Optimize Your Socials: The Difference Between a Vendor and a Brand

Today on the podcast, we're going to look at why and how you should optimize your social media handles if you are in business. And on this podcast, when I say optimize your profile or optimize your handle, I just mean make it look pretty, make it look attractive, make you appear credible. So we're going to look at the why and the how we should do that for our social media handles, especially if you are in business. Hello and welcome.

My name is Tavish Shima Ayede. I'm the host of the podcast Making today's recording at home. So there will be noise in the background. Now, the goal of this podcast is solving business problems, including problems that we can solve online so that we can attract more customers. So if those are the sorts of things that you are trying to figure out at the moment, then this podcast is your jam. So subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, or any player of your choice.

And if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on 08064662140. So when or why or how to optimize your social media handles if you are in business now, first of all, the reason why we should be making our social media handles look attractive, look pretty, look credible, look, you know, whatever it is you want to call it. The reason why we should do that is because most of the contacts or most of the prospects that we are reaching out to will definitely be checking us out.

Let me repeat, we're in business and the way that we want to make our businesses to grow is every single day or every single week, you know, we're reaching out to people, we're going for meetings, we're sending text messages, we're networking, we're making phone calls, we're sending emails. Once in a while somebody says, you know what, who is this guy's of? And then they Google you or they go and they check your LinkedIn or they check your Instagram.

It doesn't help if you're in front of someone saying all the right things, talking all the right jazz, they're going to go and check you, you know your Instagram handle. The thing now, no relate. They are song to someone who is in the I think was in the web 3 space. I checked the guys Instagram handle and what was it again? I can't remember No, I mean was it the other way around? Now the guy said he wants to be in the fitness space.

He's supposed to be in the fitness space. I checked the guy's Instagram handle, everything there now web 3, see what's the correlation You're going around talking to everybody, talking fitness, fitness, fitness when they check your Instagram handle everything web three web three Web 3 crypto. You know the thing no blend the thing, no jive. So we should always optimize our handles. We should always make sure there's some congruence between what you are saying, what you're presenting, and then the thing that is showing up online.

Like if some of you know, go and check me based on all the things that I'm saying here. And then on my Instagram handle, on my LinkedIn, on my everything, all you can see is chess videos. You know, somehow it's not as if there's a problem with chess. The fact that I love chess, if I might say I'm being the authentic me, that because I love chess and I'm a chess improver and my hand is good, my hand is strong when it comes to chess, I should be putting up chess videos.

But The thing is, the thing no align, the thing no correlate, so doesn't make sense. Our social media handles should be optimized for those of us who are in business in supposed flow. Now for those of you who work 9:00 to 5:00 and you know, blah, blah, blah, like you guys can afford to just you know what my social media is my social media. If you don't like, you can go and Hulk transformer. But for the rest of us, we can't afford the segue and Hulk transformer everything suppose blend.

So optimizing your social media profile is important, very, very important. It helps to build your online brand presence. It helps to increase visibility. It helps to drive growth. I'm sure you've heard of some people talk about social media optimization. But anyway, I'm not going to learn that importance on my own opinion on that because, you know, sometimes I feel as if, you know, to make it easy to sell your service.

People just come for all kinds of things. So anyway, social media optimization, people talk about those sorts of things nowadays. So anyway, when I say optimization now, because I realized that I've been saying on the podcast, not just on the podcast, but on my radio show, I've been saying optimize your handle, Optimize your handle. Is it now occurred to me that, you know, Tavish man, you've been saying optimize your handle, but you're not really explaining to people what what we should be optimizing.

So that's OK Today. Let me try and do a small expanded episode where I talk small or some of these things. So First off, username or handle it should be consistent across all your handles. You understand the formula for LinkedIn, the formula for your TikTok for whatever. It should be the same. You should not be bad guy 964 on Instagram. Then when they check you on LinkedIn, your name is Abubakar Ramu. Then they check you on TikTok.

Is Rami the bad boy? See. No consistency there. So for now, if you can't think of anything to do, just use your real name, Abubakar Ramu, and then just put it complete on everything for now while you're thinking what kind of username or what kind of handle should I have? But sure, there should be some consistency. There should be a formula for your favorite content provider, business provider, you know, whatever. You can see some uniformity.

If you're trying to track down Zenith Bank on channels, I say channels on Twitter, for instance, you want to rake that you try doing a transaction. The thing didn't go through, you know, like based on their website, you'll be able to guess that OK, you know what Zenith Bank supposed be zenith dot something something or zenith under score something something because there's some uniformity to their handles. So let's make sure that the names you pick, the handles you pick should be consistent.

