Is Your Voice Being Heard?
- Sunday, January 30 2011 @ 09:45 am
- Contributed by: Jet
- Views: 1,594
So you’ve constructed a new profile for an online dating site. You’ve got a good picture, and you’ve made sure the text is limited to a few paragraphs. You have an eye-catching headline. You’re good to go, right?
Well, maybe, but don’t put away that editing pen just yet. Sometimes, we get so caught up in the mechanics of good profiles that we forget one major point: someone is going to read this. Someone should want to meet you, or at least learn more about you, based on reading these few paragraphs. So ask yourself two major questions: Does it sound like you? And, more importantly, is it interesting?
Think of a profile as less like a resume and more like the beginning of your first meeting. Thus, the tone of the profile should far less professional, and far more conversational. Keeping this conversational aspect in mind when you’re writing it can actually lead to a more structurally sound profile, as well: after all, in an informal meeting, you wouldn’t give an endless laundry list of your accomplishments and skills, would you? Nor should you in your profile. Thus, pretending you’re having a conversation leads to something more natural and readable.
When we spend too long editing and re-editing our profiles, we can sometimes eradicate every trace of our personality. This is doing a disservice to ourselves in two ways. First of all, if you sound too generic, your profile could be passed over altogether. Secondly, the profile should hopefully be a glimpse into your “voice.” If your emails are drastically different than your profile, your potential match may wonder who you really are. Now, most people understand that a quickly-written email is different from a carefully worded profile, especially when they have profiles of their own. Still, make sure you can find at least a glimmer of yourself in your profile.
‘Style’ can be an intimidating word in the world of writing, but in the realm of online dating profiles it simply means we want to hear your voice. Are you truly being heard?
Well, maybe, but don’t put away that editing pen just yet. Sometimes, we get so caught up in the mechanics of good profiles that we forget one major point: someone is going to read this. Someone should want to meet you, or at least learn more about you, based on reading these few paragraphs. So ask yourself two major questions: Does it sound like you? And, more importantly, is it interesting?
Think of a profile as less like a resume and more like the beginning of your first meeting. Thus, the tone of the profile should far less professional, and far more conversational. Keeping this conversational aspect in mind when you’re writing it can actually lead to a more structurally sound profile, as well: after all, in an informal meeting, you wouldn’t give an endless laundry list of your accomplishments and skills, would you? Nor should you in your profile. Thus, pretending you’re having a conversation leads to something more natural and readable.
When we spend too long editing and re-editing our profiles, we can sometimes eradicate every trace of our personality. This is doing a disservice to ourselves in two ways. First of all, if you sound too generic, your profile could be passed over altogether. Secondly, the profile should hopefully be a glimpse into your “voice.” If your emails are drastically different than your profile, your potential match may wonder who you really are. Now, most people understand that a quickly-written email is different from a carefully worded profile, especially when they have profiles of their own. Still, make sure you can find at least a glimmer of yourself in your profile.
‘Style’ can be an intimidating word in the world of writing, but in the realm of online dating profiles it simply means we want to hear your voice. Are you truly being heard?
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