to Write a Bio for Facebook

Facebook is arguably the most famous social media platform of all time. It boasts of billions of users worldwide. For this very reason, it has become a very powerful tool for promoting business. Every business page needs a good bio, unfortunately, Facebook limits its bio to 101 characters. Though the allowable characters are small, it is, however, still very much possible to write a good bio. 

All you have to do is keep it simple and straight to the point. Of course, there are provisions where more details about your business can be written. 

Here’s an example for a good Facebook business page bio: 

How to Write a Bio on LinkedIn

Writing a bio for LinkedIn is a lot more flexible as the app is more liberal with characters. With a maximum character of 2000, you can express yourself a whole lot better than most social media platforms.

Here are the things you must cover when writing a Linkedin bio: 

  1. Describe what Fuels your passion. Customers reading about a passionate business owner always feel more inclined to trusting them.
  2. Put your job title aside and describe what you do in simplest terms.
  3. Talk briefly about your past.
  4. Don’t be afraid to talk about your successes.
  5. Give the reader a glimpse of your character.
  6. Talk briefly about your life outside of work.
  7. Add rich media.

Here’s an example of a professional Linkedin bio:

Pro Tips For Writing a Professional Bio

As you take the steps mentioned above to write your bio, you must consider the following tips as well:

  •  Keep it short and simple
  • Your bio should be explanatory, but it should also be short and to the point. A good formula to use is  to keep each point in your bio, from your job description to your achievements and hobbies, to about 1-2 sentences. Doing this will enable your bio to be sufficiently explanatory without being too wordy.
  • Take note of your audience: if you’re looking for a job or you’re writing on a business page, be sure to use a professional tone. Alternatively, when you’re writing on your Twitter or Instagram bio, you can use a more friendly and informal tone that truly reflects who you are in everyday life.
  • Adapt to different platforms: depending on the platform on which you’re writing your bio, you might be given a character limit. Meaning, you might have to scale down your initially planned bio to fit in with the character limitation.

By following the steps and adopting these tips, you can create a professional bio that helps you stand out in your field like a champ.

Download a free editable bio template

Conclusion

Now that you’re up to speed on how to write a professional bio, nothing can stand in your way of creating a bio that is worthy of you. Allow your audience to get to know you better when they read a proper bio created by you. Writing a good bio doesn’t only make you feel good about yourself, but it also leaves a lasting good impression on your audience.

See also: How To Write a Good Cover Letter

Popular Reads

Everything on JUMIA

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Whats new?
How to Easily Turn Your Passion Into a Career

How to Easily Turn Your Passion Into a Career

I need you to look within and search for that one thing you could do a thousand times without getting bored or tired. Yes, each time you engage in that one activity, it seems as though a magical force drives you. Surprisingly, that force is called passion! But, have...

5 Things You Should do at The Beginning of Every Month

5 Things You Should do at The Beginning of Every Month

The start of every month can be likened to a fresh start. And as with all fresh opportunities, there are things to do at the start of every month that should help increase your productivity. Keeping an organized monthly schedule is the key to building a productive...

25 Compliments that Have Nothing to do With Appearance

25 Compliments that Have Nothing to do With Appearance

We all love compliments. I, for sure, know I do! But, lately, I have realized that most of the compliments people receive focus on their appearance. What if I told you that there are many compliments that have nothing to do with appearance or physical look? I see I...

How to Become Your Own Boss without Money

How to Become Your Own Boss without Money

Every human being that has ever lived has had or would have had the potential of owning their life, not just because of riches, but because of the inner wealth within. The world we live in today is so focused on making money and more money that we fail to realize that...

10 Ways to Get People to Like You

10 Ways to Get People to Like You

There are various ways how to get people to like you, especially if you are not the outspoken or people-person type. The truth is, that people are naturally drawn to others with likable characters or characters they wish to emulate. Fun game, make a list of your...

What You Should Do If Someone Threatens to Leak Your Nudes

What You Should Do If Someone Threatens to Leak Your Nudes

Photos of someone who is fully or partially naked are known as nudes. Things can go wrong after you've shared photographs with someone you trust. The person to whom you sent them may threaten to post these images of you online out of rage or for another reason, or...

8 Amazing Ways That will Help You Become the Perfect Mentor

8 Amazing Ways That will Help You Become the Perfect Mentor

When the word “mentoring” is mentioned, what usually comes to our mind is the picture of people in suits giving speaking to a gathering of people, and giving advice. What if I told you, that everyone is and can be a mentor to someone? In this article, I’d be showing...

7 Easy Guides to Stop Being Disorganized

7 Easy Guides to Stop Being Disorganized

Everyone wants to achieve their goals, live their dreams, and be perfect in every way, forgetting that you can’t accomplish all these things if you aren’t organized and have a plan. Knowing how to stop being disorganized should be on everybody's bucket list. You...

Successful People Have These 10 Daily Habits. You Should Too.

Successful People Have These 10 Daily Habits. You Should Too.

Habit is a behavioral pattern that is regularly repetitive. A habit might initially be triggered by a goal but, after some time the goal becomes less necessary and the habit becomes automatic. Making a habit of something takes commitment and diligence. Successful...

7 Tested Ways That will Teach How to Handle Criticisms Better

7 Tested Ways That will Teach How to Handle Criticisms Better

Knowing how to handle criticisms better is a valuable skill necessary for thriving in the workplace and society at large. We are humans and imperfections are a part of our DNA. We do not have the chance to always be perfect at what we do, hence, those who can see our...

Explore more

You May Also Like…

How To Control Your Emotions

How To Control Your Emotions

Learning how to control your emotions is an essential skill that can be learned.  Emotions are various forms of feelings, positive or negative, that results in physical or...