Over the past year, Instagram has made huge moves to make it easier and more profitable for businesses to get started on Instagram. Between adding business links to verified instagram stories and updated “shop now” CTAs on ads, it’s now much easier to get in front of Instagram’s constantly growing database of marketable prospects!

In 2018 alone, Instagram went from 800 million active users to an incredible 1 billion active users. What does that mean for your company? It means that you have the world at your fingertips; you just have to position yourself to be seen.

How do I position my business to be seen on Instagram?

By following 5 simple steps, you’ll be able to optimize your Instagram account to work for your business. I’ll walk you through the steps of how to convert your Instagram account to an Instagram Business Account, plus how to utilize Instagram’s native features and outside tools to amplify your Instagram reach.

1. Convert your Instagram Account to an Instagram Business Account

Create a separate account for your business account:

First things first, separate your personal instagram account from your business instagram account. If you haven’t already, create a new account for your business.

How? Simply sign out of your personal instagram account and create a new Instagram account.

Select a brand-enhancing Instagram handle:

Start off by trying your business’ name. If that’s available, perfect! Move on to the next step!

Business name not available as an Instagram handle?

Try adding your serviceable location or main product or service at the end of your handle. This will help optimize your account name in searches!

Upgrade your new account to an Instagram business account for free.

1. Be sure your Facebook Business Page is live.
2. Visit your Instagram profile page.
3. Click the hamburger menu.
4. Settings > Switch to Business Profile.

2. Choose the right category for your Instagram business page.

Part of having an incredible brand is having consistency in all areas, this includes consistency between your social media accounts. When choosing your brand, think about the goals of your business and what your business does.

Example:

If your business is an ecommerce business that sells clothing, and you’re trying to establish brand awareness, you would select “Clothing (Brand)”.

Select “Clothing (Brand)” for your category.

3. Research and use hashtags that get a lot of followers but not a lot of sellers.

Think like your demographic:

Who is your demographic? What styles are they into? Which areas of Instagram are they hanging out in? What are they typing into the search bar when they want to relax after work? What hashtags do you think they’re paying attention to? Write those down.

Think about your brand:

What items do you sell? What services do you provide? What emotions do you want your buyers to feel? Write those down.

Research your discoveries:

Use a hashtag research tool to help decide if the hashtags you’ve searched for are seen by enough people. Write down any new, high-impact hashtags that show up during your search.

Rank your final hashtags: 

In a spreadsheet, rank your keywords in order of most popular. Be sure to record how popular the hashtag is for future reference.

Finally, choose your personal high-impact hashtags:

If you’re selling items, visit each of your highest ranking hashtags and ensure that no one else is saturating the market with their items. You want to be the saturator.

Apply your top 5 hashtags to your Instagram Business Profile description:

Use the top 15-25 in your Instagram posts.

4. Amp up your Instagram business profile description

We’ll tackle this section from the top of your profile page to the bottom.

Optimize your Instagram Profile Picture:

If you are a brand, use a high-contrast version of the icon portion of your logo. If you are an individual, use a great headshot or action shot.

Hijack Your Name Space:

In an Instagram search, your profile picture, handle, and full name show up in the search results. There’s no need to have your business name display twice, so let’s use this as an advantage to bring awareness to your brand within search results. Instead of repeating your brand name, describe what your company does and use one emoji.

Optimize Your Bio:

Remember the top 5 hashtags you researched in step 3? Craft those into your bio when you talk about your company! Put each new thought on a new line, and use emoji to help bring attention to your most important value add.

Website Link:

We can have a lot of fun here, so just skip to step 6. I promise it’s worth it!

5. Use Instagram Story Highlights to enforce your CTA or Brand

Everyone on Instagram expects a clever work of art, after all, Instagram started as a space to share photos. Instagram business pages has a space to highlight your favorite stories, but I recommend using this space in one of two ways:

1. Further emphasize your brand with statement keywords by spelling out a word with each of the story circles.
2. Use each story circle as a directory to more information about your brand.

6. Make the most of your single link: Create a link directory

Long story short: turn a single “link in bio” Instagram link into hundreds of links.

I promised you goodness, and I will deliver! First, know that Instagram only allows one link at a time, ever on your account (unless you’re verified). You cannot put links into your posts and you cannot comment with links, but what you can do is say, “link in bio”.

Of course, “link in bio” only allows you to hold one link at a time. Or does it?

Link your Instagram Business Page to an Instagram Link Directory: Instagram link directories link your post image to a link of your choice. The interaction goes like this:

1. Follower wants to read more about how the image of the red roses.
2. You tell the follower to read more by clicking the “link in bio”.
3. Follower clicks “link in bio” and immediately sees the photo of the red roses with its own link, in addition to any other links you may have wanted to share with them.
4. Follower gets to read about the red roses, but also about the blue roses from yesterday.

Copyright 2018 Kiza McDonald / All Rights Reserved.