Kate (12:56)
But going back to the homepage media bio it is to assure ideal clients that you specialize in the situation they need help with in their home and to build interest. We're not building trust yet, just interest. So this is where you should have like an opening image on your homepage with an opening headline, a body of text, and then you should have an image of yourself and this media bio next to it. You should dive into how clients benefit from working with you. So some of this can be taken from your about page bio, but not all of it. You'll talk about how you handle their budget, how you address project issues, how the client feels during and after the project. Don't do an exact word for word, copy and paste here. You'll need to be a little bit more creative. And then also talk about your experience. Do not talk about your credentials. Do not talk about your education. Again, people really don't care. They want to know, do you have experience now? Again, if you're new, you might be like, well, this puts me in a bad spot. I have no experience. I bet you do though. I bet you've designed your own space. I bet you've organized your own space. You can talk about that. That is valid experience. You don't have to say, I designed my own home. Some people are ashamed of that. I'm not sure why. I've built my own website many times over. You know, it was very valuable experience. It taught me a lot. You shouldn't be ashamed of that. But the bio where it's shorter. So you're talking about how clients benefit from working with you. You're talking about your experience. And then the call to action sends people to your about page or to your general website. If this is being used as a media bio where they can get more information. Okay, so why would you need a media bio? Some people are like, I, I'm not exactly being hounded by the press here. Here's the thing. You need to have a media kit. It should be a one page PDF. That's really all you need. You don't have to tout how many social media followers you have because that's a vanity metric. And any reputable PR company is not going to care how many followers you have. They're going to care about how good you look. And that comes down to do you have good lifestyle brand photography of yourself? Do you have high quality images of your work? Do you have a working media bio they can quickly swipe when they're talking about you in articles? This is something you're going to use more often than you might Think. And it's something that should be revised every year with new content edits to the bio, whatever it is, a new headshot. But basically it's as simple as go to Canva, type in media kit into the design template options, pick one that works for you, make the branding match your brand and then fill out the content. There should be a photo of you. There should be a spot for your bio. There should be a list of your service areas and your service specialties, as well as a description of your ideal client. And that is a solid media bio for a professional in the home industry, especially one who is looking to reach the upper echelons of clientele. Now, if you're like this is still kind of a lot, how am I supposed to work in creating two different bios when I'm also, you know, running a business? Well, I want you to know that I do help people with this. I either give them pointers or I simply write their bios for them. This is part of the ongoing marketing services that we offer here at Socialite. It's also something we do if you contract with us to do a custom website. So I just wanted to throw that out there. But one thing I want to kind of harp on a little bit is you might think that your bio is good. I will say most bios are bad. Just the truth of it. Most bios are written in third person, so they feel very cold and corporate, which comes across as very unrelatable. And the other problem is there was a trend, especially in the design industry for a long time to call yourself the only. I'm the only interior designer in such and such county. The problem is that is not a good reason for someone to hire you. It's also something that could be easily proved for false if one other person starts a business. And a lot of people have to dig really, really deep to figure out how they're the only at anything. I'm the only home organizer in Atlanta that specializes in under the kitchen sink cabinets. You know what I mean? Like what is this? Don't do that. Don't call yourself the only that is that's cheap. That is a lazy way of trying to be known for something versus actually being known for something. And I know that this whole idea was prolific, proliferated by someone who wrote bios for a living and sold services around it to interior designers. I will not be mentioning this person by name. However, I will say this person has done a great deal of disservice to people by telling them this is how a Bio should be written. It makes them very unrelatable. So I make it my mission and I make it my soapbox today to say, hey, if your bio is not written in first person and if it talks about how you're the only such and such, you need to rewrite that thing because I guarantee there are other things in it that are hurting you and deterring your ideal client. Because truth be told, people like real people, they don't want people who sound robotic or stuffy or holier than thou or better than thou. They, they want someone who is relatable and depending on who that person is, you know, more or less elegant sounding. But sometimes we can make ourselves sound so elegant that we alienate these truly elegant people who are actually just looking for realism. They're looking for someone they can work with on a long term project, who they can stand being around, who can stand being around. Someone who holds up their pinky when they drink tea, you know, so don't make yourself come across that way, even if you're the one working with celebrities. Now, I will say I have this one particular client who has worked with members of the royal family, the, the British royal family. And she has no pretenses. She's giggly, she's bubbly, she's fun. And when she told me about her clientele, I was shocked and I was so happy for her and I was so impressed by the fact that she was so intrinsically confident that she didn't have to put on airs when she was working with the Duke on his interior design. I thought that was so cool. Why can't we all be like that? A lot of it comes from a lack of confidence or from being told by different branding experts that we need to use more elegant language. But there is a difference. Are you elegant or are you fancy? Fancy is actually a big turn off. True elegance is simplicity. You guys know this, especially in interior design. True elegance is simplicity. If you can't simply describe who you are and how you help clients, then you failed at marketing. But the good thing is this is an easy fix. And when you have a solid bio that helps support the rest of your marketing because it puts all your brand messaging elements into one place. You have your philosophy, you have your company mission in there, you have your ideal client and their pain points and a solid call to action. It's actually a huge deal and it's why I wanted to focus on it today. So if you need help with your bio, please do reach out. I do one to one discovery calls with people all the time. I would love to meet you and discuss where you're at in your marketing in the home industry. Until next time, guys. Keep your marketing simple, your message clear, and I will talk to you soon.