Instagram is a tool that can be used to grow your business. By just having an account you are available to more audiences than before you had an account. So by having an Instagram account for your business, you are ready to take on whatever the next step may be here. Not so fast! A key factor in creating your Instagram business account is to 

Optimize Your Instagram Profile 

Ensuring that your Instagram business account is optimized will increase the likelihood of audiences discovering your account. Instagram business account owners mean…business. They are thinking “How can I grow my business?”, “How do I discover someone with a similar business?”, “Where can I find resources for my business?”, etc.

By ensuring your Instagram business account is optimized, the audiences intentionally looking for you or intentionally looking for the value your business provides will make you appear higher in their searches. At this point, you’re probably wondering the steps you need to make your Instagram business account appear higher, so let’s get into it. 

Add a recognizable photo or graphic as your account's profile picture.

Branding is all about maintaining a cohesive look in order to easily recognize it and associate the image with a certain brand. When we see the red bullseye, we instantly know it’s Target. When your audience sees your color palette or a photo of you, they automatically know what account it is. Keeping this image consistent across all your social platforms will make your account even more discoverable. 

Say My Name, Say My Name 

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When you enter your name into your profile, it’s always a great idea to write your name along with your niche. So if you’re a business coach, add that. For example, mine is “Meredith IG + FB Ads Manager”. Having this will make you easier to find, as long as the character maximum allows!

When creating your username, make it relatable to you and your business. The tricky thing about creating usernames is that so many are already taken. Do your best to find what suits your account the best. It's okay if you have to add in special characters like periods or underscores. That's what people know you for, your business name, so that's what we want your username to be. 

Then we need to include your website. This is the only URL on your whole Instagram profile or feed that will be clickable to your guests, so it's important. Keep in mind, you can change it if need be. 

For example, if you've got a specific offer you want to send your customers to you can change the URL.You can send them to a blog post, whatever you want. You might have seen, if you've looked at Instagram before, sometimes people add multiple, there's a tool called Linktree where you can add multiple websites for free. But honestly, if you can stand it, I suggest just one website. The easier it is for people to click, the easier it is for them to see, the more likely they are to do that. 

Call Me Beep Me if You Wanna Reach Me

If you want your followers and those discovering your profile to become a customer, you should add your phone number and email to your profile. Regular accounts only have direct message as an option to stay in contact.  When you have a business account, you are able to directly hit the Call button and the Email button.  Take advantage of this feature! If we click the Email it goes straight to sending me an email, same goes for a phone call. How cool is that? As business owners we use Instagram to engage with our followers but the ultimate goal of a business account is to turn those followers into customers, so MAKE sure it is easy for a potential customer to find you.

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Your Instagram Bio is Your Business Card 

Often, Instagram users only come to your profile once, and that's to decide if they should follow you or not, so you've got to make it good! You've got to convince them that they are going to see great content if they follow your page. 

So in the bio I suggest that you give them social proof of who you are.  Maybe you wrote a book or maybe you were recently mentioned in the New York Times, if this is you, congrats! Give them the big idea of who you are!

Tell the Instagram users what you're going to talk about on your Instagram, this will determine if they're in the right place simply by reading your bio!  At the end of the bio, give them a call-to-action I like saying to, “Click the link below to learn more!”. 

Now you are all set-up with a business account on Instagram!  It's time to make your first post. Maybe start with an ‘About Me’ post, this way Instagram users will get an even better idea of who you are!