Now, the reason why it's important is because when the names of pick are consistent, it builds brand recognition and it makes it easier for customers to find you. So even when somebody's not sure, they can't kind of guess that OK, based on the name on Instagram, if I'm checking for them on Tiktok, I suppose try, you know, and you'll try something and it might work. So these are the reasons why we should keep it consistent across all the handles.

Now, of course, this also makes us look more professional. Yeah. So apart from reinforcing brand identity, it makes us appear more professional. Now, there's plenty of talk about whether the handle you pick should be related to, you know, your business, your job or. But I'm not getting into that debate today, but let's just make sure it's uniform. So let's say you're wedding photographer. Whether you pick Tavishima mad photos for instance.

And yes people do have handles like that because there was a guy that used to follow back in the day and his own was fro. Fro knows photos because was a teacher in the photography space and the guy had a mad Afro as in the guys half cast. But somehow the guy made it work. The Afro is mad, real mad. So fro knows photos. That was his thing. Website Fro knows photos. Instagram Fro knows photos. Blog Fro knows photos, YouTube Fro knows photos.

You can see the consistency. So like in his own case, his handle now is trying to allude to something that, you know, the white boy with Afro, he knows photos. So I'm not going to enter that whole debate or whether I pick something professional. You know, somebody would say pick something professional. Like, OK, let's say, let's say his business name is Verizon. So say no, no use Verizon Photography or Verizon, Verizon training incorporated or something.

So I'm not going to that whole debate. But whatever it is, you pick Verizon photography, Verizon training services or through nose photos or adequately on the beat or whatever. Sha, let it be consistent adequately on the beat website, adequately on the beat Instagram, adequately on the beat TikTok. So that's what it's supposed to be. Then you're let's see what else image, optimize your image. In fact, that's why I'm talking of bringing this thing up now,

because for one of my clients yesterday before we started making calls to clients, I said, look, let's check your profile because everything has to be on point because we'll call these people. Not everybody will pick, we'll drop message. Some people will check, some people will check us out before they call us back. So I said, let me see your social media. Once I open it, I say, hey, because the profile picture was Jaws.

It was one kind. The guy took a picture of himself looking fly standing in front of AC and he was doing like that, you know, now, like from secondary school, that gangster pose, you know, you lean forward a bit, then like you fold your arm, then you cop your chin with two fingers. They now make peace sign. That was the LinkedIn pictures. Bro, bro, bro. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no beer. We have to take this thing down.

And I'm glad that he didn't. He didn't argue with me. He didn't quarrel before. He did it immediately. And I was, I was glad. See, See, you should just trust me on some of these things. There's no need to argue too much, no need to talk too much. If somebody just tell you, don't accept and just take dressing. So I told you know what you do? Get one of your guys in the office to hold the phone up. Go and stand against the blank wall next to the window or face the window so that the light will fall on your face.

Make sure the background is clean. Then come close. Give it a nice crop. Your phone is iPhone. Abby, you guys say yes, put it in portrait mode, then I'll upload. That's what we'll do for now. Whether you want to do professional headshot and everything, worry about that later. But for now, remove that picture of you doing gangster lean in front of AC. And I'm wondering why even taking picture in front of AC. See these are the things that we don't really think through when we enter into business and one said no per social media handles.

But believe me I've I've seen it all I've seen profile picture of guy wearing sunglasses like what I wear sunglasses for this is LinkedIn. You know I've seen guys wearing sunglasses I've seen ladies in spaghetti top. Although for that one me I just keep quiet because I don't want anybody to blast me though say that that you know how like the atmosphere is very hot these days. So when it comes to my woman, my tardy sorts of things, I don't put my mouth too much.

But yeah, I've seen a spaghetti top. I say really well. LinkedIn handle. Excuse me? On LinkedIn handle. You want people to take you seriously and you're doing spaghetti top with a bubble gum, Bubble gum lip gloss. That's OK. No problem. No, I'm here. I didn't say anything. Let not be made that door start harassing now they'll say that anyway. So excuse me. Profile image, yes, so high quality image. Like I explained, you don't need much.

Those of you that use iPhone, it's not a problem. Those of you that even use Android phone is not a problem. Take whatever phone you do you use, put it in profile mode. While staying next to the window, make sure the wall is blank or turn around face the window so that the sunlight is falling on your face. Check your background. Make sure nobody's at the back. Make sure you're the background is nice and clear. Have somebody hold the phone.

