Making a Good First Impression

(1) Have a strong name, display picture and bio.

Your picture and name is the first thing that people will look at when they come across your page. When creating your brands name the key is to remember the easier it is to spell and remember, the easier it is to search. Also remember to make sure that the name is available on all social channels you may want to use.

Make sure your image is clear, even consider a head shot if you are promoting yourself as a professional/ For a company or brand, use a high resolution image of your logo to introduce your brands aesthetics. You want people to see your page and know that it is a professional, reputable brand they have discovered. For your bio you have very little space to display a lot of important information. Make sure that you bullet point key information about your business. For example, what you do, where you are based.

(2) Ensure your page is set up as a business profile in the correct category field and you have clear CTAs.

Being set up as a business page allows the category field feature to be turned on. Category field allows your page to show what your company does and what they have to offer. When selecting a category think about what terms users may search for to find your service.

Use strategic call-to-actions (CTAs). Invite followers to follow your brands hashtags, offer the opportunity for them to get reposted on your socials if they do. Provide the option to ‘contact’ or ‘book’ at the top of your page. The easier it is for customers, the more likely it is for them to follow through for the sale or booking. It is also important to tag your location as this allows potential connections to discover you.

(3) Have clear Instagram highlights and icons.

Instagram stories are crucial for interaction on your page. Instagram now allows you to save these stories as highlights. You can put these into categories so that consumers can browse them whenever they want. The highlights can be put into categories such as ‘pricing’, ‘services’ and ‘products’. Highlight icons also provide a way to make your page unique and match your aesthetics as they show directly under your bio. You can create Highlight Icons that will be the image that shows so that you can make them match your brand.

(4) Organise your feed and plan your content.

First step to creating good quality content is to research and plan. Make mood boards with the theme you want throughout your feed, look at other accounts and what they are doing well and what you, as a consumer, do and don’t like. When you have finalised your mood board and deciding the theme for your feed the next step is to create the content. For images make sure you always use high quality, clear images. For any other posts create a template that you are going to use throughout your feed to ensure unity throughout your feed. This will allow your brand to be identifiable. For planning your content, remember to plan stories and make content for them too. Planning your content allows you to be consistent with your posting and schedule all posts.