1. Make sure your dating bio does you justice
It can feel unnatural to analyze yourself and dissect your personality into bullet points for your online dating profile. Many of us cringe at the thought of having to define our likes, dislikes and hobbies on paper, but the more information you give about yourself, the clearer a picture you paint for a potential match who comes across your profile. A vague or half-finished profile – left that way out of shyness – can be misconstrued as suspicious. If you’re unsure what to say about yourself, there’s no shame in asking a friend or family member to help you write it.
2. That goes for your profile photos, too
It might sound obvious, but try to pick photos for your profile that are clear, honest and show you in your best light. That blurry photo with the really bright flash? The one of you on holiday in sunglasses? Or your all-time favourite photo that was taken a good 10 years ago? Nope nope nope. If you don’t have a decent bank of recent-ish photos, it might be worth investing in a shoot with a professional like Saskia Nelson, who specialises in dating photos.
3. Stay safe online
Every now and then, a horror story emerges about online dating. These range from people not looking like their profile pictures, to people turning out to be downright dangerous. It’s important you choose somewhere public for your first date, and as an extra precaution, make sure you let a friend or family member know you’re going on the date, and that you’ll contact them in however long if all goes well. As a general rule, avoid people who instantly suggest you come over to their place, or who seem overly pushy to meet you before chatting first.
4. Don’t call, text, tweet or generally contact them too much
You’ve met someone you like. Hurrah! You’re probably thinking about them intermittently throughout the day and it’s natural to want to let them know what you’re up to. It’s important to remember that it’s early days, though, and even if they’ve given you all the right signals so far, receiving a picture of the quinoa salad you made for lunch, or several missed calls when you only spoke the night before, might be enough to give them cold feet. Think of communication as balancing a set of scales: add only as much to your side as they do to theirs.
5. Leave Facebook stalking out of it
I’m sure many of us can admit to knowing what someone does for a living, where they went on their last five holidays, and the names of every member of their family including their dog before we’ve even met them. Not because they’ve told us in a message, but because we’ve found their relatively open Facebook profile and had a good look before the date. But imagine the embarrassment if you let a nugget of information slip from all your hard detective work on the first date? How can you justify knowing about that stag do in Berlin that they haven’t told you about? Honestly, for your own self-respect, avoid digging through their Facebook page.
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