Your professional bio is your first step in building a memorable and polished personal brand. And I always recommend having several versions of your bio on hand for when they’re needed, but the short version is the one you’ll use again and again for many purposes. So, I decided to share some tips on writing a short professional bio so that you’ll be prepared. This short version of your bio will get a lot of mileage, so it’s worth taking the time to craft an impressive one.
The formula below ensures you include all the essential details so your bio can make a big impact even with a limited word count.
Writing a Short Professional Bio Now Means You’ll Have it When You Need It
Even if you don’t need a short version of your professional bio right now, you will need it in your future. With a few tweaks or updates here and there, this version of your bio can be used over and over for things like your one sheets, in your press kit, on the back cover of your book, in bylines, and even on social media platforms like LinkedIn.
Of course, you can use this formula for writing a short professional bio as the foundation for your longer bios too. But longer bios are used for your website, or other author platforms where you have more freedom with your word count and creativity. Your short bio needs to be more polished and concise because you’ll be using it to showcase your skills, expertise, and what you do in a nutshell. Remember, this shorter bio needs to do some heavy lifting, and make an impact, all with a limited word count.
Where Will You Use Your Short Version Professional Bio?
- Your one-sheets
- In press/media kits
- Author pages online(Amazon, Goodreads, etc.)
- Your bylines(for guest blogs and articles)
- The back cover of your book
- Your LinkedIn headline
- When submitting articles and other writing
What Should the Word Count for a Short Bio Be?
Though it varies somewhat, they’re usually limited to a range of 80-120 words. Depending on the situation, you may be limited to an even smaller word count. So aiming for 100 words or less is ideal because it leaves you some room to work with if you need to update it for a specific purpose.
However, you don’t want to leave out very important details simply for the sake of keeping it under 100 words. So it’s a good idea to write a few drafts, with specific objectives in mind, and fine tune them as needed.
The Formula for Writing A Short Professional Bio
This short, but important version of your professional bio needs to give the essential information, and in a way that grabs the readers attention. You don’t want to neglect the most relevant tidbits but you also don’t want to include anything unnecessary due to the word count limits. Don’t worry, in your longer professional bio you can still get creative and share all the details. If you’re curious about longer bios, you can read my website bio version here.
Notice, you will not necessarily need to use a direct CTA when writing a short professional bio, but sometimes it’s absolutely necessary. You can see more on this in the example I provide.
Here’s What Your Short Bio Should Include
Start with the What/Focus:
What do you do exactly? Are you an author, researcher, speaker, change agent? Maybe you’re a serial entrepreneur, political scientist, advocate etc. This is the thing that people need to know right out of the gate.
Follow with the Why/Grabber:
Why should people care? This is the information that grabs them. How does your focus affect the reader, your community, or the world? This is where you can inflate and throw in some key power words like passion, purpose and vision.
Prove Your Credibility:
What credentials do you have that makes you an expert? What dues have you paid? You can Include your education, awards, and experience here.
Include the Sell:
What (specifically)can YOU offer your potential reader or client? Offerings, specialties, your blog, weekly podcast, courses you teach, etc. Maybe something you are proud of that people might be interested in. The things you bring to the table, in other words.
Additional Elements You Can Include When Writing a Short Professional Bio
If you still have room in your limited word count when writing your short professional bio, you can include a little extra. These elements can be added, depending on what you hope to achieve with this bio and its purpose.
A Little Extra:
This is where you beef up your credentials. For instance, beyond your education, what else gives you credibility? Things like associations you belong to, boards that you serve on, places you teach or organizations where you have spoken, places you have been featured (papers, magazines, TV Shows, etc., or the number of books you have published.
Use a CTA (call-to-action) if Appropriate:
What do you want people to do? Visit your website, follow you on social, read your blog, buy your book, etc.? You can even invite readers to an upcoming event, or something else you have to promote.
An Example of a Short Professional Bio
This is the bio I use on my speaker one-sheet. Notice, I do not include a CTA here, because it’s unnecessary. If I were using it for another purpose, I could add a CTA such as, “You can find out more about Jennifer on her website JenifferThompson.com.”
Jeniffer Thompson is a digital marketing strategist, publishing consultant, and personal branding coach. She is also an author and speaker who delivers strategy-rich content and actionable tools that educate and empower. She co-founded Monkey C Media in 2004, an award-winning book cover and website design house, is the host of The Premise podcast, co-founder of the San Diego Writers Festival, and serves on the board of the International Memoir Writers Association. She has been teaching authors, speakers, and entrepreneurs how to elevate their authority and take their business to the next level for twenty-five years.
Breaking it Down
The what/focus:
Jeniffer Thompson is a digital marketing strategist, publishing consultant, and personal branding coach.
The why/grabber:
She is also an author and speaker who delivers strategy-rich content and actionable tools that educate and empower.
The credibility/the sell/ and a little extra all rolled into one:
She co-founded Monkey C Media in 2004, an award-winning book cover and website design house, is the host of The Premise podcast, co-founder of the San Diego Writers Festival, and serves on the board of the International Memoir Writers Association. She has been teaching authors, speakers, and entrepreneurs how to elevate their authority and take their business to the next level for twenty-five years.
As you can see, you don’t necessarily need to write a list based on what’s included in this formula. It should flow naturally and make sense!
It doesn’t need to be perfect right now and you can always edit and tweak it as needed. But if you put some work into writing a short professional bio now, you won’t be overwhelmed if you need it on a moments notice! For instance, if you get an opportunity to guest blog. Or if you’re submitting an article to an industry publication.
If you want to dig deeper into writing every version of your professional bio, I wrote a book on it called, How To Write A Professional Bio. And you can find it here.
