Twitter is a great marketing tool for your business, but you need to use it correctly to get the most out of it. While a tailored and well-constructed social media calendar is essential, a catchy bio is what draws initial interest. While Twitter bios may be overlooked at times, it’s a vital part of your social media marketing strategy. Here are the golden nuggets and the hard coal lumps of Twitter bios.

What It’s For

Unlike the rest of the Twitter experience, a Twitter bio is typically static. It doesn’t change much, unless you rethink your company’s product or services. It’s easier to identify what a Twitter bio isn’t used for than what it is. Your Twitter bio should not share, be funny or promote. Its one job is to capture interest.

For instance, Lifelock, an identity theft prevention service, uses a simple catch phrase as a Twitter bio. The phrase catches the imagination of users, lets them know what the company does and shows users the integrity and seriousness of the service.

The Basic Text

You have 160 characters for your Twitter bio — that’s 20 more than a usual tweet. As a business, you either sell a product customers need or provide a service they want. State what your business is and what it does. If you have extra characters to spare, add a third element: why what your business does is important.

For instance, consider Amnesty International’s Twitter bio, which jokes but also informs and calls for action: “We’ve been fighting the bad guys since 1961 — you can join us! Official Amnesty International USA profile. . .”

Appearance

The text isn’t the only aspect of your Twitter bio. In fact, between 6 to 10 percent of Twitter users follow people based on their profile picture. Of course, as a business you need a symbol. While abstract symbols such as Nike’s swoosh have taken decades to become globally recognized, a start-up or smaller business should choose a symbol that is representative of the product or service they offer.

Southwest Airlines, for example, uses the tail of an airplane as a symbol, masked in their signature colors of blue, orange and yellow. Skittles has a simple picture of their product.

Don’t’s

If you’re still not convinced of the importance of your Twitter bio, know that your Twitter handle and bio appear when your business is Googled. If you scour the Twitter-verse you’ll find phrases in bios that are overused. Phrases such as “social media guru/maven/ninja” are all signs you probably don’t know much about social media. Clichés such as “junkie” or “self-proclaimed” in accordance with your business or specialty should be avoided.

Mayhem Studios Twitter bio does just this, and while the curator of the feed has changed his phrasing, the tone of the bio still comes off as self-promotion rather than helpful and interested in the community Twitter provides.

@MadFruiteStand, which promotes Apple products, fails to tell users the purpose of the account. It simply states, “Tweets are entirely my own, and not my boss.” This bio gives users no information about what the site’s purpose is why anyone should follow it.