Copywriting: Writing a Professional Bio

1. Welcome: 2. Introduction: Hey, guys, this is best Smith wordsmith, and this is my first still share class. So today we're gonna be talking about how to write a professional bio, and I'm gonna take you through my personal strategy and how I gather all of that information through an interview process with the client. I'll provide you with an interview template that outlines all the different questions you need to ask and also includes some notes that help you get responses from clients. And then I'm gonna take you through my process on how I specifically structure a professional's io what included teach paragraphs, the kind of tone that I'm using and the balance of elements how to draw Everything's together. And then we're gonna go through some of my best practices and tips and tricks for a LinkedIn page, learning how to optimize everything from your profile picture to your interest and all the things in between. So I'm really excited to dig into this. This is a really fun topics for me to give you some background on me. As a professional, I must your copy writers who has been building my brand and my presence in the Metro Detroit advertising industry. I worked at a few different agencies, and I've got an exposure to a ton of different brands and a tentative mediums, one of those specifically being professionals. Iose. So at my last job, I worked with a lot of individual professionals to build their brand. And I've probably done at least 60 professional paid for I. O specifically for LinkedIn in my career as well as some for family and friends must died. And I've really gotten a knack for how these things should flow, how to taking that information and help the person really elevate their bio and get the right stuff in there. So in the end, it if I'm gonna challenge you guys to project where you're working on your own, linked in profile, optimizing something's this is specifically reading your bio summary and take you through all that I hold your hand, I'll tell you exactly what I dio. I'm gonna use a real life example that I just created with one of my colleagues, and it should be get so let's jump right in 3. Why Having a Professional Bio is Important: first, I wanted to talk about why having a professional bio is important, since we're in such a digital age and most of our connections were happening online for Lincoln. Through our website, there are e mails. It's really important to have a bio in place that can kind of sell yourselves and tell your story when you don't have the opportunity of that face to face interaction. So another reason is all of these markets are very congested when you're looking to attract clients, employers your freely and through specifically looking to get work. It's important that you be able to answer all the questions that people are coming to your page in terms of what's your experience? What's your expertise? What he's really good at, What can you deliver it? And it's also important to bounce a little bit of personality and there so that you can stand out in the market and at that human element that gets people interested in you and not just your work and your capabilities. I have been an advertising for five years. I remember my goal in my first year was to gain 500 connections, and I did that a lot through, you know, looking around, link stand and finding people who were in my industry or who have stumbled learning skills with me. A lot of people I met through advertising you just cuz they're not working a science and stuff like that. And it's always good on LinkedIn, where you're connecting with people, especially if you're not directly connected or you don't have connections. Commons. For them to be able to go to your page and quickly get a download on who you are, what kind of industry working in what kind of work you dio. So that's another way into tool to build your network, really getting a falling. You know, I've found that personally, advertising is really small world. I run into people, all of the agencies and all over different events and stuff like that. I recently went on a business trip to New York, and I ran into my first mentor for my first job. So it's important Teoh have a presence on LinkedIn It to have a presence in your industry and your community and a bio is just another way for you to give that elevator pitch when you're not there, So let's get into it 4. Professional Bio Information & Interviews: Okay, So this is the professional bio interview questionnaire template the you guys they're gonna be receiving. And this is a real example of an interview I just did with one of my colleagues, Katie. So I first step in any creative process is to do some research and re times. So I went to her linked in page and took a look around. So you're just gonna want to pay attention to Do they have a lot of information? Are there some holes? Does it feel very professional? Is that bear? If they have a summary currently, you probably want to take it, read through that. Sometimes there's some good information there that could be a good starting point for different questions. But the first thing you're gonna want to do is verify some information when you're in this interview. So you need to set up what they currently have listed as where they work their company. So, um, Katie currently works that Hodgson Rouge. You're gonna want to see what they have listed as their official title junior art director and make sure that that is correct and updated. A lot of times all find that people have gotten a promotion or they have something slightly different on their business card than what they have in their lengthen. And my recommendation is to always have that allying to be exactly what