Did you know that it takes less than two-tenths of a second for a potential consumer to be impressed by your brand, according to a study on the power of first impressions?
Clients seek solutions to problems and when they see that your bio has the potential to solve a problem, they are likely to click the ‘follow’ button. Whether they stay or move on as soon as they come depends on how your Instagram bio captured their attention.
Writing an Instagram bio may seem straightforward at first, but it requires some effort and even a dash of creativity. If you want to make a great first impression and convince your visitors to click the “follow” button, your Instagram bio must be super impressive.
Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut for this! The bottom line is that you must give your potential followers a compelling reason to hit the follow button to join you on your Instagram journey.
If you are using Instagram to brand and market your business or if you want to become an Instagram influencer, then you need to pay extra attention to your bio.
Why Does My Instagram Bio Matter?
It may seem like a very small part of your social media profile but it holds the most weight as far as your brand is concerned.
Coming up with a stellar bio for your business can be challenging but it is the center stage for your brand and the impression you are trying to create online. You have only about 150 characters to tell the world what your business is about.
Before you come up with the right words for your bio, you need to understand why your Instagram profile needs one in the first place.
Here’s the thing: your Instagram bio plays a pivotal role in clearly determining what your niche is, what your brand is all about, and most importantly, what it stands for.
It is simply a summary of who you are and what you are selling. You can also use this tiny spot to inform the world why you matter and why they should care about your business or organization. In most cases, your bio is the first point of contact that your potential Instagram follower (client) will have with you and your brand.
So, make it count! Why? Because it makes it clear why users should follow your Instagram journey.
Here’s another way to approach your Instagram bio: ask yourself what do my potential Instagram followers stand to gain by following me? That way you will be putting yourself in their shoes, which will help you come up with a compelling reason.
What Makes for a Powerful Instagram Bio?
Simply put, your Instagram bio should be:
1. Easy to read – nothing too complicated, keep it short and sweet.
2. A bit of humor and wit never hurt – it humanizes your brand.
3. Informative – only include essential information.
Now that you are up to speed with why your Instagram bio matters and what makes it powerful, let’s now go straight to the best practices for creating a value-adding Instagram bio – one that portrays your brand personality, showcases your unique selling point(s) and ultimately compels users to take action.
Top 6 Best Practices for Creating a Killer Instagram Bio
Your bio is like your business profile summarized in 150 characters. So how do you create a bio that will sell your brand even when you are offline? Let’s explore some of the best practices by highlighting the things that must be incorporated into the bio:
1. Use Emojis
Spice up your bio by throwing in relevant emojis. It breaks monotony of words and gives your bio a more personalized and unique look. Plus, the use of emojis can increase your engagement by almost 50%. In between listing what you do and where you are located, or any other detail that you want to describe, make it eye-catching and fun by using emojis to communicate the same messages.
Emojis are a great way to light up a conversation, especially when texting a friend. This is the same impact it will have on your potential client when they interact with your Instagram account.
Emojis can also be used to inject some excitement into your Instagram account by adding colour and spacing out text. This might just what your Instagram account needs to attract more followers who identify with your brand, pushing them to click the ‘follow’ button on your profile. Remember to put the right spacing between the emojis so that they do not look too squeezed.
2. Add Hashtags
Do you want your content to be more discoverable? Hashtag it! This will, however, require you to do a bit of research to find out which hashtags are best suited for your brand. The hashtags you choose to use must be relevant to your brand otherwise they will not be useful.
While there’s no limit to how many hashtags you can use, just make sure you have the right combination. These can also change with time depending on the season or campaign.
Hashtags help users to find you easily. If you don’t know where to begin in the quest for worthwhile hashtags, click on ‘search’ button on Instagram and look under tags for ideas. Former First Lady Michelle Obama uses #IAmBecoming on her Instagram bio to popularize her book while YouTube used #BlackLivesMatter to show their solidarity with the campaign. Your hashtags should be about what you offer or about the campaign you are currently running.
3. A Short and Clear Bio
This is the point where you add some ‘meat’ to your Instagram profile. It is the section under your business name where you explain what your brand is all about. You have at least 150 characters to express yourself and let your potential clients know what your business or organization is all about.
It is in this section that you get to convince potential clients that they should follow you for a chance to experience what your brand offers. Considering that you don’t have a lot of space to write a longer bio, it becomes crucial to find the perfect combination of words to market your brand effectively using few words.
But that should not worry you. Less is usually more. A short bio will get the job done but only if done right.
4. Website URL
This is the only part of your profile that allows you to add a link that is clickable for your users to explore further if they need more information. Since you can’t add clickable links in posts, this is the most important part of your Instagram bio!
Take advantage of this space and create perfect content on the bio that would make users want to know more about your business or organization.
This is an effective tactic that helps to direct users to your website where they can closely interact with your content and get to understand what it is you are offering.
Your Instagram account is basically your store front and your link in bio is their gateway to your store.
This clickable link can be updated as and when needed, and directed to either a new product or service, new content and any other information that you would like your users to interact with. Make good use of this clickable link to gain more traffic.
5. Call to Action
Although there is an option to add call-to-action button, you can also opt to include it as part of your bio. This way it’s more visible and you can use it to express the action you would like your followers to take.
This can be something like ‘Follow Us’ or even ‘Buy Now’. Adding a call-to-action in your bio basically gives you a chance to capture your user’s attention by clearly showing the intention of the content. It motivates your users to act in a way that will influence their shopping experience and ultimately benefit you in the end through a sale.
Give users an idea about what to do with the information they have just interacted with. Whether it’s to click the link provided, download an app, or follow simply you. A bio with a call-to-action button is highly likely to get a follow or at least get your visitor to do exactly what the call-to-action button is asking them to do.
6. Contact information
Finally, your visitors may gain an interest in your brand and what you offer and feel the need to get further details. Ensure you provide functional contact information — a telephone number or an email address that you can answer promptly.
Wrapping Things Up
What do you do to ensure your bio sells your brand? Knowing what goes into an Instagram bio is one thing, and knowing how to place it to capture and maintain the interest of a potential client is a whole other thing.
One of the best tips for writing a killer Instagram bio is knowing what your goal is. Ensure you have a clear sense of direction before you string words together. Your Instagram bio is the first thing users will notice when they come into contact with your account.
Have a clear goal and layout before you start to write. Keep the info up to date and if you need to incorporate a link, make sure it is clickable. Many users do not have the time to copy-paste a URL.
Also, give your brand a chance to shine through. Express yourself the best way you can with a language and tone that resonates with your brand’s personality. The tone could be friendly or professional depending on what your brand is all about.
