Instagram offers three types of accounts: personal, business and creator accounts. In this post, I will be covering how to set up and optimize your Instagram business bio to market your business, establishing who you are, what you do and why visitors to your page should follow you.
Why set up a business profile?
Changing your personal profile to a business profile, or adding a separate business profile on Instagram helps your customers connect to your business and is an important element of business marketing. Business profiles allow you to include additional information about your business such as your phone number, email address and your business's physical address. This keeps it simple and adds another way for people to reach you!
Also, when you convert to a business profile, you get access to Instagram Insights. These insights help you learn more about your followers and how much your audience engages with your content. Learn about Instagram Insights here.
You will have access to the Professional Dashboard, where you can track your performance, access and discover professional tools, and explore educational information curated by Instagram.
How to set up your business bio
The first thing you want to do is add a profile photo. This can be your logo, your store location, a product photo or a professional headshot that represents your business. You are encouraged to use consistent images across various platforms that also align with your brand standards.
Put your full business name into the Name field. This will show at the top of your bio. This field is also looked at in search queries, so it’s a good idea to make sure they’re optimized with keywords.
If your business name is already taken as an Instagram username, you may need to use abbreviations or variations of your name. For example, my business name is Core Marketing Now. The username @coremarketingnow was already in use by another user, so I used "." to create my Instagram account name, which is @core.marketing.now
Next enter the website address you would like to point users to. This could be the homepage of your website, new content, product pages, events, etc. Many businesses use a service to take users to a landing page with shortcuts to featured pages.
If you want customers to be able to contact you from your Instagram page, complete the Contact Options - you can choose e-mail, phone, address or any combination you want available to users. In order for the contact buttons to appear on your profile, you must enable the "Display Contact Info" toggle on the Profile Display screen.
Your bio consists of up to 150 characters to show your personality and and get people engaged with your business. Here are some tips as you start to complete your bio:
Be informative - tell users what you do, what you offer and who you are for.
Promote your products and sales (you'll need to updates your bio regularly)
Target your niche audience with specific keywords - what are their pain points or interests? What keywords will resonate with them?
Use language and tone to express your personality.
Generate hashtags (branded to your business or generally linked to your industry) - these are clickable and easy for users to to find relevant content.
If you have multiple segments and accounts for your business, cross promote other accounts by using their profile link.
Use emojis and other characters, such as "|" line breaks to break up content. Note: these will apply to your character count!
Create a specific Call To Action in your bio. For example, "Follow for market trends", "Read our latest blog post", "Visit our website", or "Shop our products".
Having a fully developed bio helps lay the foundation of your brand. You are welcoming people to your page, introducing who you are and giving them a compelling reason to follow you for more.
Just make sure you deliver on your promise!
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