their official Tyler's next. I want to know. Do you go by Katy? In the professional world is your colleagues and clients call you buy something else. So sometimes all signed that people try to have a more formal version of their name on LinkedIn when really, that's not what they go by. You know, their colleagues and their friends, and everybody calls them by a certain name. And that's just really what they should own for their personal brand. And then another important question is to see how many years of experience they have in their industry and verify that information as well. So my next section is about understanding their background. I wanted to know, what is your educational background to Where did you study and what degrees do you have? So Katie went to the College for creative Studies. She got a bachelor's and fine arts with a focus on advertising design, and she also got a minor photography, which is cool. Um, next I don't know if she has new certifications. Sometimes this is a more applicable to different industries or people in different job levels, but she doesn't have any, which is totally fine. And then we moved into understanding the role. So I start with an open ended question. I just asked what types of things that they do on a daily basis. So Katie is doing a lot of layout design. She was using these different programs. She's concept ing ideas. She's working in digital mediums and also print on, you know, video website point of service. Um, shorts for dealers stops you give me a few examples next I want to know, Like what she was responsible for what her wool actually is than what she's being tasked to . Dio Ash used to deliver assets, reported some account, choose to work with other creatives. Then I want to know who's who serves and really get an understanding of her client towel. So he works on automotive. She works for Lincoln in the luxury sector. I want to know who she works with on a regular basis and what the rules are. Some people are client facing some people just work internally. Some people have to touch different areas of the business and work with engineers or scientists. So it's important to understand who they're engaging with and communicating with. She listed out copywriters, creative directors, clients, designers, video editors, product people or experts account executives. So she's working with a lot of different people. And then I want to know what types of challenges to shoe solves. Um, so can decide that she has Teoh appeal to the clients and sometimes design things in a medium That's not easy. You know, a lot of the assets that she's given have been already made, and she doesn't have control of photography, so she has to make it work with a small area. So this is just trying to, you know, what is, um, what is her goal? What is she trying to solve? What are some of the difficulties she has to deal with on her in her role? Um, and then I jump off of that and I go into was the hardest part of your job. Um, so she's not getting approvals by creative directors. Don't I know it, um you know, when your concept in you have to be able to keep company and ideas. Even when you feel like you've exhausted all your creative juices, she said, Balancing a bunch of projects of the same time as hard when it goes toe comes here to hunt really quick. It's just the nature of the business, Um, since you're trying to be productive. But some things don't go the way you want, you have to vote the punches and not take anything to personally. So you guys will notice that, um, a lot of these answers. They're very conversational. Sometimes their random thoughts. They're broken up a little bit. People often don't talk in full sentences. I will do another class on, you know, best practices for doing any kind of interview for your job. Uh, but it's interesting to see how people respond. And it's our job. Is writers to, you know, put it all together and make it sound good. I was last part of this section, which is understanding your role is what's your favorite part of the job. So I try to flip it and make it more fun. After the last question, Kitty loves interacting with other creatives and being able to thrive around other creatives to arms bouncing ideas off People's likes a group effort, um, bringing things, collaboration. She's trying to think of that word, Um, to really likes that aspect. There's something about it. It is what I really enjoy being a deck together. You know, something is off and it's not ready yet, and then you have someone else to look at it. It's fixed, and all of a sudden attack is beautiful and things were working. I know that feeling well. House that was cool to hear. The next section is called Identifying Expertise, and I really want to find out what Katie is really good at. What she thinks. She's an expert. And so I asked her, What are you specific areas of expertise, sometimes in different industries. This can also be considered like delivery Bols. Um, so she said, photography and photo editing concept ing typography, copping things up, making things up, doing graphic design that I wanted to know what she thinks she's better at than others and her role. And how does she have a new approach or unique perspective? I'm sending it to the kid who's talking a lot about concept ng you know, she was trained a certain weight school, and, you know, they were. Tarpley ran ideals. They can't accept defeat. So she's speaking out a little bit about this mindset that she has, she said. There's always different ways to twist something. Make it different. She looks for inspiration a lot. Um, she likes the idea of, like having enough information to limit her. She she likes working within the limits. Um, when things somebody gives you too much