Planning to create a new social media profile for you or your brand? If you don’t want to miss any step of the process, keep scrolling and check out this Social Media profile creation guide plus my handy downloadable checklist.
Here is what I will be sharing with you in this article (click through the links below if you are searching for something specific)
- Social Media Profile Creation – The Basics – Email Address
- Social Media Profile Creation – The Basics – Password
- Social Media Profile Creation – The Basics – Username (Custom URL)
- Social Media Profile Creation – The Basics – Categories & Account Types
- Social Media Profile Creation – The Basics – Profile & Cover photo Specs
- Social Media Profile Creation – Other Must-Have Elements
- When You Are Ready: Get The Checklist
How many social media accounts are too many?
Did you know that there are currently 2.46 billion social network users worldwide. And while the most popular social media is Facebook with over 2 billion active users, internet users have an average of 7 social accounts.
I repeat… SEVEN!
Moreover, each web user spends an average two hours and 15 minutes per day on social networks and online messaging platforms.
So what does this mean for marketers?
It means that we have to be there for these users. We have to always be on the look out for where our potential users are spending their time at. And it looks like people are spending almost 15% of their awake time on social media.
There is no such things as “I have too many social media profiles”.
Why? Because there are many benefits and goals that you can achieve by having a few extra social media accounts. For example:
- You want to save your brand name handle across the major social media channels to avoid imposters;
- You want to create a few extra backlinks to your website or blog;
- You want to learn how to create a social media account in a network you haven’t worked with before;
Social Media Profile Creation – The Basics
In the section below I have listed the very basics you need in order to create a new social media account in one of the top social network sites currently.
Email Address
Some social media allow you to use 3rd party log in information (for example: “sign up with your Facebook account”). Others require you to sign up using an email address that you own and have access to.
Making this the first step to take when creating a social media profile: have an email address.
You can create an email address for free at Gmail or Yahoo or you can use an email connected to your domain, for example [email protected]
The important thing to remember when using an email address to register in a social network is that you definitely should make sure that you are using an email address you have access to. All of the social profiles you will be creating will require a verification step via email.
Password
Second step for you is to pick a secure password for your new social account.
Many experts advice that a strong password contains: small and capital letters, numbers and special characters or symbols.
There are a lot of free online password generators that you can use, to name a few:
Note: It is possible that not all websites allow special characters and symbols.
Username (Custom URL)
Next, you will have to pick a username (custom URL) for your new social media profile or page.
How To Pick A Social Media Username – Best Practices
If you are a brand, the best option for you in the long term is to choose a username that authentically represents your business or brand – like your business name or abbreviation. But you should as well take into consideration how do people search for your business online. Are you well-known as “International Business Machines” or do people know you as “IBM”?
If you are creating a new social profile for your personal brand, the best option is to use your name/nickname as your username.
And if you are just creating a social media account for your own personal use, you can play around with these username generators to get a few ideas:
How To Check Username Availability?
While you can check each social media separately, there are as well websites where you can check if username is available across all social media. Examples of such free websites:
Here is the downloadable checklist that you can use:
Click here to access the Social Media Profile Creation Checklist!
Social Media Username Requirements
Below are listed the different requirements that you need to take into consideration when creating your new profile:
| Social Network | Notes/Requirements |
| www.facebook.com/EXAMPLE/ You need to be an admin to create a username for your Page. Your Page’s username will appear below your Page’s name and in your Page’s URL.
Note: Keep in mind that new Pages may not immediately be able to create a username, and that your Page’s username may be removed because of inactivity. | |
| YouTube | youtube.com/EXAMPLE and/or youtube.com/CHANNEL/EXAMPLE
Note: To create a custom URL for your channel, your account needs to meet the following requirements:
In general, a YouTube channel may only have one (1) custom URL and custom URLs cannot be transferred or assigned to anyone. |
www.instagram.com/EXAMPLE/
| |
www.twitter.com/EXAMPLE/
| |
www.reddit.com/user/EXAMPLE/
| |
www.pinterest.com/EXAMPLE/
| |
| ASKfm | ask.fm/EXAMPLE/ Unknown requirements. |
| Tumblr | EXAMPLE.tumblr.com
|
| Flickr | www.flickr.com/people/EXAMPLE/ and www.flickr.com/photos/EXAMPLE/
Note: Please note that your screen name and Alias (URL) are changed separately. |
| Google+ | The following requirements need to be met to get a Custom URL for your Google+ page:
Note: Custom URLs must meet the Google+ User Content and Conduct Policy and the Google+ custom URLs terms of use. |
www.linkedin.com/company/EXAMPLE/
|
Pin this for later:
Category and Account Type
In some social media channels you will be allowed or required to pick a profile/page category. These categories should best fit the line of business you do or the goal of your new social media profile.
