A professional bio is a short text that summarizes who you are, your professional experience, your previous achievements, your goals, and your main skills.
There are several formats to write one. However, usually, professional bios are no longer than 8 lines.
If you’re wondering what is a professional bio, its benefits, and how to write one, keep reading this article!
It’s important you fully understand what a professional bio is in order to know how to use the space you have available and optimize it depending on the platform you will be uploading it to.
A great place to start is by making a personal brand statement.
A personal branding statement is a phrase that communicates how you can create value for others.
You can try our personal branding statement generator to get inspired and then come back to read about the 5 elements a professional bio needs and what are its benefits.
Contents
The 5 Elements a Professional Bio Must Have
Professional bios vary in format and content. They are supposed to capture your essence in your unique way.
However, if you want yours to be effective and communicate all you need, there are 5 core elements every bio should have.
1. Who You Are
This includes your name, area of expertise, profession/major, and core values.
It’s about the needed basics to have a general idea of who you are, as a professional and as a human being.
This is usually the introduction to your bio, which means that it should capture your audience’s attention.
Depending on your industry, we would advise you to be as creative as you can. Some “who you are” introductions might sound generic.
At the end of the day, the big goal is to stand out from the rest!
2. Your Current Position
After knowing briefly who you are, readers will like to know what you’re currently doing. This is the place to showcase your position, the company and field you’re working in, and of course, your responsibilities.
This last element is the most important. People from your audience might not be familiar with the position or company name, but they can understand what it takes by reading about your tasks.
If possible and convenient, you can add stats and numeric results about projects you have been involved in. These will give proof of your good work.
3. Your Previous Experiences/Achievements
This is the section in which you could be tempted to elaborate more, but you must aim to keep it simple.
A professional bio can be used for several purposes, such as:
- Presenting yourself on the Internet.
- Introducing yourself at an event.
- Promoting your products or services.
- Finding a job.
- And many more!
You must keep your particular goal in mind in order to choose which experiences and achievements make it to your bio.
The purpose of this section is to add information that complements what you’re looking for through your bio and engages with the ideal audience.
4. Additional Skills
We aren’t totally defined by our studies and profession. We are much more than that.
As we briefly explained before, a professional bio must always remain human and real. The last two elements focus on that.
Of course, in the previous sections, you can add important skills you have regarding your area of expertise.
For the additional skills section, write about your hobbies and maybe something people wouldn’t expect from you!
Maybe you really enjoy fishing, or painting, or are incredibly good at some kind of dance.
5. Your Own Spark
The biggest mistake you can make when writing your professional bio is to make it cold, robotic, and distant.
This will drive you further from your goals and achieve the opposite results of what you’re looking for.
The best professional bios are the ones that feel authentic.
This last element doesn’t have to be a specific sentence: you should aim to permeate your whole bio with your spark.
A great way to achieve this is by using storytelling. You can read more about how to write a professional bio of yourself by using storytelling in our recent article about it.
Benefits of Having a Professional Bio
The truth is that every professional should have a professional bio. It is kind of a must, especially if you want to create a personal brand and get recognized in your industry.
However, some of the main benefits include:
- When well done, a professional bio creates an excellent first impression. We have discussed the importance of first impressions in the past: there are several studies on how much they determine people’s thoughts about you through time.
- It allows recruiters, clients, or colleagues to understand who you are and how you can help them. A principle in branding is that your audience must be clear on why they should choose you (or your brand). What makes you special? What makes you different? What exactly are you offering? These are all questions professional bio answers.
- The process of writing yours helps you understand your goals and skills. When becoming a thought leader, is important to find ways to get to know yourself in order to build a brand.
Where to Use Your Professional Bio?
Ideally, you will have a complete version of your professional bio that variates depending on the platform you’re using and how much space it provides.
Depending on the platform, the purpose and the format will vary a little bit. Nevertheless, it’s important to keep consistency and have different versions ready in order to save time.
Social Media
Professional bios in social media are usually shorter and more casual. This varies depending on the channel: for example, Twitter bios are way shorter than LinkedIn bios.
This is because LinkedIn is a platform made for showcasing your professional achievements.
Always stay true to yourself when modifying your bio for your different channels, and remember what you’re using it for.
Website
Your website is the most important place for your personal brand. It’s where you show your expertise and promote your services.
The best and longer version of your bio should be on your website.
This way, you can show the face behind the business and create an emotional connection with your potential clients.
You can also add pictures, videos, backstories, and much more.
Events
When in the process of becoming a thought leader, you get invited to all kinds of events and features.
You must have a professional bio you can use to promote and introduce yourself to the new audience you will be reaching.
If you get invited as a speaker, for example, the production team will need your bio to promote the event.
If you get interviewed at a podcast, web show, etc, the host will need it to introduce you, etc.
CV
Last but not least, a professional bio can have a place in your CV as well. It is a great way to summarize who you are and what you’re looking for in whatever you’re applying.
Having a professional bio in your resume makes you look amazing in a recruiter’s eyes.
What Is a Professional Bio and Why You Should Write One
As we saw through this article, a professional bio is an important element to get yourself known in different areas of your life.
It helps you create good first impressions, know yourself better, and communicate other people what makes you different.
The 5 elements you should be covering in your professional bio are:
- Who you are
- Your current position(s)
- Your experiences and achievements
- Additional skills
- Your own spark
Do you like how this sounds? Don’t forget to read more about how to write your professional bio and book a free call with us if you want to know more about how to leverage your personal brand.
