How to nail your Instagram profile

Your Instagram profile is the first point of contact for many potential customers/community members so it’s super important to set it up properly. If your links are out of date, if your photo is blurry and hard to make out or if your blurb isn’t a clear statement of who you are, what you do and what specific problem you solve for a specific person then you could be doing yourself and your business a big disservice. 

The good news…it’s not hard to sort out your IG profile, in fact it only takes nine steps…lets go

1. Use a username (@handle) that will be searchable and recognisable as you/your business. 
2. Likewise, use a Name/business name that is searchable and actually your name or your business name. Now’s not the time to get clever or tricky, don’t make it hard for people to know if they are in the right spot….
3. In your profile blurb, make sure you clearly state who you are, what you do (what service or product you offer) and what problem you are solving for your people. This is a tough thing to get right, especially with such a limited character count but please spend time on making this statement as good as it can be because this is where people will make a snap decision whether your feed is a place they want to hang out in or not. No pressure. 
4. Still on your profile blurb, include a verb that encourages people to do something. And that thing should be your conversion goal. Update as that changes. 
5. Make your one landing link count. Use Milkshake, Linktree or shop grid options. 
6. Make it look good! Use line breaks – list style bios are good way to convey lots of information without using up too many of your precious characters (to get line breaks in your IG profile – type it out or paste it in on your laptop or desktop computer not a tablet – just use the enter key to add in a new line break and bingo there it will be) 
7. Use emoji- when used well they save characters and can be eye catching.
8. Hashtags and @ mentions are important too – and now clickable in your IG bio so where applicable, use them!
9. About your profile photo…please consider using your face not your logo… people are on social media to connect with other people – the clue is in the name! And it’s much easier to connect with people when you can put a face to a name, especially when it’s a nice clear, smiley face. Obviously if you are Coca-Cola or Dyson or a massive brand, you’d want to have your Social Media profile photos as your logo to keep brand recognition etc. And I understand that government bodies and corporations need to use a logo. But, if you are the face of your brand, if this is your business and if it’s your voice and story, then I think it absolutely needs to be your face in that little circle there. Remember that Seth Godin quote; ‘people like us do things like this’ – it’s much easier to create a connection with someone if you can see their face. MUCH EASIER. And maybe you have a small team, perhaps you could get headshots of everyone taken together – on the same day, with the same background, maybe everyone wearing their team t-shirt or whatever. and light etc to keep consistency – and rotate them every month. Every time you chance the profile photo you could introduce that team member with a ‘5 things you didn’t know about Geoff’ so you are giving value, reinforcing your values and building connection all at the same time.