Take a few. You know back back, back. Why smile back, back, back. Why I don't smile. Be straight back, back, back. You know you take a few from the 9 or the 10 or the 15 that you have. You start to delete. I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this. You'll find one that is manageable that you can be using for now is a placeholder or to get a better image for those of you who want to do profile picture. If you've already paid someone to do logo for you and problem solved, just carry your logo slot in there.

Problem solved. But then keep it consistent. LinkedIn let it be logo, Instagram logo, TikTok logo everywhere logo. Remember, uniformity for those of you who are going with logo is all right because you know, your logo is like your visual representation, you know of the brand. So you're ready to put some work into it. You might as well use it. There's no point in paying people 450K to design logo design, banner design,

everything, and they don't use it. Go ahead and use it. So that's for profile image. Then another thing we need to optimize is the bio or the about section. Keep it short. Some people make it too long. Already spoken about technical jargon. Yes, I'm going to pick on my brothers and sisters who are front end and back end web developer is too long. Front and back end web developer Unix systems certified AI something something compliant.

Google certified something something JavaScript triple plus blah blah. As in it is much the buyer is supposed to answer the question, who are you? What do you do really our potential customers when they see it, that's the answer. If you get who are you and what do you do? So when you throw up all that technical thing, JavaScript, CCV something, something plus Panda 2.0 something, HTML, Google certified some like it's it's a whole lot, except if you're selling to a technical audience.

OK, so remove the jargon. The thing that you should write and by the way, should be short because in case you haven't figured it out, for Instagram or your bio, I think is the first two or three lines that will show. For LinkedIn is the first two or three lines that will show. There's space where the thing says click more. But you see the pattern forming now is usually the first two or three lines that people will see.

So when I say short, I mean short. You can't start telling a story that Tavishima Ayede is a pivotal something something something since the age of five years old when he's something something something. If they can't see it in the first two lines, then forget it. When you arrive and you establish and become a brand a hair, no problem, they will click on learn more. But until then, keep it short. Anything you're putting in bio should answer 2 questions only.

Who are you? What do you do? Bam, that's it with the customer who just wants to know what's in it for them. Now use relevant keywords that people used to search for businesses like yours. So for those of you who are front end, back end developer, my own opinion, you should find a way to put website inside there. You should find a way to put apps inside there because really I think that's what your customers are looking for.

They're looking for websites and they're looking for apps. Now, whether you use JavaScript, CC plus something, whether you are AI something, something Google certified, Panda plus something, you know, all those Python programming something. The average person doesn't need to know all that thing yet when you're having the discussions, if they're technical minded and they want to know which program language are you using?

Are you using Panda? Why are you using Python? Why are you using Anaconda or whatever it is that programming language you guys are using nowadays? Then you can now tell them by in the beginning, just remove all that stuff from the bio. Who are you? What do you do? That's all. You can put keywords, put keywords there. It is not by accident that if you check any of my BIOS, you will see the word sales inside there. You will see the word marketing inside there.

You will see the word Nigeria inside there because I'm not just about sales or marketing, but I'm about sales or marketing in the Nigerian context since a lot of the stuff that we have out there usually is from an American context or Auk context. So it's not by accident. Keywords should be in your bio because those are the things that people will be looking for or the things that people will remember. Now link in bio, especially those of you who are on on Instagram.

So for most of us as well, we'll put our website URLURL is the, what's it called, Uniform Resource Locator, Abby, or something like that. But basically is that blue link. Now when somebody clicks it, they'll go where you want them to go. Now, the reason why I say you have to optimize that link is because when people come to our profile, we're also trying to send them somewhere. We're trying to send the traffic somewhere maybe send it to your website send it to your blog.

Those of you who like to who sell stuff online, like let's say you are one of these retailers that you sell children's pajamas on Instagram yes, it's a thing children's pajamas them day if I every Christmas, you know wifey likes to buy Christmas pajamas for the kids if I should buy one for me last year was was real cute. It was nice. So I'm beginning to catch the catch the vibe. Before I used to think this woman has come again.

What is wrong with the old pajamas? But you know, I'm getting the idea now is real nice, all of us wearing pajamas, everybody looking cute on Christmas Eve. So I'm feeling it. I'm feeling it by the way, those of you young men who haven't married yet, you know, some of us who can be stiff in our ways, you know, for the sake of our wives and for the sake of our pleasure, so we can enjoy the marriage. Once you marry, you know, relax some things, you know, you don't draw us.

You know, you relax some of your standards. So it's taken me a long time to learn about me, to see that there's some things that I should relax, like birthday parties, man, I used to vex. Like, look, we don't need to throw birthday parties. You know, nobody threw birthday parties for me and I was OK. I knew my parents loved me Whenever I was like, look, in my own house, every single birthday was marked. So, you know, you don't marry now, so achieve a happy compromise.

