A great bio is a critical tool for thought leaders to sell themselves to their target audience. If you are a spokesperson for your business, provide commentary in the media or speak at events, you need a winning bio.
An expert bio showcases your expertise, experience and qualifications in a genuine way. It is not simply a resume.
As a short introduction to who you are and what you’re an expert in, a great bio provides a foundation for securing opportunities to demonstrate and build thought leadership.
Having an up-to-date bio on hand to share with key stakeholders can be the difference between securing or losing an opportunity. You will need a bio when pitching yourself as a speaker to event organisers, when publications are looking to publish an article you have written or when journalists want to learn more about you.
Your bio should include:
- Your name and job title or role
- Your area of expertise
- Your background and experience
- Examples to demonstrate you as a thought leader i.e. media coverage, speaking roles, award wins, publications or articles you have written.
- Your qualifications
- An image (optional)
Here are some considerations to keep in mind when writing a powerful bio.
Sell yourself authentically
An overly sales focused bio will appear inauthentic and false. The goal of a bio is to convince the reader that you are an expert and the best way to do this is by adopting a genuine, credible and authentic tone. Write your bio in the third person.
Lead with the most important information
Include the most important information at the start and the least important information at the end. Most people tend to only read the first few paragraphs and ignore or scan over the rest. It is important your readers recognise you’re an expert quickly.
Tailor your bio to your audience
Your bio must be tailored and written with your target audience in mind. Think about who you will be sharing your bio with, for example you might share your bio on your website, with the media, business associates or conference organisers.
Take some time to consider what the audience needs to know about you. A good bio will convince the reader early that you are the right fit for the opportunity.
Create multiple versions of your bio
Depending on the opportunity, your bio will need to vary in length. For example, the information a journalist needs to know about you will be quite different to what an event organiser needs.
Create a short bio (100 words), a longer bio (one page) and a very short bio (one or two sentences).
Make it easy for people to contact you
Always include contact information such as your phone number and email address. At a minimum you should always include your website.
Keep your bio up-to-date
Your bio needs to be consistently updated to include the latest information about you. This may include the most recent speaking opportunities, award wins, media coverage, business milestones or new qualifications. Add a reminder to your diary to go back to your bio every couple of months at a minimum.
A great bio will open doors for you to develop as a thought leader. Make sure you invest the time to create a winning bio as it will be one of the most important tools you will draw on in your thought leadership journey.
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Sydney Public Relations Agency, CP Communications provides specialist media, traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more great tips visit our website www.cpcommunications.com.au.
