Optimising your Twitter Profile

Profile optimisation is about making the most of your effort. You work hard to create content daily and engage with your audience. This leads to profile visits where users will ultimately decide if you're worth following. An optimised profile will convert more of these visits into follows.

First, open your profile in incognito mode to see it as others would. Let's go through each element.

We'll cover:

• Bio / Description
• Header Image
• Profile Image
• Pinned Tweet
• Call to Action
• Feed

Bio / Description

A bio should explain three things. Who you are, what you do and what content users can expect.

Here's a break down of my bio at the time of writing:

• Who I am: Tech lead and solo founder
• What I do: Building tools to make twitter growth enjoyable
• What content users can expect: Tweets and threads about audience growth & tech

This format has worked well for me and I've started to see increased profile visit / follow ratio. Although it's all about experimentation. Other formats have worked well for others, but I think this is a solid starting point for most.

Header Image

The header image is 1500 x 500. But only a small portion of space is viewable across all devices. The profile picture will cover the left bottom, and on mobile the top will be covered by icons and often the iphone's notch.

Check your profile on different devices to get a better idea. You can also try this figma template which shows your profile and header images on different devices.

https://www.figma.com/community/file/1209513479701433259

I've seen lots of different formats work here but in general a solid base should be an extension of your bio and also a great place to highlight your work.

Profile Image

People connect with other people. Use a high quality image of your face and avoid things like logos and icons. You can use a cartoon avatar if you like, but try to avoid anything too stylized.

Take a photo facing a window when the sun is bright. Bold colors can work well here.

You can remove the background with online tools like https://www.remove.bg or upload your image to https://pfpmaker.com which will automatically remove the background and provide many different styles.

It can look great to try and match your header image to your profile image. I've gone with an all dark theme for my profile.

Pinned Tweet

A pinned tweet is a great way to highlight your best content. It's also a great way to introduce yourself to new followers.

Here is a great example from Arvid Kahl who pinned a video explaining why you should follow him.

You can also pin threads. Try a high performing tweet or thread which is on brand for your niche.

Call to Action

Promote your personal website, blog or something you're working on.

You can use a combination of the "location" field and website for extra content.

To do this, go to your profile and click "Edit profile". In the "Location" field add a call to action like "Check out my blog ➝" or in my case "Grow your audience with ➝". Then in the website field add your link.

Feed

Finally try to keep your feed tidy. If all you're doing is retweeting and liking posts people will notice you're not producing original content. The first thing I do when I click on a profile is read the top 4 tweets, if I can't engage with any of them, I'll move on.

That's all for now. If you want to level up your Twitter growth, check out https://socialsidekick.io for a first class post scheduler and AI assistant.

Happy tweeting!