At first glance, Instagram bios are merely a requirement. Some simply add a one-sentence description to it; others update the bio link — the website or landing page link they include in the description — and nothing else. Instagram bio ideas don’t have to be that straightforward, though.
You may not immediately realize it, but updating your Instagram bio actually contributes a lot towards building your audience.
This guide will tell you what you need to know in order to maximize the benefits your Instagram bio can bring in terms of audience-building.
Before getting into Instagram bio ideas, though, it’s important to know what the bio is.
The Basics Of An Instagram Bio
When you create your Instagram profile, you’ll be provided with a small space at the upper-left corner of your screen where you can add some descriptive text.
This is your Instagram bio. Think of it as an About page of sorts that your audience immediately sees upon visiting your profile.
A standard bio can be up to 150 characters long. It’s about as long as the ideal length of a standard meta description for a website page. You may also include one external link in it, which becomes clickable after you save your bio.
The name field is technically also part of your bio. It’s 30 characters long, and it’s an entirely different field from your Instagram handle (preceded by the @ sign).
All in all, that gives you about 180 characters to play with. And while that may not seem like much at first glance, there’s actually quite a bit that you can accomplish with it.
What Makes Good Instagram Bios?
A good, well-crafted Instagram bio, even with its limited character count, should be able to accomplish a number of things. These include:
- Providing your audience with all the important details about you or your business, including your name, the kind of service you offer, your contact information, and so on.
- Establishing your brand’s identity and voice; reading it should give your audience a good grasp of who you are and what to expect from you.
- Effectively communicating what sets you apart from other product or service providers in the same industry — in other words, why your audience would pick you instead of anyone else.
- Promoting your website and/or any other digital channels you’d like to draw attention (and traffic) to, such as your online shops. It may also advertise any upcoming major events that your brand will be part of.
Does the list seem daunting? Don’t worry, because all of that can be easily achieved thanks to what you are allowed to do with your Instagram bio.
Instagram Bio Ideas: Tips And Tricks
Creating “perfect” Instagram bios requires equal amounts of creativity, patience, and an understanding of your core audience. Here are a few guidelines to help you get the most out of your Instagram bio.
Tip #1: Be Descriptive, But Don’t Overdo It
A good Instagram bio sets clear expectations regarding what you can do and gives a good glimpse at your mission and vision.
Thus, start by understanding exactly what your audience needs from you and how you can help them. Once you have this knowledge, it’ll be a lot easier for you to write your Instagram bio. From there, you can craft a bio that effectively illustrates the value you can provide to your customers.
Naturally, you’ll have to highlight your skills and expertise in your Instagram bio copy. Fortunately, the 150-character limit forces you to be more thoughtful and deliberate in terms of writing, as you definitely wouldn’t want to waste the allotted space for you.
Tip #2: Use The Name Field Strategically
As mentioned earlier, the name field is different from your Instagram handle.
In fact, it would serve you better to have a handle that, at first glance, immediately tells your potential customer what kind of shop you are or what specialized services you provide. You can then use your real name in the provided space on your bio to add credibility and authenticity.
One of the most effective Instagram bio ideas is to add keywords in your name field. This is useful because the words in the name field are searchable. With this, you’ll pop up on Instagram searches for the keywords your audience typically searchers for. Think of it as SEO for your Instagram bio: Add the right targeted keywords revolving around your business and what you offer.
Lastly, here’s a useful nugget of naming wisdom: Keep it short, simple, and easy to remember. Your audience’s impression of you is influenced by how well they can remember you — and a long, tedious name will make you harder to keep in mind.
Tip #3: Be Creative — Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment
Depending on how you want to present your brand, writing your Instagram bio doesn’t necessarily have to be an exercise in formal writing. Quite the opposite, in fact, as it’s highly encouraged for you to explore more creative and eye-catching techniques when writing Instagram bios. Here are some creative Instagram bio ideas for writing your bio copy:
- One technique would be to use quotes that reflect your values and priorities. This can already say a lot about you in such a short period of time.
- Custom characters and special fonts also make your Instagram bio more appealing and eye-catching. They’re easy to pull off; you can just copy and paste from any source that allows this level of text customization.
- Another interesting technique would be to use emojis. These small “smileys” (as people used to call them not so long ago, way before the days of the social media boom) enable you to express a wide range of emotions in pictorial form. Plus, they’re quite visually captivating, especially the more cutesy ones. Don’t use emojis that are off-brand, though, especially if you’re trying to achieve a more formal voice for your business.
