5 Affordable Ways to Make Your Online Profile Stand Out You've got personal and professional profiles all across the internet, but so does everyone else. How do you shine?
By Adam Toren
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As an entrepreneur, you have a variety of profiles across all the major social-media networks and various industry-association websites. With all those profiles across the Internet, you should take some time to make them look polished so you stand out.
Related: 5 Tools For Entrepreneurs to Grow Their Online Presence in No Time
How you do you do that on a startup budget? Easy. Here are five affordable ways to make your online profile look great.
1. Consistent branding
Consistent branding doesn't cost you a dime but can cost you customers or clients if your profile is all over the place. When someone sees you or your business online, everything should look and feel the same across all your profile pages. Use the same bio and keep the same header and photo. Keep it consistent. It's free to do and essential to implement.
2. Professional headshots
You'd be surprised by how affordable professional headshots can be. Check out websites such as Togally.com that offer pre-set packages for photography sessions across a variety of needs, including professional headshots. The best part? It only allows previous customers to rank and rate photographers, so unlike Yelp, you know the reviews are actually from previous clients.
Headshots packages start as low as $50. That's a price every startup founder can afford.
Related: The 4 Building Blocks of a Strong Digital Presence
3. An excellent bio
If you aren't a writer, you should reach out to a professional writer to help you position and brand your bio for each of your online profiles. You should have on hand a variety of bios that are boilerplate across all online needs, from Twitter to online conference speaking bios to LinkedIn. Have your bio custom tailored to a variety of lengths by a pro.
You can find a writer through sites such as Fiverr, where you provide the word count and topic and a professional who matches your desired expertise ranking will help craft your bio by the word.
4. Great graphics
Another great way to make your profile stand out and to keep your branding consistent is to reach out to a designer who can create custom graphics tailored to your brand that are optimized to a variety of all social-media background sizes. Designers on sites such as Dribbble.com are affordable and you can see past examples of their work. Ask your designer ahead of time if they can re-skin the graphics for all online outlets.
5. Consistent updates
Most online profiles are dynamic. A free and smart way to have your online profile stand out is to contribute valuable content. Share posts and comment on your LinkedIn profile, like and share from Facebook, update content on YouTube -- you get the point. For all of the places you have online profiles that allow interaction, maximize that free opportunity to stay relevant and engaged with the audience.
Related: 3 Free Websites to Organically Grow Your Presence Online