is and where to begin. So she loves advertising because she's given structure and you can still have the AB and I ab inflow of creative that have the structure behind it and reasoning for it Were you doing which is so important, everything should have a reason and a purpose. I thought that was a really strong statement. I liked that, um, and then I want to know how to shoes relevant in hair field. So I like to get examples, Curtis, because sometimes people don't know how to answer. It could be in a street research. It could be our conferences. Some are seminars that they're attending. It could be continuing education. Somehow it could be teaching skills share classes. There's a bunch of different answers here. So Katie talked about that. She follows Adweek really religiously, and she had a lot of friends in the advertising community. I am shocks to follow out of that, Um, she likes looking at that stuff a lot. And she's also really focused on digital future Technologies. And, um, shocked about this website called Did You Day? That keeps you up with all the technology, and she thinks it's important to keep in mind. We have the opportunity concept, really cool ideas. There's so much more we could do because the technology so we should take advantage of it. So I thought that was really cool, that Katie is trying to keep an eye out on technology. In order. Teoh elevate the projects that she's working out, and one of the last sections we have is Adam personalities. So while these thing to professional they should not be stale, you should still get a sense of who the person is and what their life. Um, this is always a fun question. I like to ask what three adjectives describe your personality and your approach to business , Katie said. Bubbly, colorful and spunky, which is totally right on for her issues. Superfund very creative and brings a positive attitude to everything. So I thought those were very appropriate for her. Next is are you involved in any professional groups outside of work? Um, she said she was part of women in Digital for a little bit. Um, she canceled her membership so it might not be super relevant anymore. And then I want to know, are their passions you pursue outside of work? This could be volunteering or any kind of happy is really So He does a lot of crafting, um, to her. Grandma collects the neighbors and her plastic bags, and she likes to knit them together. Katie's the big knitter. She had done a passion project in college, where she recycle plastic and made jewelry pieces and knitting shows. That just photography for fun. She's done some freelance work in the past. Um, she told me a little bit about that project. Angelique kickbacks, and she looks working out a lot and doing boxing and yoga. She feels like the kind of counter each other once more aggressive ones a little bit more, and then so the very last part of any bio interview is the most important thing. This is always a number one for me. Out of any communication, I have to know what the most important thing is and what my number one goal is to communicate to everybody who's coming in reading this. So I always ask it as what is the one most important thing you want, People who read your bio to take away and I always adding that it could be something that was already mentioned because often when we're talking about what they love about their job or what's really challenging or what their expertise is, um, that's the most important thing to know about them. So TD has said that passion is everything. I think if you don't enjoy what you're doing, you shouldn't be in advertising because advertising is not easy. It's not for the faint of heart, and I thought that was really important. So so when Katie's via, we're really gonna want to elevate this idea of passion 5. Outlining & Writing a Professional Bio Summary: So this is the other template. You guys are going to receive its the professional bio template and it takes you through every section of Lincoln And what to look at? I've got a little some descriptions in here. They have some advice in them, so it should be pretty fun to read through. But we're going to focus on after our interview is writing up this summary section, which is under the intro. So what I did is I took this kind of summary template and I pasted it into a rough document . And as I have this section, the section and this section and then at the same time, I also went through Katie's interview, and I decided to highlight what I thought was important information that I could work with . So I need to know where she works, where her title is or her name is for using experience. Um, this is all good stuff that will be included in Lincoln Bio. Um, I started highlighting some of the things that she doesn't a daily basis. Her deliver bles are. So I went through and I took all the important information and I started bucking bucket ing it into these different sections. The sections we have our intrasection about who you are, where you are, where you work and what you do. And this should be 200 characters at less. I like to make sure that this is a single sentence. On the next, uh, paragraph is an overview paragraph about experience and expertise. This should be the lengthiest part of your summary. Could be 800 characters or less. So you can see it had started pulling things into this section before I started writing everything that I thought could be useful. And then the last one is a summary paragraph about personal passions and the most important thing. And this could be 400 characters or less. And you said I did the same here and pulling things I felt aligned with that section. So that's really my process. I go through the interview, I pull out the important information, um, and