How to Write Magnetic Social Media Bios

What is a social media bio?

Think of social media bios as a digital peek into your world. It’s about how you introduce yourself online; your elevator pitch and the reason why someone would be interested in learning more about you or your company. 

For marketers, this means crafting a concise paragraph of your achievements, interests, and other relevant information. A well-written bio is a powerful tool that offers a glimpse into personal passions and motivations, establishing a relatable online identity, and building connections between marketers and their prospective audience. 

For brands, a social media bio serves as a representation of a brand's identity, allowing brands to establish a unique personality and create an emotional bond with their audience. Since a bio is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective follower, it plays a crucial role in drawing the audience, building credibility, and converting prospective followers into followers – and customers.

Why a good social media bio is important

Your bio creates the first impression. Regardless of the intent of your social pages, a well-structured social media bio can help:

1. Boost searchability: Make it easier for your potential customers and clients to discover you before your competition.

2. Keep all your links in one place: Use proprietary or third-party apps to organize your links and help consumers navigate your pages easier. 

3. Provide critical information: Help your audience find the most up-to-date information about your brand, product, or service and the best ways to contact you.

How do you write a good social media bio?

When looking to understand what brands do, people often go to X (formerly Twitter) to read brief summaries of how brands describe themselves in 160 characters.

You’ll often see a brand’s bio resembling a sales pitch; “With us, you can look/feel/achieve [insert the benefit],” and a call to action; “Sign up,” “Subscribe,” or “View a demo.” 

Other social media bios may feature a brand’s mission and values instead.

There’s no right or wrong. What matters is the intent: Are you looking to express a thought, share information, or inspire action? Think about the next steps you’d like your audience to take.

So, what goes in a bio? Before we dive into the specifics, please keep in mind the character limits for each platform.

Social media bio character count per platform:

• TikTok – 80 character limit
• Facebook Page Intro – 101
• Facebook’s “About you” on a personal profile – no character limit
• Instagram – 150 
• X (formerly Twitter) – 160 
• Pinterest About – 500 (the default desktop view will only show up to the first 149 characters)  
• Spotify bio for artists – 1,500 characters
• LinkedIn About – 2,600
• Apple podcast description – 4,000 characters.

A quick note: A larger character count doesn’t mean you need to fill out the bio in its entirety. Write your bio with your audience in mind instead.  

A social media bio for brands

What elements make a brand’s social media bio stand out?

1. Choose a clear bio style. Brands can take several directions with their bio. They can be inspirational, entertaining, informational, and so on. 

For example, Duolingo’s TikTok bio combines a brand’s mission and an educational goal with a touch of humor, making the account that much more relatable.

L'Oréal’s bio on Instagram can be described as empowering and inclusive. It elevates individual worth and encourages followers to express their value through a custom hashtag. #LOrealParisFamily also promotes a sense of community.

Charmin's bio is playful and humorous. The brand uses relevant emojis, including a poop emoji, toilet, and toilet paper, the combination that can surely squeeze a giggle even out of the toughest online audience. 

2. Brand purpose. What does your brand do? Who are the customers you serve, and what is your market niche? Clarity helps consumers understand if they are in the right place. 

3. Location. There are many ways brands can incorporate their locations into a bio, from using the geolocation feature to adding flag emojis or city abbreviations straight to the bio (for example, NYC, LON, BER).

4. The why. Why should consumers be interested in your brand or following your social feeds? In other words, what’s in it for them? In the example below, Grammarly leads their social media bio with a strong benefit for consumers: write confidently.

5. Relevant keywords. Use keywords tailored towards your target audience, as it can help consumers discover you on social platforms faster.

6. Sensory marketing. Brands could incorporate sensory marketing into their bio if relevant, appealing to consumers’ sense of taste and smell right from the bio, as shown by Lay’s “perfectly crispy chip” and Febreze’s “fresh and stink-free.”

6. Contact details. How should consumers contact you? 

7. Call to action. What is the action your audience should take? Are you looking to grow your following, encourage user-generated content, or check out the product link in your bio? In the example below, a DSW encourages the audience to spread the word about DSW by tagging the brand using #MyDSW and @dsw on Instagram.

A social media bio for marketers

What elements can make a marketer’s bio stand out? 

1. Identity. Your name and your professional alias if you have one, for example, MrBeast or Gary Vee. Sometimes, having a “stage name” helps marketers stand out. We’ve even seen websites that help generate stage names. 

2. A unique hashtag. If you use distinctive hashtags, like #samsales or #ModGirl, to tag all your content, surface it in your bio. 

3. Highlight your offerings. List products or services you offer. Alternatively, you can use the space to promote your latest product or service.

