Introduction
As dating coaches in a highly digital society (and during COVID-19 when it was borderline illegal to meet people any other way), we get asked more and more, “How can I create a dating app profile that gets more swipe rights and more matches?”. With approximately 270 million users of dating apps worldwide, the opportunities are endless. The art of creating the perfect dating app profile is a tricky one, but let’s simplify it. In this blog, we will be discussing the two key components of any dating app profile: the photos and the bio, showing you how to make the most out of these, before stepping through some examples of some not-so-good profiles. Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel, eHarmony, and even Grindr, these principles apply across the board!
Your Photos
The photos you choose for your profile serve a few different functions, the main one is to grab the attention of a potential match. They have to elicit some sort of positive reaction to result in a match or message. They’ve been mindlessly swiping with The Bachelor on in the background, so it’s your job to captivate their attention! Part of eliciting this reaction is building attraction. Your profile photos are the first opportunity your potential matches have to become attracted to you. Make it count.
Everything you add to your profile introduces a source of friction. Put simply, anything you add to your profile carries a risk of being the reason that someone doesn’t match you; the nature of dating apps is to encourage people to make rash decisions based on the smallest detail, so be selective and thoughtful about your photos.
Your photos will be the way that your potential matches get a sense of your character and who you are as a person. You want to choose photos that make you look charismatic, confident, and fun rather than photos that make you look reserved, uncomfortable, or like your friend is behind the camera trying to hype you up and it’s just not working out.
One of the biggest mistakes I see clients make is misinterpreting “fun”. Just because you had fun that night you were blackout drunk with the boys, doesn’t mean it should go on your dating app profile. Make it easy for your potential matches to know who you are in your profile; why should they have to waste time trying to figure out which one you are when they can swipe to the next guy who has heaps of pics of just him, making it super easy to determine if he’s worth a shot? You don’t need group photos to show a girl you have friends with, it will be assumed if you present yourself the right way.
Standing out also means avoiding cliches. You guessed it! Avoid the photos with your morning coffee, brunch, walk around the Tan, or that time you went to the Grand Canyon. When a potential match sees your photos, she will do one of three things
- Immediately swipe left/reject your profile
- Immediately swipe right/it's a match!
- Tap on your profile to read more
So she’s chosen option 3; tapped on your profile, or scrolled a little to read more.
Your bio
The function of your bio/anything you write in your profile is a little more nuanced than the photos but equally as important. Its purpose is to portray a sense of character, indicate whether you and your potential match could get along, distinguish you from the others on the app, and portray you as a person who has high value. Portraying yourself as a high-value person means showing you have standards (in a playful way), for example, on my Hinge bio, one of my prompts was: I am looking for someone who… Can eat a whole pack of Tim Tams in one sitting
Being a high-value person also means being someone who has a lot to offer, without sounding needy or desperate in the process.
Another nuanced aspect of the bio is your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Not to sound like your teacher at school, but don’t make your poor grammar the reason a girl doesn’t match with you! Like with the photos, your spelling, grammar, and punctuation become a source of friction, don’t let an easy mix-up of your and you’re the reason she doesn’t match with you. It’s for this reason that people are more sensitive to these mistakes when it comes to making judgements on a dating app profile.
Similar to the concepts we talked about in the photos section, avoid cliches. Avoid detailing your travel experiences, and that your favourite brunch spot is the Fourth Chapter. In saying that, make sure you can be relatable. Let’s look at the Tim Tam example again: I am looking for someone who… Can eat a whole pack of Tim Tams in one sitting
It would be a fair judgement call that most of the Australian population likes Tim Tams, so I was relatable without being cliche.
Here are more of my thoughts on how to start conversations on Tinder.
Have any questions or ideas you want to see covered in our next blog post? Contact us here.
Rodrigo
Rodrigo coaches clients in our Online Dating Makeover and Immersion courses as a video coach, helping clients learn how to set up and write their online dating profiles, communicate effectively online, and build and maintain connections with their matches.