Continue with some other parts to create a perfect Instagram profile…
6. Trackable Link in Your Bio (That You Change Frequently)
One of the biggest frustrations people have with Instagram — particularly businesses — is that it’s not exactly an ideal platform for driving traffic away from the app to a site, a Twitter page, or somewhere else. That is because clickable URLs are not permitted anywhere except the single “website” box in your bio.
That is why you will need to add a link to the “website” box in your business’ Instagram bio to create a perfect Instagram profile. This makes it simple for people to go straight from Instagram to your site, blog, or a particular campaign.
One sneaky method to get people to click on the link in your bio? By referring to that link in individual picture captions. Ever seen captions that say something like “Link in bio”? They are attempting to direct you to their profile page so you click on the link in their bio.
Engage users by updating that URL regularly to point to your newest blog content, YouTube video, product, or offer. For instance, are you running a contest, or want to grow subscribers to your blog? Just change the link, and then post a picture that mentions the new link in its caption.
To change the link in your bio: Go to your profile page and click on “Edit Profile.” Then, simply insert the URL of your selecting into the URL box.
You could change the URL on your profile page as usually as you’d like.
Note: I have read before that shortened links usually get blocked by Instagram, however, we have not had that problem. Actually, we recommend utilizing shortened links that include UTM tracking codes so you could see how much of your traffic came from your Instagram page. (You could learn how to make UTM codes to track your URLs here.)
Once you have changed the URL, simply publish a picture associated with the URL with a caption that references the link in your bio.
7. Enabled Notifications
Before you call it a day, check your “Options” settings to ensure notifications are enabled so you could see when people share or comment on your images. This will let you engage with them more quickly and simply, similar to lots of firms do on Twitter.
To enable notifications: Go to “Options” and then “Push Notification Settings.”
Choose “From Everyone” for every category. (Except perhaps “Friends on Instagram,” which automatically sends a friend request to your Fb friends who also have Instagram, and “Instagram Direct Requests,” which accepts images sent from individual accounts. That can get a bit spam.)
8. High-Quality Images
High-quality images are an enormous part to create a perfect Instagram profile. When people go to your profile, chances are, the first thing they will do is scroll through the first ten or so images in your feed. The quality of these images will be a big factor in whether or not that person follows you or not. Your Twitter followers may forgive a few bad tweets, however, you do not want bad images on your Instagram account.
So, always be thinking of your Instagram images this way: If you do not have anything beautiful to post, do not post anything at all.
The ingredients for a fantastic Instagram picture are threefold: a fascinating and relevant subject, a well-framed and well-shot pic, and a solid editing job.
Ingredient #1: An Interesting & Relevant Subject
If you are picking a subject, think about your buyer persona. What would they find fascinating in an image? Coca-Cola’s target market consists of young people who value fun, friendship, and sports, for instance. That is why they post photos of young people doing fun, adventurous things — like DJing at a concert or snowboarding on a beautiful day. (With bottles of Coke in hand, of course.)
Image Credit: Coca-Cola Argentina
Another good method to garner Likes, comments, and followers? Make people laugh. Sometimes, funny images are the most memorable and the most shareable.
Image Credit: Baddie Winkle; Jeremy Veach
Ingredient #2: A Well Framed, Well Shot Photo
Don’t worry … you do not have to have a background in pictures to take really awesome Instagram pictures. All you really need to do is take some time to learn the best practices, like lining up your shots, finding fascinating perspectives, and benefiting from symmetry, patterns, “leading lines,” and more.
Ingredient #3: A Solid Editing Job
Instagram has some basic editing capabilities, however, oftentimes, they are not adequate to make an image really, really good. Most of your images should go through at least one or two other picture editing apps on your mobile phone before you open them on Instagram for the first time.
However, don’t worry: After you have the right apps downloaded, editing the images is not that complicated. It just takes a bit of practice. (Trust me, it is well worth it.)
For a list of more advanced editing tools, read this blog post for a list of the 11 best photo and video editing apps for mobile devices. These apps will let you do everything from sharpening particular parts of a picture to brightening certain hues to make your photo look fresher.
9. Consistent, Regular Posts
An optimized Instagram profile is an active one. Because picture quality is so necessary, you don’t need to worry about posting to your Instagram account multiple times a day like you do for most other social media networks. Instead, concentrate on creating high-quality content — and then posting them at the right times on your particular audience.
To ensure you’re posting consistently, download this social media content calendar template and begin planning out your Instagram posts. Over time, you will want to build up a backlog of images for times of need, like the weekends or if you go on vacation.
So, what time of day is the best time to post to Instagram? Because Instagram is primarily an app for use on mobile devices, users tend to use the network all the time, any time — though research shows that many users engage with content more during off-work hours than during the workday.
The very best times to upload on Instagram were Mondays and Thursdays at any time except between 3:00–4:00 p.m. for the time zone of your target persona. (For a United States audience, your best bet is to mix Eastern and Central time zones, as they represent almost 80% of the U.S. population. For audiences located outside the U.S., use whichever time zones your target audience uses.)
But you will want to experiment with these to see if they work with your audience.