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How to Write a Professional Bio with Examples

by Umar Farouk Kabir | Dec 6, 2021 | Personal Growth

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:

Introduction
State your brand name or place of work
Explain your role in your place of work

State professional achievements
Briefly Discuss your passions and life values
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.

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:

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:

Describe what Fuels your passion. Customers reading about a passionate business owner always feel more inclined to trusting them.

Put your job title aside and describe what you do in simplest terms.
Talk briefly about your past.
Don’t be afraid to talk about your successes.

Give the reader a glimpse of your character.
Talk briefly about your life outside of work.
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.

8 Sure Ways to Foster Your Kids Creativity

by Happiness Hassan | Mar 1, 2021 | Family & Parenting

A large percentage of parents fail to realize that creativity is not inborn. Rather it’s learned through quality training. As a result of this, they spend their entire life criticizing their children for not performing up to their expectations. Likewise, the thought on how to encourage creativity in a child without experiencing stress keeps brooding through their minds.

Children at the tender stage are quick learners. Hence, it’s more beneficial to boost their creativity at such a stage. In this post, I will share 8 practical steps to foster your kid’s creativity.

Ways to Encourge Your Kids Creativity

1. Get Them Engaged in Creative Activities

Idleness and unproductive activities kill creativity in a child. Get your kids engaged in reasoning activities that enhance their intelligence quotient, encourage them to think outside the box, and do the extraordinary. These activities could include puzzle games, crambo, quantitative and verbal reasoning, camping, and treasure hunting.

It helps groom your child to view life from a broader perspective, outside the four walls of their classroom.

2. Encourage Freedom of Expression

Kids irrespective of their instant location love to live out their true selves, most especially amongst their peers. As a parent, your role in such a scenario is termed observation. Learn to study your kids while they display certain behaviours without scolding. The moment you scold that child fear of expression is inputted into his heart.

By observation, you detect what your child is keen about. Peradventure, you bumped into your child who had turned your living room in a trash bin with old papers, paints, and pencils used in drawing. Of course, I can relate to that initial annoyance to spank that child, seeing the mess the house looks like. Even at that, don’t shut that child up, allow him to express his creativity while you watch. In essence, it’s a pointer to your child’s interest.

3. Provide The Necessary Resources

When your child’s interest is known, step further by providing the needful resources to foster your child’s creativity. Are you parents who are interested in learning how to encourage creativity in a child? Then learn from Khadija’s story.

It was lunchtime, everyone was at the table except Khadija who was busy in her room. What could she be doing her mom ponders as she heads for her room. She had repeatedly called her name, but Khadija was engrossed with something no one knew about. On entering her room, she found her daughter stitching pieces of paper together to form little paper dresses and straps of her old dresses scattered around the room.

Khadija was so focused on what she was doing she didn’t notice the presence of her mom who watched her six-year-old daughter in amazement. Immediately, it dawns on her that Khadija was interested in fashion. The next day she ordered fabrics, buttons, sewing thread of different colours, and tape. Hence, she has succeeded in enhancing her daughter’s creativity in fashion by providing the needed resources.

4. Ask Questions

As a parent learn to stretch your child’s curiosity by asking them reasoning questions. Their imaginative faculty gets utilized as they think of answers to the questions asked. Usually, not related to the normal arithmetic and vocabulary studies in their school. Questions like; why is the sky blue and why do you have two eyes.

This set of questions deepen their curiosity as they attempt to provide an answer.

5. Show Interest in Their Creativity

To foster your child’s creativity, avoid criticizing their attempt to do something extraordinary. Always compliment your child whenever they did something good. For instance, your child walked up to you with a book containing a poem she had composed for you as a birthday present. Being a loving parent who is learning how to encourage creativity in a child, don’t start by highlighting the grammatical errors or spelling mistakes in her poem.

Rather, begin by complimenting her beautiful composition, showing how grateful you are, indicating your interest in her passion. Furthermore, don’t restrict your child’s creativity because it isn’t what you want for that child, neither should you pressure them into a career they don’t like.

6. Teach Them Different Methods of Solving Problems

Build your child’s creativity by instructing them on how to create an alternative course of action when faced with a challenge. This is perfectly illustrated in Ali’s story. This young teenager lost track of his mom in the market. However, he was able to locate his mom by putting a call through with the help of a trader’s cellphone.

In a nutshell, Ali would have spent hours crying in search of his mom, perhaps spending a night at the police station before being found by his parents. However, that wasn’t his story because before the incident his parents had taught him their respective phone numbers for emergencies.

7. Ensure Your Kids Achieve a Broader Knowledge

Ensure your kids acquire skills most especially soft skills which are rarely taught in normal academic settings. Acquiring more knowledge exposes them to a range of options. Also, enrol them in classes that enhance their interest. Perhaps, Your child produces Melodious sounds by skillfully hitting sticks on tables in the house. To encourage creativity enrol him in an instrumentalist school.

This is why it is important you consider several factors before choosing your kid’s school.

8. Inculcate Reading Habit in Your Kids

To encourage creativity in a child also entails reading books to gain more knowledge. Your child gets to picture what he or she reads from a book. They begin to create mental possibilities of the story plots in that book. This habit broadens their creativity.

Also, the more your child reads, they learn more about other fields of life and how things are done in different places around the world. It also helps to build their vocabulary and enhance quick understanding.

Conclusion

As a parent, learn to lead by example. It is vital when unveiling the steps on how to encourage creativity in a child. You shouldn’t expect your child to learn various methods of problem-solving when as a parent, you perform one task every day using one method. Likewise, you can’t force them to read while you watch TV shows. You should join them. Preferably allocate time for it.

Also, do share your thoughts regarding this post in the comment section below.

How to Write a Professional Bio with Examples

What Is a Bio?