Chapter 3

Setting Up Your Profile

IN THIS CHAPTER

Deciding what info to use in your profile

Creating an effective bio

Upgrading to a business profile

Determining your privacy settings

After you install the Instagram app on your mobile device, the first major task you face is setting up your profile. Your profile should accurately represent you.

In this chapter, we show you how to set up the different components of your profile, including a username and name and a bio. We also explain how to set up a business profile, in case the account you’re creating is for, well, a business. Finally, we end the chapter by showing you how to select your privacy settings.

Personal Profile Practices

Your Instagram profile is not only your first impression to potential followers and new visitors but also your consistent message to your existing audience. Your profile should be recognizable as your style and representative of what you want people to see about you. Figure 3-1 shows you what a standard personal profile looks like on Instagram.

FIGURE 3-1: The Instagram profile consists of these standard components.

Instagram profiles are composed of the following five components: username, name, profile photo, bio, and web address.

Choosing a username and name

Your username and name are two of the most important components of your Instagram profile because they’re the only two searchable criteria of your profile. When users type a keyword or name in the Search field on Instagram, the app looks at only the username and name fields of accounts to determine if an account is relevant to that search query.

The username is the string of characters at the top of the profile. The name is the bold text below the profile photo. If you want your account to be found by a keyword or phrase, be sure to include it in either the name or username for your account.

Choosing the best username

When you set up a new Instagram account, you’re required to choose a username. Your Instagram username is how you’re recognized on Instagram: All activity, from the content you post to how you engage with others, is associated with your username. The username is at the top of the profile (refer to Figure 3-1).

Your username is delineated with the at (@) symbol when referring to you as a user. The web address (technically known as the URL, short for Uniform Resource Locator) for your Instagram account is

http://instagram.com/yourusername

When you interact on Instagram, the username appears as

yourusername

An Instagram username is limited to 30 characters and must contain only letters, numbers, periods, and underscores. You can't include symbols or other punctuation marks as a part of your username.

Choose a username that represents you or your name, is recognizable, and, if possible, distinguishes what you do. Your username may be simply your name or nickname. If you’re already established on other social media, like Twitter, you might want to choose the same username on Instagram as you use on other sites, so that your current audience can easily find you.

During the registration portion of your Instagram account, you’re prompted to select your username. If the username you selected is available, a check mark will appear. If someone is using the username you entered, an X will appear in the username field. Keep selecting alternatives until you find an available username.

If the username you want to use is unavailable, you can use alternative options by adding periods or underscores to the username, by using abbreviations, or by adding another word.

If you’re signing up for a new Instagram account using the website, Instagram will populate an available username for you. You’re welcome to use this suggested name, but we don’t recommend it, because it’s generic and it won’t represent you or be nearly as creative as one you come up with yourself.

Always check what your username looks like as one long word. If you wanted your username to be “christoper u”, it would read as “christopheru” which may get misread as “chris to pheru” or “christophe ru” or other versions. Instead, include an underscore or a a period to separate words, like “christopher_u”.

There is little you can do to have an existing username transferred to your account if it’s in use or was previously registered by another user. If another account is using your registered trademark as its username, visit https://help.instagram.com/101826856646059 for information on how to file a claim of trademark violation.

After you select a username, all content linking to your profile is associated with the username’s URL. If you want to change the username at some point, your URL would change and you would need to update all backlinks and links to that profile accordingly. This is why it’s best to choose the right username when setting up your profile.

If you want to change your username, follow these steps (see Figure 3-2):

1. Go to your profile on Instagram on either your mobile device or your computer.
2. Tap or click Edit Profile.
3. In the Username field, type the new username.

4. Save your changes.

   To do so, tap the check mark, Done, Save, or Submit button (depending on the device you’re using).

FIGURE 3-2: Editing your username and name information.

Choosing the best name

Your Instagram name is visible only when someone visits your profile directly. The name appears in bold below the profile photo (refer to Figure 3-1). You can use your actual name or a nickname as your name on Instagram.

