Create an attractive Instagram profile!

As part of the “Instagram for Business Series,” this week brings you the nine optimizable elements of an Instagram profile.  I’m always on a quest to improve visibility, traffic, and sales for both my clients and myself.

Instagram should be used much like your website.  Constantly improving your visibility is crucial to leveraging its lead generation potential.  Likewise, Instagram should be treated like your website. Make sure you have the right images, copywriting, and brand information for your target audience.  Do you have all the optimizable elements of your Instagram profile working for you?

This week we are focusing solely on your Instagram bio.  

Here are the 9 optimizable elements of an Instagram profile.  

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: USERNAME

The username is the ID within the platform.  When choosing a username, choose wisely. It should be easily recognizable.  It can be your business name, your full name, or an abbreviation of your name or brand name.  

Try to exclude numbers as they are not easy to remember. Stick to dashes, periods, or hyphens if usernames are taken but limit their use.  The best usernames are those that are similar to your website name or personal brand and ideally, the handle username is consistent across all social platforms.

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: PROfile picture

Although the profile picture is not highly visible it’s very important to have a clear concise branded profile pic.  Profile pics are 110 X 110 minimum resolution. The profile pic is a round image of your choice. However, try to stick with images that are either a brand logo or a full-frontal selfie with minimal background.  Profile pics with solid backgrounds make the profile more visible.

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: YOUR NAME

Similar to the title of a website your name should be clear and tell the audience exactly who you are.  If you are an influencer use your full name. A blogger can use her full name then the word blogger after or the full written name of the blog.  A personal trainer or realtor should read Jane Smith Realtor or John Doe Personal Trainer.

Why? Because you need to think of those words as keywords that help you come out in the search when you type in those exact keyword phrases.  For instance, type in life coach or business coach and see how many people come up. If you are a business coach and struggling to grow your audience and following on Instagram try using this optimization hack to attract more followers.  For that matter, everyone should be doing this for their business.

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: WRITTEN BIO

Think of the bio as the metadata of a website.  The bio is a mix of metadata crossed with a twitter message.  Keep it down to 150 characters. The bio should be quick, witty, to the point, free from self-promotion and waste of valuable characters.  Tell the audience exactly what value they get from following you.

Use emojis to show your style and add personality to your bio. Emojis, in my opinion, are a must in the profile.  Another must is hashtags. If Instagram gives you a tool or function you should use it. Make sure to include branded hashtags these are a great way to brand your bio and continue to tell your brand story.

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: LINK IN BIO

The website link you choose is your first call to action.  The link should drive traffic to your site, to your blog post, to a youtube channel, or anywhere you want your audience to go.  Do you want your audience to shop your site then send them to shop directly? Are you a consultant send them directly to book with you.  

It’s exactly the same on a website you want them to either call you, book with you, buy from you, or engage some sort of way with you. I personally love to use a Linktree because it sends them everywhere I want them to go.  Most marketers will tell you that it makes no sense to use a Linktree and that it’s a big No-No. I find that it really drives traffic to two places for me directly to my site and to my youtube channel. This helps increase my users on the two platforms that I want them to visit the most.

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: LOCATION

There is no need to use up prime bio characters to share your location this can be done directly through the app under settings.  Click on settings, then on contact options and here you can add your location as well as your email and phone number. If you have a storefront this is a great way to have your customers reach you directly through a button on your profile.  You need to take into consideration that location is available for business pages. At this point, you should have converted your page into a business page.

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: HIGHLIGHTS

The highlights do not necessarily SEO your page but they do make your profile attractive and increase visibility.  So, in a way, it does optimize your Instagram profile. You can create highlight covers that are on brand for your business.  The highlights section also includes your IGTV channel. It allows users to see when you have a new IGTV video. Highlights are a whole other topic that deserves its own mention on the Instagram for Business Series.

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: BUTTONS

Finally, the last optimizable function of your Instagram profile is your buttons above the “fold” or to be exact the feed.  These are added through the settings as mentioned earlier. Go to settings, contacts options, and choose which contact buttons to add.

INSTAGRAM PROFILE ELEMENT: FEED

Although the feed is not necessarily part of the profile it is visible instantly along with the profile.  Stay tuned for the next post in this series as it shows how to optimize your feed for growth.

Now that we have gone over the nine optimizable elements of an Instagram profile bio it’s time for some homework.

This week’s homework includes a downloadable checklist.  I want you to research Instagram profiles both in your industry and in others of your favorite bios. Check out the profile and bio in relation to followers. Sometimes great bios don’t have the following, therefore, check all nine elements and see what they are missing.  Now that you spent some time go and curate your perfect profile.

Make sure to comment with I optimized my profile and include your Instagram handle so that I can go review it.  Use the downloadable checklist to make sure you optimize every element. Next week we will be continuing on visually optimizing your Instagram, so stay tuned.