Laura Pearson, a fiction writer, asked her followers on X whether she should include "UK Kindle number 1 bestseller" in her social media bio. Out of 409 people who voted in Laura’s poll, 85% voted in favor of “yes, why not.”

4. Keywords. Add keywords, enhancing your profile searchability. For example, you specify the area of specialty, like social media, content marketing, or paid social.

5. Purpose of your page. Describe what the audience can expect from your page. Do you post informational type of content, how-tos, your day-to-day, or something else?

6. Contact details. Add website links to any other online assets and pages your audience may benefits from.

7. A clear call to action. What would you like your audience to do next? Download your kit, follow your profile for more updates, comment on your latest post, etc?

8. Location. It’s especially relevant if you are serving local markets.

Here’s an example from brand marketing and social media consultant Taylor Loren.

Some platforms offer more visual real estate that you can leverage to strengthen your professional profile. We are talking about profile banners on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook. 

Here are two examples from marketers using custom profile banners on LinkedIn.

How formal should your social media bio be?

The answer depends on your personality and who you’d like to attract as an audience. It has been proven time and time again that authenticity wins. And we recommend you to stay as authentic to yourself as possible.

Other ways to elevate your social media bio 

• Employee advocacy. Brands can encourage advocacy and recruit their employees as influencers on social media. Whether it’s uploading a branded banner to their profile, using a branded hashtag, or adding your brand’s social handle to their bio, it’ll build additional visibility for your brand.

• Use emojis. Emojis can make your social media bio more relatable, and they give you the flexibility to showcase your personality, and yes, it applies to brands as well. 
• Pronouns and DEI. Diversity and inclusion efforts are genuinely viewed positively by consumers. Whether it’s sharing pronouns or adding a few words about your inclusive values in your bio.
• Link in bio. Both marketers and brands can supercharge their social pages by using link-in-bio solutions. These tools can help keep all relevant links on one custom landing page, accessible via one link in bio. 

Excellent social media bio examples

Brand bio examples

Pluto TV, a streaming service

What makes Pluto TV’s bio good? It features:

• A direct benefit to the audience: free movies and shows.
• It reinstates that the service comes at no charge to the users.
• A unique hashtag to help users surface and tag related content.
• The website link.

PWC, a professional services and consulting company

What makes PWC’s bio on Instagram good?

• It features unique company hashtags.
• It has a clear call to action – “Want to make an impact? Join us” – enticing potential talent to apply and become part of the company. This strategy can help PwC attract individuals who align with the company’s culture and values.
• The link in the bio directs the audience to several dedicated pages that further expand on the culture, programs, and people-related initiatives at PWC.

Target, a shopping and retail brand

What makes Target’s Instagram bio inviting?

• Right away, Target tells the audience that their page is the consumers' "happy place." This message sets a positive and friendly tone and creates an emotional connection with the audience by associating the brand with feelings of happiness and positivity.
• The appropriate use of emojis; the one that resembles the brand’s logo and is commonly associated with Target.
• A clear call to action, inviting the audience to tag the brand using specific branded hashtags. Target often reposts user-generated content to their own feed.

Personal bio examples

Nudah, Head of Content, Soar Gaming

Clayton Huddleston, also known as Nudah, is a general manager at Soar Gaming. 

What makes this bio attractive?

It has a value proposition and offers credibility: a popular YouTuber with a large following, indicating the value of the content shared in that channel.

The bio has a clear call to action targeting a specific audience – gamers. And the stage name, Nudah, is repeated throughout the profile to boost brand awareness and name recall.

Madalyn Sklar, social media consultant

What makes this bio attractive? Madalyn Sklar’s bio has:

• A unique hashtag, #LearnWithMadaLyn, added to both the bio and social banner.
• A strong identity message – digital marketing since 1996 – next to the name.
• A mission statement: Passionate about helping and empowering others.
• Additional ways to learn with Madalyn beyond this social page (a podcast).
• A link to the website.
• Lastly, the bio is also appealing to specific audiences and, perhaps, combating implicit bias and stereotypes about tattoos and their acceptance in the professional world.

Wave Wyld, TikTok marketing consultant

What makes this profile stand out? The bio contains:

• Social proof – as seen in – mentioning popular publications right in the banner.
• Niche offering: TikTok marketing.
• Relevant hashtags, helping to surface this profile in LinkedIn search results.
• A link to the website featured in two places.
• A friendly and smiling photo to make the profile more approachable. 

Final thoughts

We’ll wrap up this blog with a few quick reminders.

1. Make sure to read the guidelines of the platform you intend to create a profile on.