“Never identify yourself as an expert” is an easy social media myth to bust. Labeling yourself as an authority might make you sound pretentious, but a research done by HubSpot’s social media scientist Dan Zarrella clearly shows that telling your Twitter audience why they should listen to you absolutely works to increase your reach.
Twitter bio is there for a reason. Most people that stumble across your page know nothing about you, so your bio is your chance to tell them a little bit about yourself and why they should listen to what you have to say. If you’re an expert in a given field, then don’t be afraid to identify yourself as such.
In his research, Zarrella analyzed common words found in Twitter bios and found that users who included authoritative words like “official,” “founder,” and the much-dreaded “guru” tended to have more followers than the average Twitter user.
Once people know who you are, they’ll be able to decide whether you’re worth following or not. If you’re someone important, they’re even more likely to want to read whatever you tweet, and furthermore, if you’ve founded a company or authored a book, they’ll be interested in what you think.
One thing to remember, though: on the Internet, anyone can call themselves whatever they want for whatever reason. Ultimately, people will ultimately judge you by what advice you offer and what information you share.