distill it down a little bit. And then I bring it into kind of a rough working document where I can play around with my words. So this took me a while and back and forth. I opened up my character counter and played around with it a little bit for the Interests section. It's really important Teoh just establish the basis is of what their current job is and what they do. So this reads. As a junior art director, Hudson Rouge Katie's designed a wide variety of digital advertising assets for the automotive industry, namely Lincoln. So this just released. That's up where she's at her career right now and exactly what she's doing. And that's important for the first sentence. It should be really clear and an overview of her profession. The next one is the media stuff. So this we want Teoh include a lot of things I decided to include. You know how many years of experience this is usually really important? Obviously, it's more impressive for people who have, like, 25 years, but you'll see how I spend it with Katie. Um, I started to pull out, you know, the types of things she does and then I'm saying things in a different way than she is. You know, she talks about collaboration. I touched on that, Um but we can kind of read through the paragraph and see how he took all of these different things that she was telling me and pulled it into an overview. The really positions her as an expert in her field. So it says, With over two years of experience in advertising, Katie has begun gaining exposure to a multitude of advertising mediums and client brands. So you can see it's Katie doesn't have a lot of experience that I've spun it as she's begun gaining exposure to a lot of different things. I didn't say that she's been in this industry for average. She knows everything I've tried to spend in a way where she is learning so as a millennial . I know that Katie is gonna be looked at for somebody who has fresh ideas and is really motivated, has a lot of energy and is eager to jump right in. So that's how I started her overview paragraphs. Next, I say, collaborating with creative directors, account executives, product experts and clients on a daily basis. She works to concept, create and deliver designs that achieved powerful advertising solutions. So this is a really powerful paragraph. It kind of sets up who she's working with on a daily basis and what she's doing, what her goal is every single day that she comes into the office and again, the challenges that she saw them. She was working towards Carcelle Advertising Solutions. Next, I say that an expert in ideation will graphic design, typography and photography. Katie brings a keen eye and attitude of never accepting defeat toe every creative challenge . So this release that's up kind of her energy and what she's an expert in what Katie is really good at and what she brings to the table. Next, we go into in an industry where things can drastically change from day to day. She's flexible and tenacious and finding new ideas that support the strategy and structure of any project in order to deliver work with purpose. So I left that Katie was talking about, you know, everything should have a purpose and a plan behind it. She talked about fitting into the strategy and structure ever projects. So I think this really sets up how she approaches working on different projects, how she deals with this crazy industry that is always changing. Timelines and stuff are changing when it gets to it in a really elegant way. And I m this paragraph by saying Additionally, Katie Cues a pulse on the industry and local advertising community, constantly looking for inspiration and new technology to explore as a way to elevate advertising experiences. So I think this is a strong way to end. It talks about how Katie's stays relevant, how she's always searching for new ideas, and I think this idea of being ahead and on top of technology it is really important and also something that is a benefit of being a millennial on the job market. People assume that we are technologically advanced and savvy, and I think that's a good way to position Herm. So, you know, as I was going, I was kind of crossing off these different things, like I would say things in a different way than Katie is. I'm just to elevate it, make it sound a little bit more professional and kind of tie all these things together leading from, you know, establishing her background and then filling out, you know, illustrating what role is where she's really an expert and how she shines, how she deals with different challenges, and then how she's continuing to expand and grow and learn and stay aware of what's happening in her industry. So our last paragraph is our summary paragraph and it should be pretty short, maybe 25 sentences. And this is really sprinkling some personality on top after we've established you know where she is currently at and then hot what she's doing a re single day or hex first uses. We can kind of ended on a note that gives some flavors to who Katie is as a person. So I pulled these words. I loved these words that she picked, and I put them in her first sentence. That says, Katie's bubbly personality, colorful point of view and spunky attitude is reflected in every area of her life. Um, and then I sprinkled in some of her hobbies, it says outside the office, she likes to craft and kickbacks chant, channeling her energy. No, she'll say, channeling my bad, channeling her energy into creativity and movement. I thought that was a cool way to talk about her hobbies, and then I want to bring it back to her profession. It says I'm a job. She was fueled by a true passion for her work and knows that creative advertising is not for the faint of heart, only those with fire in their