Your Social Media Elevator Pitch

You’ve heard of the “elevator pitch” concept: It’s a catchy term for the fluent summary of your product, service or company that you can deliver in 30 seconds or a minute – the amount of time you would have to talk to someone if you were riding an elevator together.

The digital equivalent to that quick presentation is your social media bio page or a single landing page. Here are some tips for honing down your words to one pithy, attention-getting pitch:

Be Honest About What You’re Offering

What are you offering? What benefits does your company provide? Remember, the goal on your social media bio is to entice viewers to engage with you by Liking you, adding you to Circles, Following you, and so on. They will only do that if they understand what you offer.

Use SEO Friendly Keywords When it Makes Sense

Be sure they don't affect the natural tone of your language, but keep track of them on a subtle level. Search engine algorithms place importance on social media bios.

Be Visually Interesting

Even if what you offer is completely non-visual (investment advice, for example), you have to acknowledge the reality that graphics are the building blocks of the online universe. 

Link to a Landing Page

You already know that you should include a link to your site on every social media profile – but which part of your site should you link to? Create a landing page specific to users who click there from your bio page so that you can deliver a targeted message. A second use for landing pages is to deliver the specific information needed by viewers who arrive there from clicking on one of your ads. Crushpath is a site that offers shareable one-page “pitches” exactly suited to this purpose.

Include a Call to Action

Of course the CTA is an integral part of a dedicated landing page, but it’s also possible to include a short CTA in your Twitter bio. Add a link within the 160 characters you are allotted for that bio to download an e-book or receive a special offer.

Make Every Word Count

Go through your bio or landing page with a fine-toothed comb, checking to make sure that every word there has a function. Stay away from corporate language; you will instill greater confidence by communicating in clear English. Don’t include lists of contributors or anything superfluous – remember that you won’t be sharing this elevator for more than a few seconds! 

Pay Attention to Feedback

One great advantage that your digital elevator pitch has over real-life is that you can try out different versions and get feedback that measures their success. Not sure which keywords are best, or which image will attract the most users? Publish one and you can gauge if you receive a markedly substantial increase in followers by looking at your SumAll data.

Keep testing to see which version resonates the most with the community you’re targeting. This type of real-time feedback provides you an ongoing focus group for you to hone your pitch until you find the one that works for you.