| Social Network | Notes/Requirements |
The available Facebook page types are as follows:
Click here to check out the available Facebook page categories for each type of page. Note: Please note that the category you pick can later be changed from the About section of your page and there will be a ton of other categories to pick from. | |
| YouTube | There are two account types on YouTube:
However, as a creator or brand channel, you do not need to join the paid YouTube Red. Your videos will automatically shown to YouTube Red subscribers, while creating a secondary revenue stream in addition to what you will be earning through regular ads. Meaning that there is no need for you to pick a specific category or channel type on Youtube. Nevertheless, I should as well note that there is a difference between:
When you first create a YouTube profile, you will start off as a “user” and then you will need to as well create a “channel”. More about this you can read in YouTube’s Creators Forum.
|
| On Instagram you first start of as a Personal Account which you can later convert to a Business Account via the app. For brands and creators it is recommended to switch to a Business Account in order to take advantage of Instagram’s Business tools and features like Insights and Ads. Instagram Business Accounts can pick from the following main categories:
Each of these categories have subcategories to pick from. | |
| On Twitter there are no account types nor categories. | |
| On Reddit there are no account types nor categories. | |
| Pinterest has personal profiles and business profiles. You can either start by creating a personal profile and then convert it to a business one, or you can directly create a Business Profile. Once you create or convert to a Business Profile on Pinterest, you can pick from the following Pinterest Business Types:
| |
| ASKfm | ASKfm is not very popular for businesses and brands and there isn’t a business account type nor any profile categories to pick from. Nevertheless, ASKfm launched verified accounts – to verify celebrities and other well-known brands. Click here to check out what are the criteria for getting a verified blue badge on ASKfm . |
| Tumblr | On Tumblr there are no account types nor categories. |
| Flickr | On Flickr there are no account types nor categories. |
| Google+ | On Google+ there are Brand Accounts and Google+ pages. To create a brand account visit this link. And if you are a local business, you can as well create a profile in Google My Business. |
| On LinkedIn you should first create a Personal Profile, and afterwards you can as well create a Company Profile. The company types that you need to pick from are:
Afterward you will pick a industry from almost a hundred options. |
Profile and Cover Photo Specs
Now that you have signed up for the social network, you would want to add the profile and cover photos.
It’s a well known practice brands to use their logo as a profile photo and individuals to use their own professionally-taken photo. When it comes to cover photos, you can either keep them consistent across all your social media channels, or create special cover photos for each of them.
Here are the current profile and cover photo dimensions for some of the most-used social networks:
| Social Network | Notes/Requirements |
| |
| YouTube |
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| ASKfm |
|
| Tumblr |
|
| Flickr |
|
| Google+ |
|
|
Pin this for later:
Social Media Profile Creation – Other Must-Have Elements
The last step of you social media profile creation are the additional must-have details you would want to add.
| Social Network | Notes/Requirements |
| |
| YouTube |
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| ASKfm |
|
| Tumblr |
|
| Flickr |
|
| Google+ |
|
|
Now that you know all the specifics of the most-used social media channels, do you feel ready to create a new one for your brand or yourself?
Here is the downloadable checklist that you can use:
Click here to access the Social Media Profile Creation Checklist!
Even More Useful Templates And Spreadsheets For Marketers
- 2018 Marketing Campaign & Content Planning Template
- 2018 KPI tracking Spreadsheet
- 2017 Annual Social Media Content Calendar Spreadsheet
- Daily Social Media Post planning Spreadsheet – Old Version
- Daily Social Media Post planning Spreadsheet – New & Improved Version
- Instagram Post Performance Tracking Template (coming soon)
- Blog Content Calendar Planning Template (coming soon)
- Blog Post SEO Checklist (coming soon)
- Productivity: Weekly Tasks Template (coming soon – meanwhile, you can check out this blog post on productivity – dumb vs. smart productivity hacks for marketers)
Thank you for reading!
If you liked this guide and my downloadable checklist don’t forget to share it with the social buttons below.