soul. So Katie had identified the most important thing as passion. Passion is everything you have to have it to be in this industry, you know, it's not for the faint of heart. I thought that was really cool. So I ended it with that, talking about passion and really establishing that Katie is this passionate being. She's super creative. She's very positive, and she will always come back with new ideas. They think this is a really kick ass way to end her summering, and it kind of ties everything together and leaves the most important thing in the reader's mind as the last thing that they run. So that is how I wrote her summary, and this is kind of the most important section of the Lincoln page. 6. Optimizing a Professional Profile: I'm gonna talk about everything else linked in. So again, this is your professional bio template to fill out after you've done the interview and written the summary. If this is all the other good things that people need to know, you can use this for yourself, obviously, for the project that you're going to do after this class and then I can also be a template that you can end up sending to clients. Sometimes you want to add little notes in the top. Um, I like to add an intro that says, You know, this has been developed for you, and it is free for you to use an edit how you want to Some people like switching it to first person. Some people just want editor, and it picks some little things. So once you deliver a professional bio, it's really up to the user on how they want Teoh implement it into their LinkedIn s. So we start with branding. I've pulled up Katie's cage here because she's doing a lot of the right things, and I think it's always helpful to see an example. Um, so for the Lincoln Link, that is your your office have the page. Most them come with this awesome license plate number, and you guys can go ahead and added that I've given you, um, some information on how to do that, so I would recommend just having, you know, Lincoln dot com slash Katie naggy. Or maybe she wants to have a tagline. Katie Nagy, Creative or Katie Nagy, art director. That works, too, But, um, it's really easy to get rid of this. And I think everybody should for your profile picture. It's important to have a professional profile picture. I think Katie's is intriguing. It's her face, you know. She's done up well. She's got this kind of natural lighting. I am seeing some terrible profile pictures. I have seen guys in bathrobes with rose in their teeth. I have seen some really m o dark stuff. I've seen some cartoon figures where you can't tell what they look like. So, my friend, my recommendation for your profile picture is it should have a neutral background. It should be shot from the waist up or shoulders up. And, um, maybe on something more advanced on the iPhone, although those pictures can be okay. But really, you just want people to be able to associate the name with the face. You don't need to get silly or creative or crazy. I know that I had had a photo shoot done for mine, and I kind of have this little Stassi, um, posed with a hat, but that should be it, you know? I mean, it's just your face. You can show a little bit of personality, but it doesn't need to be sexy. I know I was writing a professional bio for someone one time and, like 80% of their picture was cleavage. And I had to find a nice, professional way to recommend something different, and I ended up sending them a few examples of photos online. I said, You know, something a little bit more like this. Um, So it's important that your profile picture is kind of simple and professional and just, you know, shows your face and you don't look upset or grumpy. Um, next is your background image. So, um, I know there's a bunch of generic ones. I think your background image should be reflective of your personal brand. So, as you can see, we go to Katie's site. She has this cool, personal brand graphic and texture, and it falls right into this. So she is really connecting her personal brand, and this makes a lot of sense. I think it's fun. It sets the stage for her and her brand is on, and it's kind of a texture. There's not, You know, there's a lot going on there, but it's, uh it's not inconsistent or too complicated. Then we get into the intro, um, her name, her headline. What's, um Sometimes I recommend that you could do like three fun adjectives like wordsmith free spirits issue enthusiast. Sometimes that's like kind of a catchy way to get that in there. Katie has art director, photographer and doodle queen. And then, of course, if you have a personal website, if your real estate or urine creative advertising, you need to put that right up front and center and include that in your headline, Um, and then we need to have our current position official title company using our ejector throughs check check on, and then we have her summary. So I dressed sophisticated, but she will be putting it in her summary section, which will float up here at the top, Um, and then we get into experience. Are her activities always included? If you're active on their experience, she has all the experience listed out. Um, I would recommend having some quick write ups for each of these. A lot of people will just copy and paste like the mission statement from their company or what their companies. But I would just have maybe 1 to 2 sentences on what you did in that job. What your role waas what kind of skills you gained for me as a copywriter. I like to write out. You know what mediums I touched in Most importantly, what client brands I worked on, I'm so people can quickly glam since see the type of experience I have in different industries. But it's important to include, you know, most everything from your professional