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As soon as someone sees another person, an impression is formed. This is true on Instagram as well. During those first few seconds when a new account is found, a user will scan the person’s Instagram bio to find out who they are.

Your bio is part of that first impression you give off. Don’t underestimate its power. You only have 150 characters to give the right message to potential followers. So keep reading to be sure you are creating a powerful first impression with a good Instagram bio.

Establish Your Brand Presence in Your Instagram Bio

Your bio tells users exactly who you are and what you do or sell. How you do this will show your brand personality and what value you have. Your bio needs to be consistent with the message you’re sending in your Instagram posts. It also needs to attract people who would be interested in those posts.

So what should be in your Instagram bio? You are going to say a lot of information using a few words. Here is what you need to include in your Instagram bio:

Profile Photo

First, you have a space for a visual impression. You might want to use your company logo to establish that image or a friendly picture of yourself as your profile photo. Some companies will use a product photo as their main image. All of these are fine as long as it’s a quality image that is consistent with your brand.

Name and Instagram Handle

Your handle is the username that people use to find you or tag your Instagram account. It’s often a shorter version of your full brand name. You also need to include the full name of your brand or company as well.

Description

This is the place to show off your brand voice and personality. You have 150 characters to tell people what you are all about and why they should care. This is the only section of the Instagram app that allows you to include a clickable link to your website. There are many “link in bio” tools you can use to create a landing page to get the most out of this link.

Creating a landing page is useful because it directs people to individual posts and products they may be looking for after seeing your recent Instagram captions. If you don’t want to create a landing page then this is the place to add your link to the homepage of your website.

Category

You can choose to enable the category of your business under your business name. If it is important to provide this information, then enabling the category could save you space in your bio section.

Contact Info and Call to Action

Include any information a potential customer might need to connect with you. You can use email and call buttons to avoid taking up space in your bio with this information. If there is any way that you want Instagram users to reach out or find you, make sure it’s in your bio. If they have to search for this information, they may decide they don’t want it.

Good Instagram Bio Ideas

Before you start making your bio interesting, it’s important to establish the goal so that you don’t go off course. For example, If you are simply displaying your brand personality then you won’t need to include any specific product information.

Display Your Brand Mission

You might want to use your bio to connect with potential followers through your brand’s mission and values. When you clearly state your brand mission in your Instagram bio you are displaying what is most important to your brand or company.

Show Your Brand’s Personality

People like to follow fun accounts on Instagram. Showing a fun personality is a way to stand out among your competitors they may have dryer content. Skittles declares itself the Official U.S. Instagrammer of Awesomeness. It works for their brand voice.

instagram bio skittles

Promote a New Campaign or Product

Some companies choose to change their bio regularly to keep up with their newest promotions. If your account is getting a lot of traffic, it’s a good place to let people know what’s going on with your company.

For example, Billabong is promoting its latest collection of beachwear in its Instagram bio:

instagram bio billabong

Make it Easy to Read

People come to your bio with the question, “Who is this?” If they don’t quickly find the answer to that question, they will likely click away and assume it’s not for them. Make sure that who you are and what you do is stated very clearly in your Instagram bio.

Some accounts use a vertical bar to space out their words so that they can be descriptive without using too many characters. You can also add line breaks to make the descriptive words stand out and make your bio easier to read.

Instagram Highlights

Instagram highlights let you save your stories to your profile. They can be divided into categories and displayed in circle icons. This gives users a nice preview of your brand while they are developing that first impression.

SEO Tactics for a Discoverable Instagram Bio

Instagram’s Explore page allows users to search for keywords to discover accounts, posts, hashtags and locations. The Instagram algorithm on the Explore page is based on a few different factors. This includes the accounts you follow, photos and videos you have liked, and keywords.

When your name and username include the keyword you want to rank for, you have a big advantage. For example, if you sell soap and your name is The Soap.Bar, then you’ll have that advantage when someone searches for soap on the explore page.

instagram bio soap bar

However, you can also change the name field in your Instagram profile, and it doesn’t need to be the exact name of your company. When you tap edit profile you will be able to change your name there. And you can include your name as well as what you sell or do to include the keyword.

Your Instagram bio should also include the keywords you want to rank for. Including hashtags in your bio can also help you show up in hashtag searches from the explore page. The keywords you use in your bio will tell Instagram what users will be interested in your content.

If a user follows a lot of eco-friendly fashion brands, then Instagram is more likely to recommend another Instagram account that uses eco-friendly fashion in its bio.

These SEO tactics make your account discoverable, which is an important step to grow your reach on Instagram. After that, you just need to make sure you are giving off that great first impression to convert those people into followers. If you know your brand well, creating that first impression should be easy. Stay true to your brand message and keep these strategic tips in mind to create the perfect Instagram bio.