Your profile will perform better in searches and look less amateurish if the name and username are different. Having a name that’s different from your username provides double the opportunity for keywords and searchable criteria in the Instagram app. Power users on Instagram take the time to craft good username and name components.

Unlike your username, which is one word, your name should be in proper sentence structure with capital letters and spacing. Your name (like your username) is limited to 30 characters, including spaces.

You can be found in more searches on Instagram if you include a keyword or phrase in your name or username or both. If you didn’t put a defining keyword in your username, you should include one in your name field, in addition to your actual name.

The name on your profile is not tied to your URL or other defining aspects of Instagram, so you can change it without your username being affected. Consider adding or changing keywords, as necessary, to appeal to your target audience on Instagram.

If you want to change your name, do the following:

1. Go to your Instagram profile, and tap or click Edit Profile.
2. In the Name field, type the new name.

3. Save your changes.

   To do so, tap the check mark, Done, Save, or Submit button (depending on the device you’re using).

Deciding on a profile photo

The profile photo on your account, as well as your username, is associated with all your activity. When you post anything to Instagram or engage with other users in any way, your profile photo is visible.

Your profile photo should represent you and be recognizable to others. If you actively use other social media platforms, you may want to use the same photograph for your Instagram profile as you already use on other platforms. That way, you create cohesion across your online media and assure your followers that they found the correct account when searching for you. The account of @lorettagavin in Figure 3-3 is a good example of having a profile photo that stands out, is easy to recognize, and represents her as a person.

FIGURE 3-3: A good profile photo represents you.

Profile photos on Instagram are cropped to a circle, so your photo should fit properly within that crop. Don’t use a logo or an image that loses valuable content when cropped to a circle.

The profile photo on your profile page appears larger than anywhere else on Instagram. When interacting with others, the profile photo is a thumbnail (small) version. Choose an image that isn’t too busy, overwhelming, or cluttered with text, because the image will become difficult to decipher as a thumbnail.

The best profile photos have a clear object of focus, contain a simple background, and are sized at least 550 x 550 pixels. The ideal image size is 1,080 by 1,080 pixels for a square image. (If you upload a photo that’s too small, it may appear pixelated, which is what happens when a low-resolution image is enlarged too much and the individual square pixels become obvious, making the image blurry.)

Writing a Dazzling Bio

Your bio is a short description on your profile that tells people about you. This description is similar to a 30-second elevator pitch — it’s how you convince new visitors to follow your account.

Most people will read your bio only the first time they visit your profile. Your bio is the first impression you give to new viewers and should accurately convey the message you want to share.

Deciding what information to include

Before you start writing your bio, choose at least two or three key aspects of your life to highlight. These should be traits that will connect emotionally, in some way, with your those you want to attract, such as the example shown in Figure 3-4.

FIGURE 3-4: A well-written bio will attract more followers.

You need to determine the voice and style of your bio. If you’re the next Amy Schumer, your Instagram bio should reflect that irrevent, hilarious style through words and relevant emojis. In contrast, if your identity is more straight-laced and serious, your bio shouldn’t be silly and humorous.

Even if your profile is meant to connect with friends and family, sharing your personality and purpose in the bio will help clarify that to people who may find you.

The Instagram bio is limited to 150 characters, including spaces. The bio is designed to be one single paragraph of information, but you can use formatting techniques to add spaces and line breaks.

Because Instagram was designed to be used on a mobile device, it’s best to format your bio on a mobile device so that you retain the correct alignment. No matter what formatting you create, your bio on a desktop or computer device will always be one long paragraph spanning the width of the browser, unlike the vertical alignment seen on mobile devices.

Make use of emojis and symbols from your mobile device’s keyboard to create visual appeal in your bio. To add emojis, open the emoji keyboard on your mobile device — just tap the smiley-face icon at the bottom of your keyboard.

Instagram is a visual platform, and having emojis in the bio helps yours stand out from other users. You have many emojis to choose from. If the traditional funny face and cartoonish emojis don’t translate to your style, use simple emoji symbols such as squares, diamonds, triangles, and arrows to add color and visual content without detracting from your professional style.