career. So, you know, I don't need to know that you were working as a waitress in college or that you did this one little thing one time. You need to include things that are relevant to your industry and the group at that. You're on. So Katie has some internships that she started out with, which is great. It's all relevant. The next section is education s. So this should include any formal education experience or any certifications that you have . She's got that all filled out here. She's at a some volunteering experience, which is cool. Um, getting into skills and endorsements. Um, this is an important section. You want to have as many skills as you can. So you're allowed up to 50 skills on LinkedIn, and you should definitely come up with 50. It's not that hard. Make sure you're utilizing you know, the buzzwords in your industry. Um, and you've been important, like software programs like Katie Works on in Design and Photoshopped. Like she said, I'm so some of those things are things that perspective employers and to know. And then there's also endorsement. Endorsements will happen kind of organically. Lincoln will prompt different people to, you know, like you worked with Katie, like, endorsed her for these three skills. And often, if you endorse somebody, it'll it'll prompt them. Teoh endorsed you back. Um, so this kind of happens as you grow your network in interact with different people. But it's important to have, um, recommendations. Uh, recommendations are good. When they are well written and from people that you actually worked with. I kind of see that it is this as a I scratch your back, you scratch mine sometimes is a good way to get it. If you want to write a recommendation for someone you've worked with and they can write one back to you or you can, you know, ask for a recommendation from somebody or recommend your friends, it's something great to do. If you guys can take the time to do this for other people and often they'll give you one back. Um, we have this a copy accomplishment section. This is an area for anything that is public and professional. So, um, there's a bunch of different options in here of things that you can upload language. She speaks two languages, so that soldier, I'll give that to her. If you only speak like English, you know, maybe you don't need to include it. She's included some organizations she's been involved in. Um, I've put some things that I have, like professionally written, like some professional blog's for different companies, but this is not a place to put like your personal blawg posts about stuff that you're doing in your life unless it's like a specifically branded thing on your website. Um, so keep this professional, anything that is totally public and, um, not personal. And then there's an interest section. So for clients, you should go ahead and do a lot of research for their industry and find out, you know, kind of one of the hot companies to follow who are really the thought leaders in that space and make sure that they're engaging with them as a copywriter and creative advertising. A lot of times, I'll like toe follow, um, the different client brands that I'm working on. She's got a lot of different ones in here. Um, I'll related to creative advertising, which is totally appropriate and design. So I think it's important. Teoh kind of fill out this section and keep a pulse on the industry. This will fill out your feed and the let people see that you are watching and paying attention to the right channel. So that's kind of it. Those are all the check boxes that you need to track going through a LinkedIn bio, whether it's your own or whether it's for a client, make sure you know, everything looks good from a visual standpoint. You have all the right information. You're getting to the correct things quickly. You setting the stage, her summary will be filled out here, which is really the heart and soul of your linked in bio. And then, you know, she's kept up some activity. You She's gotten some followers. So I think Katie is a really good example of a professional linked in bio. You guys, they're free to check out her page for some inspiration as you're writing your own. 7. Conclusion & Project Brief: Okay, guys, that was the class. Now we're kind of kind of get into what your project is. So like I said, I'll be providing you with two documents. Their 1st 1 is this professional bio interview questionnaire, which I've taken through you, uh, taking you through with Katie's interview, and I want you to go ahead and fill this out for yourself. You know, ask yourselves on these hard questions. Take you think on it, you know, stream your answers here and then go back through and highlight the important information about the stuff that you think is important. I recommend opening a sector document to work on at rest. But you will also have a professional bio template, which gives you all the information that you need to know some of my commentary on best practices and advice here, um, used this as your summary summary template. You know, go ahead and check your character count online so it doesn't get too long. Um and that I would love to have you guys upload, uh, maybe this document or maybe just your summary or a link to your linked in profile at the end of this. So I can check out. You know how you Britain things. If there's anything that I would recommend you polish up, take a look at your visual branding some of things you filled out, and I really want to help you guys. Just optimize your Lincoln bio and practice this writing process and get a hang of it. So comment with any questions or concerns or with your projects, and I'm happy to help you out. Thinks the guy moves by my first class on. It's been really fun.