- Keep the copy short and snappy. Use line breaks, proper spacing, and bullets to improve readability.
Tip #4: Include A Call-To-Action On Your Instagram Bio
When writing your Instagram bio, you can add a hyperlink to a website, landing page, or pretty much any other place on the Internet that you’d like your audience to navigate to.
One way to ensure that your audience will click your link is to tell them what they’ll get when they click it. For example, you could link to a signup sheet for an upcoming contest. You can also link to a registration form, or even your personal blog.
You may even put links to special discount offers or promotional coupons in order to encourage your audience to purchase your products.
Tip #5: Utilize Clickable Instagram Bio Links And Hashtags
A significant 2018 update on the platform now allows you to add more than one clickable Instagram bio link. Now, any handles or hashtags in Instagram bios instantly become clickable, provided that they are prefaced with the appropriate symbols (an @ sign for Instagram user handles and a # for hashtags).
This is extremely useful if you want to promote other users or brands through your Instagram bio. For example, if you have a sister company or brand that you want to promote to your fanbase, you can “tag” that brand’s Instagram account on yours using this feature.
Unfortunately, this won’t really help you become searchable on Instagram. Unlike when you add words in the name field, the hashtags in your bio won’t pop up in search results. Still, they help in ensuring that your Instagram bio falls under the appropriate category, and are also useful in promoting related content in your particular industry or field of interest.
Tip #6. Feature Your Best Instagram Stories On Your Instagram Bio
Did you know that your Instagram Stories also play a small part in the overall presentation of your Instagram bio? Well, sort of, at least.
You’re probably quite familiar with the Instagram Stories feature already. Just in case you haven’t used it yet, here it is, in a nutshell. Instagram Stories allow you to share video clips or images with your followers, but only for a limited duration of time. After a set number of hours, the Instagram Stories you posted will be gone from your profile, and will no longer be viewable.
However, with Instagram Stories Highlights, your most relevant and eye-catching Instagram Stories can now become permanent parts of your Instagram profile. Located right under your Instagram bio, they can be accessed with a simple tap, just like how Instagram Stories are ordinarily viewed on the Instagram feed.
This feature becomes especially useful for your brand. You can use it as a way to quickly present your followers with compelling videos and images that reveal exactly who you are. Consider your Instagram Stories Highlights as accompanying media that complement and enhance your Instagram bio.
The Instagram Stories Highlights feature can be used in a number of ways for your brand, including:
- Providing more information about your organization or establishment.
- Displaying the various products you have for sale.
- Giving answers to frequently asked questions.
- Sharing unique and exclusive content with your followers that would otherwise be out of place on your main feed.
You can easily set up your Instagram Stories Highlights by following these steps:
- Navigate to your profile page.
- Under your bio, tap the “New+” option.
- Select the Instagram stories from your archive that you want to include in your new Highlights folder.
- Provide a name for your Highlights folder (maximum of 15 characters).
- Edit the cover image of your Highlights folder.
In case you want to add more stories to your Highlights, you may simply edit the existing folder.
Turning Your Instagram Bio Into An Instagram Business Bio
If you haven’t done this already, you can also turn your basic user profile into a business profile. Here are the steps, which you can easily do if you have a Facebook page:
- Go to your Instagram profile.
- Navigate to Account Settings.
- Tap the option labeled “Switch to Business Profile.”
- The app will then request you to log into your Facebook account.
- Select a Facebook page you moderate as the page you’ll connect with your business Instagram profile.
- Choose which contact information to pull from your Facebook page (including your email address, office address, and business phone number).
After that, you’re basically done! When you convert your profile to an Instagram business profile, you gain access to an additional set of features, including:
- The business profile itself, which features an enhanced, professional-looking aesthetic;
- Insights, which shows you vital information such as social media reach and engagement per post;
- Promoting, which is Instagram’s version of boosting posts (take note that this is different from running Instagram ads); and
- Shop, which collects and organizes all the products you’re offering for sale in one easy-to-view place.
Make the most out of your bio with the Instagram bio ideas mentioned above, and you’ll have no trouble at all in drawing the attention of potential customers. Hopefully, these Instagram bio ideas can give you a good sense of where to start in terms of optimizing your bio — and give you a welcome boost in overall traffic, lead generation, and product sales.