So as a guy, you can't say, look, nobody celebrated birthdays for me. We are not celebrating birthdays for the children. So happy compromise. So for those of you who now sell pajamas on LinkedIn, so LinkedIn on Instagram, in your bio, you can have the link to your website so that once they click from Instagram and they go to your website, yeah, they'll see all the options that you have and maybe even other things that you sell.

So this link in bio thing is also very important. So give it some thought, that space where they say link, what are you going to put there? So for me now for my LinkedIn, the thing that I put there was the link to my podcast from YouTube. So you see, I gave you some deliberate thought. If anybody comes to check me out on LinkedIn, they suppose know that the podcast and the link to the podcast should be there. At first I used to put Spotify but then my father-in-law told me that I said TA.

I said yes Sir. So every time I click on this thing it takes me to Spotify and he says I should download Spotify but I don't want to download Spotify. I said Sir, Are you sure? He said yes. So as I had to call a few people and I say it's true, every time I click on it you say take me to Spotify and Spotify would say I should download. So I say you know what? Instead of giving people extra work, let me just put the YouTube link only because YouTube, once they click, the thing will just play straight.

So for me, I have my YouTube link now for you, for your business, give it some thought. That place where they say link for lots of you, it's empty. Put something there. Where do we want to send people? It's kind of like a call to action. Do you want them to see our website? Do you want them to go to the blog? Do you want them to see our online store? Send people somewhere because your social media is also like a gateway gateways like you know that entrance where people will see you, They will come here and then they'll now discover some more, some more stuff about you now, like on LinkedIn and I

think on Instagram. Some people used to use this thing a long time ago. The thing is not raining again, I think was called a link tree, a link tree. You now click on that one link and link tree will now send them to a page where all the different links about you will be there, all your other social media, all your website, all your blog, all your everything they want people to know. So link tree is also an option. But I notice that link tree know the, you know the rain again,

but it's an option. It's still there. So let's see what else? OK, we've already spoken about photo, cover photo. See, I'm not sure what to call it. Some people call you cover photo. Yeah, I call you background photo. But The thing is on your profile picture, like on LinkedIn, it's it's a circle. Then there's a, now there's a bigger picture behind that profile picture that is a rectangle, very long rectangle. So that's one of some people call cover photo.

Yeah, I called our background photo. I don't know what the name is, but sure, you also have to optimize that one as well. Now for me, it's blank because, you know, I don't get design skills and, you know, I should get that sorted. Yeah, I'll talk to somebody. I should get that sorted. I should not be hypocrit, I shouldn't be telling people, I shouldn't be giving you guys advice now meanwhile me, I'm not following that advice.

We are going to get that sorted. But then it's like I said, it's a rectangle and it's horizontal, like a rectangle that is lying down, lying down or standing up. So it's on top of your profile. And sometimes we use it to convey like brand essence or to showcase different products, you know, things like that. So if you have to do that, just make sure that it's consistent with what you're using on other platforms, because you'll be somehow if they open your Instagram and everything is black and green, then they open your LinkedIn and everything is blue and purple and open your TikTok and everything is red and turquoise, you know, somehow.

So the gas be some uniformity to all this design. For those of you who say I don't like branding, you can see that I'm not against branding, I'm not against Brandon. I just think we should pay attention to some things first before we get there. So yeah, it also adds a professional talk, so we should pay attention to that. That's also something that we should optimize. Then contract information and business details. This is the one that blows my mind.

We are in business. I repeat, we are in business. Should I say one more time, we are in business. The whole point is we're trying to sell something. Why the hell do you have an Instagram profile or a LinkedIn profile or something? You didn't put your phone number. Come on. The goal is you want somebody to call us, put your phone numbers there. The team blows my mind. There are some people that I see them. I'm like, oh, OK, you know what a collaboration with this guy,

you know is opposed sweets. You know, oh, I want to buy something from this babe. But then you check the handle. No phone number. Stop relying on DM only. We need to put people in close proximity to us. The quicker it is for somebody to jump into my SMS or jump into my inbox, he pays me and he will pay you too. So contact information, business details. If you have a physical shop, put your address there. In fact, not only put your address, you can go to Google and do that thing where you get the Google link, put it there too, so that when they see the address and they click on the link, the thing will just open Google Maps for them.

