Whether it’s pets, purchases or perfectly put together puddings, you might look at it and think ‘is it instagrammable?’

Since its launch in 2010 as a picture-focused social networking platform, Instagram has continued modifying and improving the app. Now at least 80% of Instagrammers say that Instagram helped to decide whether to buy a product or service (Facebook, 2019).

In this week’s blog, we will delve into the different elements of an Instagram profile, and touch on some tips of how to use them to your advantage.

Image showing Instagram likes

Back to basics

If you have a business, it’s likely you’ll want people to be able to find your page so they can view your products or services. When signing up to Instagram, make sure to create a username that is easy to distinguish and find.

If you have a username that is completely detached from your business name, you will be almost impossible to track down. As Instagram is crowded with users, sometimes your ideal username isn’t available… so you might need to get a bit creative or include additional symbols like underscores.

Additionally, you may want to edit the name that shows under your username and update it to match your company name.

Next, set your profile to public. If you don’t, you won’t see any traffic to your page – no matter how many hashtags you use.

Finally, we recommend you visit the settings section of the app and setting your profile to ‘Business’ . From here, you can even drill down into which sector you work in. With a business setting applied, you can view analytics that wouldn’t be available to you otherwise. As you know, we are all about the data at Yellow Cherry!

Image of an Instagram perofile

Profile Picture

Like other marketing channels, you have the opportunity to make a first impression with a stand out profile picture. We would recommend keeping this in line with your brand guidelines, such as a logo. Profile pictures can be adjusted at a later date, so if you are launching a new campaign or fancy changing things up with a brand refresh, that’s not a problem either.

Bio

You have 150 characters to set the tone of voice for your brand. As with the profile image, the bio is at the top of your profile so it’s instantly seen by visitors. Make sure to outline here who you are, what you do, and what makes you different from the rest.

Don’t be afraid to show your tone of voice or have a little fun here, take Lush Cosmetics for example who have kept their bio short, fun and including a hashtag that customers can use to share their images with the brand

Links

One thing to note about Instagram is that they don’t allow clickable links within captions. However, they do have one clickable link section within the bio area. You can change this up regularly to lead through to your website, newsletter sign up, or specific campaign or product. When highlighting a new link, simply refer users to the ‘link in bio’ for more information.

Stories

Instagram added the ‘Story’ function back in 2016. Similar to the ‘self-destruct’ style of content found on Snapchat, these stories disappear within 24 hours of being posted. You can add question stickers, polls, music, gifs and much more. Mix it up between static photos, videos or short ‘boomerangs’ and let the creativity flow.

Some businesses have the option of ‘adding a link’ from Stories. At the moment, this feature is currently only available to certain users, such as those with 10,000+ followers or established verified accounts.

Highlights

A year on from adding stories, Instagram has added a ‘Highlights’ feature. This allows users the ability to ‘hold on’ and further promote the content from their stories. You can have multiple highlights – each with its own purpose and perfect for differentiating services or products offered. You’ll see they take the front and centre position of the top half of your profile which allows them to be easily sourced by profile visitors. You can also add cover images to your highlights for more consistency with brand guidelines and colour palettes.

The Grid

So we’ve drilled down to the additional features of ‘the gram’, but there’s no denying that the ‘Insta-Grid’ is where it’s at. Your grid needs to be visually pleasing, consistent and relevant. On first landing upon your profile, a user is likely to spend a few seconds scrolling, and if your content doesn’t stand out, they aren’t going to click the ‘follow’ button.

If you have a handle on your ethos and brand identity you can replicate this across your Instagram. High-quality imagery and relevant text is a must. Consider who you want to be and the impression you want to give – moody, exotic, fun, minimal – the choice is all yours!

Captions

Instagram will always be focused on visual content, but the use of to-the-point captions (including hashtags) is still important. Originally, captions were limited with people letting the image do the talking. Lately, there is a notable increase in people using the caption as a mini-blog by writing longer posts. Your copy strategy is up to you, just remember to keep the tone of voice as an accurate representation of your business.

Hashtags (#)

A post with just one hashtag, averages 12.6% more engagement in comparison to a post with none. Instagram has grown and adapted over the years, but hashtags are as relevant now as they were the day they were born. Using targeted hashtags on posts or stories is one of the best ways to get discovered by new audiences who don’t yet follow your page. New followers mean more engagement and more potential customers, so take time to plan your hashtags.

If you are looking to define or build your digital marketing strategy but need some help along the way, say hello – we would love to chat.