Filling in your bio is one of the most important things you can do as a new Twitter user.

If you don’t have a huge following or a lot of tweets, your bio is the only thing that’s going to differentiate you from all of the other Twitter trolls, so you need to make it stand out.

Many people like to put their place of employment in their Twitter bio. I think this is necessary for journalists or for those whose Twitter credibility rests on their job, but it’s not essential for everyone to include it. Personally, I’ve always avoided putting my employer in my bio, because it’s not necessarily related to what I’m tweeting and I doubt that they would want to be associated with my ramblings about Kim Kardashian’s nudes.

Your bio should reflect what you tweet about. There’s no point in having a bio that says “Sarah, 20, fitness fanatic, harry potter nerd”, if all you tweet about is the Great British Bake Off. As I have written previously, developing a Twitter brand is key, and your bio is part of this brand.

My Twitter bio is pretty basic, I am the (unpaid) Online Editor of the University Observer so I’ve included that. I also included that I’m studying Digital Marketing because I tend to tweet a lot of tech or social related news. Finally, I rounded it off with something a bit more personal and less serious – the fact that me and Kim Kardashian have the same middle name. This puts it out there that I’m a Kim fan, which is essential because so many people aren’t. There’s no point in anyone following me if they truly hate Kim because I pretty much tweet about the Kardashians 50% of the time.

One thing most people on Twitter detest is that bio where you just list words eg: “Mother. Runner. Musician. Kale Enthusiast. Entrepreneur.” I’m sorry, no. Write full sentences. Describe yourself in detail. Lucinda Creighton has a gas bio of this nature, but I forgive her for it because of all the over the top hashtags. Two wrongs make a right I guess?

Another pet peeve of mine is people who put “All Views My Own” or some variation within their bio. Now, in an ideal world, the only people including this in their bio are people who are required to do so by their employer. Sadly, this is not the case. There are some absolute lunatics out there who think they need to do it even though they’re on the dole and only tweet about the Premier League. Please only include this if you’ve been told to. Please.

I think it’s great to put in some sort of link in your bio, whether it’s a hashtag to a cause you believe in, a publication you write for, the university you’re attending, or a group that you’re associated with. It just adds more credibility to your profile, and also enables people to simply click it to find out more, rather than having to search for the publication, uni, group, etc.

I’ve put together a few bios that I like, for no particular reason. Perhaps you can gain inspiration from them.