Get the Perfect Profile
In this digital age, your online face is as important as your real life mug. Make sure you get it right with our top tips
Be interesting! No one gives a tweet about what you’re eating for breakfast or how tidy your flat looks after you did a spring clean. It’s banal and annoying. That’s what scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded after a year-long study, anyway. Instead, they say, try to be funny or genuinely informative about an event or issue.
Snapchat
The first thing to remember is that while Snapchat pictures self-destruct after 10 seconds, any quick-fingered recipient can just use a mate’s phone to take a picture of the action. So if you’re going to send a sexy snap to someone, you might as well do it properly. Think hard about whether you want to include your face.
Update your status regularly to keep your page fresh and interesting. Photos are a great way of keeping people engaged with your life, but be careful not to post anything that makes you look like a drugs fiend, a racist or a sleazy womaniser. Prospective employers may well check your profile before that important job interview, and it won’t help your chances.
As any pro photographer knows, you need to shoot during the ‘golden hour’ for the best natural light – that’s either the hour after sunrise or the hour before sunset. You could also try converting some of your pictures into black and white for a more dramatic effect. That said, a recent study found that blue-tinted images receive 24 per cent more ‘likes’ than images where the main colour is red or orange. Similarly, they found posts with a high proportion of background space attract 29 percent more likes than images that are closely cropped.
Tinder
The key to finding love, romance or whatever on Tinder is mastering the art of the selfie. A study revealed in January that a full-body image will boost both sexes’ messages by an average of 203 per cent. It also found that men get 19 percent more positive responses if their pictures are taken outdoors. Meanwhile, posing with animals or your best mate might seem cute, but it reduces your sex appeal by 53 percent. Spelling and grammar is important too: text speak and illiteracy will lower your chances of being liked by 13 per cent.
From the April 2014 issue of FHM India.
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