I will just start showing them directions about how to drive straight to your shop. Stop leaving this thing black. Too many people leave it blank. Contact information, business details, phone number, put it there. Address, put it there. Google Maps, put it there. e-mail address, put it there. But of course, you know, I'm not a fan of e-mail. But anyway, I'll explain that later. So the reason why all of this is important contact information,

business detail, is because it's giving people essential details. Potential customers is telling them this is how you reach this guy. This is how you reach this babe. That's the whole point. It is the whole point if you're listening to me and this is 2025, like I still don't get it. In fact, this my 2 clients I were talking about yesterday, I noticed, but I didn't want to harass them. I noticed that phone number is missing contact information,

business details blank. Like like really, what's the what's the whole point? What's the point of creating the profile? What for? So that people come and see us, see our handsome face and then do what? Oh, those hand DM OK, no problem. Send DM. Let's be honest, how often do you check your Instagram DM or your LinkedIn DM by the time you check and you see that person sent you messages two weeks ago, you really think since that last two week they've been waiting for you, they have gone to look for somebody else to solve their business problems.

So please, contact information, business details, make sure that area is populated, please. Then some people also say we should optimize content. I won't get into that now, but yeah, the whole idea is basically content is, you know, photos, videos, texts, blog posts, everything that you put out. So it's also part of your social media handle. So some people say everything should be consistent, you know, consistent brand voice, visual style, what else?

Use hashtags, keywords, you know, all those sorts of things. I won't get into all that now. I won't get into all that now, especially since if I start, I will acknowledge some people. So let me just stop with that. But bottom line is, like I said, when we create these profiles there, it's not just because the technology is there. It is because we are in business or we want to be in business. The whole point of being in business or wanting to be in business is we want to find a customer.

We want customers to find us. We're trying to make it easier for people to find us. So we're supposed to optimize our profile, make it sweet, make it palatable, make it look credible, give people the information that they need so they can reach out to us. Also because when you reach out to people, some people in deciding whether they will call you back is when did they check you out first. That's all people that I reach out to and you know, it's like then they stopped me and said no problem.

It's not no Ala I let it go. Eventually they discovered the podcast and it's a senior man now. You you see how things change. There was one guy that I was trying to talk to about a couple of things and you know, it's like gyno to raped me. No problem. I left it. Eventually we jammed at a wedding. Another person was like, you know this guy, He's saying, yeah, I've been known. Now you know this guy be I know who he be so you haven't heard of so so and that the guy be this all of a sudden attitude changed.

By the way, that was good me. I was nothing like a celebrity like ah, correct. Like my levels are changing. I was nothing like a big boy. He felt good, honestly felt very good. Is how you know this guy. You know who he be. So anyway, so it's like that we reach out to people, people check us, they check us out. And you know, if we package our social media handle well, it affects the way that people rate US. So we reach out to someone in the beginning, you know, they know they don't know who you are, no to send you.

But then by the time they check your profile, say, OK, this guy is correct. OK, this babe knows one or two things and I'll call you back. Conversation continues. By the way, when people snob, you don't take it personal. You know, people are busy all kinds of things going on. It's not you that they're rejecting personally is the value proposition. They don't see the value yet. So don't don't take it personal. In the beginning, I think used to vex me that I even had a folder on my computer that called the F you folder.

I used to put people's name there. Anybody that's not me, I will put it put the name there as I one day my wife discovered it. I just like, you know, time it was this. I said that's my F you folder. So what does that mean? I say it's people that when I make it, I want to look at them and say F you. Then in the beginning you snubbed me. My wife was like, ah, that's childish. Now I said, hey, it's childish. I be say, yeah, that's that's very childish is immature.

It's like, yeah, I should delete the folder. But she said, yeah, please delete it. Delete it. You're more than this. So I've deleted it. I don't have a nephew folder, but yes, he used to pay me in the beginning. I said, you snub me. I'll carry your name and put it there in the F you folder. So when I arrived, I was a look at me. You see me? Look at me in the eye, You see me? Yeah, bastard. F you. You know how to do business with me now.

I'm a big guy. I'm a big guy. I'm a big boy. I've arrived. If you get away from here. So, yeah, that was back when I was in my child, childish. So don't be like me. Don't take it personal. Just, you know, do your business. You know, everybody's busy. They all got things going on. So optimize the social media handles. Helps to give you credibility, helps to give you presents, you know, makes it easy for people to reach you.

You know, if you're still not sure, just rewind back and listen to everything again. You'll find enough reasons why I should optimize your social media handles. So that's it. And that's all for today. Remember, if you'd love to connect, you can call, send me a text message or WhatsApp message on 08064662140. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I will catch you next time in your headphones or in your speakers.

So I will catch you guys next episode. Yeah, probably tomorrow.