Your Instagram bio is your biggest real estate opportunity; it’s your chance to showcase what you do, who you are, what you offer, and show off a bit of personality too!
For some, it’s tricky to think of what to write, for others it’s hard fitting everything you want to say into just 150 characters. Here are my top five tips to a great Instagram bio;
1. New followers need to be able to understand at a glance what it is your account is all about. So you’ll need to explain who, what, why and where in just 150 characters! BUT remember you want to give people a REASON to follow you, so make sure you focus on what you can offer them, rather than only touting your own awesomeness. Can you help your followers with something? Will you inspire them with your posts? Communicate directly to them to attract the followers that will engage with you, are perfectly suited to what you’re offering, and you’ll turn these followers into your customers or clients. The @hellomedia.team bio shows what we do and a little bit of personality on the side ?
This is from early 2019 ~ remember, the goalposts keep changing, and you can see when you compare it to my 2020 bio below!
2. Make sure you include the @ and/or the # to make it a clickable link. If you have a business and a personal profile, you can let your personal followers know about your business accounts. Here’s my personal account – which is private, showing how I have linked to my business Instagram account, my community page, and also my business website. Just in case any friends are interested in what I’m up to in my business life. ?
3. Up until March 2018, you were only able to showcase ONE hyperlink, so it’s awesome that we can make use of other opportunities as well. Make sure you include the @ and/or the # to make it a clickable link. If you have a business and a personal profile, you can let your personal followers know about your business accounts. Here’s my personal account – which is private, showing how I have linked to my two business Instagram accounts and also one of my websites. Just in case any friends are interested in what I’m up to in my business life.
4. Business profiles are brilliant (so if you haven’t made the switch – do it now!) because it makes it easy for your followers to shop with you, find your store or location, and know more about the services you offer. You’ve got the option to create Instagram Stories highlights, check out your account insights, as well as including all the links, tags, and hashtags to get people where you want them to go. Your email address, mobile and physical store address aren’t counted as part of your 150 character allowance – yaaaay! As you can see from the artwork below, under the Stories Highlights the @rainbowsandclover contact option are; shop (which shows your posts with tagged products), call and the … takes you to email and get directions.
5. You can create highlights on your bio profile by choosing your best stories. This is a really cool new bonus that Instagram has also offered in the past couple of months. I think of the Instagram Stories Highlights as a highlights reel for your Instagram account, and they’re the opportunity to showcase your brand/business with new visitors to your profile. As you can see above, the @rainbowsandclover Stories Highlights showcase the brands’ ethos; made with love, ethical, organic, natural, environ, fairtrade and eco-friendly (some of which you can’t see in the line of rainbow circles). Another way you can showcase your brand if you’re an online store is to use your various pages on your website as the inspiration for the categories you can create for your Instagram Stories Highlights … the options are endless. By using your Instagram Stories Highlights your business/brand can showcase so much more to your profile visitors than what your Instagram bio could do on its own.
Remember that your Instagram bio is the most amazing opportunity to attract the audience that can turn into customers and clients and drive traffic to your website. Spend 20 minutes on your Instagram bio today, and high five yourself with a bio to be proud of!
If you have any questions, be sure to ask them in the Hello Media Facebook Group. For RAD people. ?
Kylie x
Instagram Social Media Strategy
Ten articles before and after