TO HASHTAG OR NOT TO HASHTAG

Generally, hashtags are not a good idea in Instagram bios. Although they are clickable, if someone clicks the hashtag in your bio, he’ll leave your profile and explore the hashtag gallery results instead. Using a hashtag like #photographer will send visitors from your profile to millions of other posts using that hashtag. Using hashtags in your bio is not a viable way to get more followers or showcase your own content.

You should only include hashtags in your bio if they’re specific to you, your content, or your business. For example, if you recently got married and you had a hashtag for your wedding, you can include that hashtag in your bio so that anyone tapping on it will find all the other content created at your wedding.

Formatting your bio

You can edit or create your bio by tapping the Edit Profile button in your Instagram profile. On the Edit Profile screen (refer to Figure 3-2), go to the Bio field and insert the text for your bio. Save any changes when you’re finished.

Android users can format a bio completely in Instagram. If you want to include line breaks and spacing, tap the Return or Enter key (on the keyboard of your mobile device) at the end of the line. Make sure that you don’t have an extra space after the final character on the line and that the last character on the line is not an emoji. If you have an extra space or an emoji as the final character, the space breaks you inserted with the Return or Enter key will not appear in your published text.

iOS users can format a bio in Instagram, but line breaks will not be retained. Instead, it’s best to open the Notes app on your device and use it to craft your bio description, including all formatting. Then copy the bio, open Instagram again, select Edit Profile, and paste the description in the Bio field. As with Android users, you must ensure that no extra space appears after the final character on the line and that the last character on the line is not an emoji.

You can edit and rewrite your bio as often as you want. We recommend reviewing your bio every six months to verify that the information is still accurate and relevant.

Considering layouts for your bio

Instagram has traditionally had the profile photo on the left side of the profile and the bio directly beneath it. As Instagram has added more features, like IGTV and Story Highlights, the profile section has gotten longer and taken up more space. To alleviate this problem, Instagram began truncating the bios with a “… more” link. Tapping the “… more” link will open the full bio, as shown in Figure 3-5.

FIGURE 3-5: Instagram has been testing and rolling out new profile layouts.

Additionally, Instagram started rolling out new profile layouts with the profile on the right side of the profile and a more condensed spacing to allow for better positioning of the bio content. You may see any variation of the bio formats shown in Figure 3-5.

Adding a web address to your bio

Most people use web addresses in their bios when they’re using their Instagram profiles for business purposes. But there may be occasions where you want to share a website link even on your personal profile.

Perhaps you want to send people to your YouTube vidoes, or to your personal gallery of photos on Flickr, or to a reservation link for an upcoming party. In any of these situations, or others, you can include the URL for that destination in the link location in your bio.

The only place that you can place a clickable link on Instagram, as a personal profile, is in the bio. You can’t include clickable links in regular posts or stories. If you have any reason to send people to a website link, you’ll need to place that link here in the bio.

From the Edit Profile button on your Instagram profile, there is the option to list a URL link. Simply copy and paste or type in the link address in this field.

Your URL can be updated or changed as frequently as you like. You may have a default web page for your profile but change it to coincide with a promotion or campaign you’re running on Instagram. After that campaign is complete, you can change the link back to your default or simply delete it if you don’t have anything to drive traffic to.

On a personal profile, you won’t get Instagram analytics regarding how many people clicked the link in your bio. If you wanted to use this feature for business and drive traffic for your business, you would want to upgrade to a business profile on Instagram (see “Taking Advantage of a Business Profile Upgrade,” later in this chapter).

TRACKING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TRAFFIC

To accurately track your Instagram traffic, you need to do more than upload a direct link to your website. If someone clicks the link in your bio from Instagram on the desktop, Google Analytics records it as referral traffic from Instagram. When someone taps the link in Instagram on a mobile device, a new browser is opened. Google Analytics doesn’t properly track that traffic for you. Instead, it considers opening the new browser direct traffic, not social media referral traffic.

Although Google Analytics is tracking that traffic for you, it’s categorizing it alongside all other direct traffic to your site, not as a clickthrough from Instagram. As a result, you may look at your website traffic and be convinced that Instagram is not driving any significant traffic, when it may be sending much more traffic than you’re aware of.

To correct this problem, use a link shortener that provides trackable data on the number of clicks. The link shorteners Bitly (https://bitly.com), Google URL Shortener (https://goo.gl), and Rebrandly (www.rebrandly.com) are the most reliable and safe options. Each provides a data analysis of each link to allow you to track how many clicks you’re generating.

To use a link shortener, follow these simple steps:

1. Find your long-form URL (the direct link from your website) and copy it.
2. Open the link shortener website of your choice.
3. Paste the long-form URL in the link shortener website.

   The link shortener generates a short link.

4. Customize the short URL to match your branding or page.
5. Copy the short URL and paste it as your URL in your Instagram bio.

Most link shorteners generate a link with random letters and numbers, such as http://bit.ly/2X4y6. This doesn't look professional, and visitors may find the link confusing or question the link’s validity. You can customize the link to reflect your brand. For example, if your long-form URL is http://jennstrends.com/blog, the short-form one may be http://bit.ly/JTBlog or http://bit.ly/JennsTrendsBlog.

Taking Advantage of a Business Profile Upgrade

In late 2016, Instagram introduced business profiles to Instagram. Before this feature rollout, all profiles on Instagram looked identical. Now brands have the capability to stand out from regular accounts and can benefit from a variety of features available only to business profiles.

By upgrading to a business profile on Instagram, you get features such as the following:

• Easy-to-access contact buttons that make it easy for your customers to email you, call you, or get directions to your location
• An industry listing that informs visitors what you do as a business
• In-app analytics to best monitor what is and isn’t working in your content strategy
• The ability to boost posts from your Instagram profile and run ads on Instagram
• The ability to manage your Instagram comments and engagement through your Facebook page

You’re allowed only one clickable link (in your bio). The contact button feature means people can call, text, or email you, or get directions to your business location, providing you additional ways to connect directly with your customers and close more sales!

To upgrade to a business profile, do the following:

1. Log in to Instagram on your mobile device, and tap Edit Profile.
2. Tap the Switch to Professional Account option (see Figure 3-6).
3. Choose Business and follow the prompts to select your Category and email contact info.
4. If you have a Facebook page to connect your account to, select it from the Pages you’re logged into. If you don’t have a Facebook page, tap Don’t Connect to Facebook Now.

5. Update or add information as necessary.

   For example, if your information does not populate a phone number but you would like to include the Call contact button, you can add your phone number to that field in the Contact Options screen.

   You can edit this information at any time, in case you want to add or delete a contact option later.

6. Save your information.

   Tap the check mark in the upper-right corner of the Contact Options screen.

FIGURE 3-6: Upgrade to a business profile by selecting the Switch to Professional Account option.

Your Instagram account is now set up as a business profile! After upgrading your account, your new business profile appears to anyone visiting your profile.

Even though you have these additional features as a business profile, your profile characteristics, such as your username, name, bio, and URL, remain the same.

In addition to a Business account, you can opt to have a Creator account. This type of account has a few more options for insights and analytics but does not currently cooperate with third-party tools, so you won’t be able to use a scheduling tool or social media management tool to manage your Instagram account if you have a Creator account.

Setting Your Account Privacy Settings

When you set up a new Instagram account, it will default to a public account, meaning anyone on Instagram can find you and see your content. Many Instagram users are okay with this, but if you want to keep your account more private, you can.

When your account is private, other users will be able to see your username, name, profile photo, and bio, but they won’t be able to see any of your posts.

To edit your privacy settings, follow these steps (see Figure 3-7):

1. Go to your Instagram profile, and tap the three-line button in the upper-right corner.
2. Tap Settings at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap Privacy.
4. Tap Account Privacy.
5. Tap the toggle button for the option to make your account private.

FIGURE 3-7: Making your account private.

When you make these changes, anyone who is currently following you won’t see anything different on your profile, but anyone who is not currently following you will no longer see your account posts. If someone wants to follow you, he’ll need to request to follow you. You’ll receive that request and you can approve or deny that person the ability to follow you.