11 Tips On How to Make a Good Instagram Bio
Your Instagram bio is what your fans and followers first see when visiting your page. While your content is going to be the main focus, knowing how to make a good Instagram bio is also important for attracting followers and engaging your fans.
What Is an Instagram Bio?
Your Instagram bio is the short block at the top of your page that includes a brief text description of your account. Instagram bios are limited to 150 characters and appear next to your profile picture on computers or beneath your profile picture on mobile devices.
The original intent was obviously for this to be a short biography of you, your page, or your business, though creative use of this limited space can have many benefits. This mini-billboard is especially important for businesses and influencers.
For example, many big influencers use this space to link to their website or sister brands. You can also link to other social media platforms to expand your network. Of course, you should also use this space to briefly represent yourself or your business to new visitors.
What Makes a Good Instagram Bio?
A good Instagram bio needs to be short, sweet, and effective. Since you only have 150 characters to work with, being concise is crucial.
That doesn’t mean you should just have a plain wall of text, either. Your bio should be easy to read since many page visitors will only skim it before scrolling down to your content. Many popular Instagram pages use much less than the 150-character limit, so all of the important information is impossible to miss.
It is a good idea to include a sentence or two about yourself or your business mission statement, some external links to your website or other socials, and possibly a call to action. This will help you turn visitors into followers and followers into customers.
How to Make Your Instagram Bio Give a Good First Impression
To ensure your profile visitors don’t just scroll past the bio, you want it to be helpful but also a quick read. Here are some tips to consider when writing your Instagram bio.
Name and username
If possible, carefully consider your username. This will be a major identifier for your profile and could have strategic value.
There are billions of other Instagram accounts, meaning many usernames are already taken. It is best practice to go with something that both represents you and is easy to remember.
Keeping it short can others memorize it, as can avoiding strings of random numbers of characters. For influencers, consider including relevant keywords to your niche to help with searchability and authority in your field.
Profile photo
A clear and easy-to-recognize profile photo is advisable. For business accounts (including influencers), it is usually best practice to carefully select your profile photo and keep it for an extended period.
Your profile picture and thumbnail will quickly become a recognizable part of your brand, so changing them can confuse your followers. When selecting your profile picture, choose something that your fans will be able to recognize, even in a small thumbnail.
Contact info
In a bio for business, including contact information is important for potential sponsors who want to get in touch with you. While they can always attempt to reach you through your page or private messages, you don’t want to risk those notifications getting lost in the shuffle.
You can add a contact button to an Instagram business account if you tap Edit Profile and then Contact Options. Here you can add a business email address and phone number. Just be aware that anyone on your page can see this information, including fans.
How do You Add a Location to Your Instagram Bio?
Under Contact Options, you can also add a business address button. This can be helpful if you have a physical location, such as a storefront, that potential customers might need help finding.
Even if you don’t have a brick-and-mortar shop or office building, you can use the business address feature to show where you are located. This can be helpful for connecting with your target market if you focus on a particular area or region.
Category
To set a category for your Instagram business bio, tap Edit Profile and look for the Category tab. Click through to see a list of suggested categories to choose from based on your content.
If you don’t see your preferred category, you can type keywords into the search bar for more options. The category you set will show up right below your username at the top of your page so visitors can immediately know what your business is about. Categories can be as specific as “Ice cream shop” or as broad as “Product/Service.”
Call-to-action (CTA) buttons
If you tap Edit Profile on a business account and go to Contact Options, you will see Add an action button at the bottom of the list. These buttons integrate with third-party services to do the following:
- Order food
- Make reservations
- Buy tickets
Essentially, an action button will allow you to direct visitors to services like GrubHub, OpenTable, or Fandango to perform one of the above actions conveniently. New integrations are being added, so try it out for yourself and see if there are any useful actions you want to add to your business profile.
Instagram Bio Section
For the actual text portion of the bio section, you have 150 characters to talk about yourself, your business, or whatever else you want. If you’re taking advantage of the above elements on your business account, that will free up some characters since you don’t have to repeat your location, contact info, or what type of business you operate (probably).
If you want to talk more about your business (or there isn’t a good Category option), you can do that here. You can also link to other socials or your website, which we will cover below.
You can fill any remaining space however you’d like: company slogan, quotes, sales announcements, mission statement, news, brand updates, etc. Don’t feel like you need to use every last character, but consider how your bio can help you connect with your audience.
Website
Pairing a website with your Instagram account is a great way to gain social media followers and direct them to your other endeavors. Since there is a lot more freedom in what you can do with a website, it is often a smart move for businesses and even influencers to have one.
Many Instagram business profiles aim to gain followers who are also prospective customers.
How do You Put a Link in Your Instagram Bio?
You can simply type your website URL into your Instagram bio, where it will be displayed. This is a great way to drive traffic to your website and can also help add a little color.
How to Write a Captivating Instagram Bio (11 Ideas)
Instagram bios come in all shapes and sizes, depending on the account type and objective. You’ll find that many of the most successful pages keep their bio very simple, though that isn’t necessarily the best strategy for every bio at every stage.
Below are some tips you can use to increase the effectiveness of your bio.
1. Add keywords and descriptive words to your profile name
If you don’t already have an established Instagram profile, choosing the right name might be more important than you think.
Including keywords in your profile name can help you appear in search results (for both search engines and within Instagram). They can also make you more memorable to your target audience.
Lastly, relevant terms in your profile name can give random viewers an instant idea of the focus of your page. For example, if you have the word “gaming” or “fashion” in your username, that’s a pretty big hint about the type of content you cover.
2. Use line breaks and emojis to make your bio neat and easy to read
Most people who end up on your page are more interested in your posts than in your bio. If your bio is a dense wall of text, there is a good chance many visitors will simply skim past it and scroll down to your content.
If you want to share important information or clickable links in your bio, it is important to make it easy to read. You want it to be skimmable while immediately getting across your message.
To do this, include lots of whitespaces and be as succinct as possible. This way, it will only take a few seconds for visitors to absorb your bio when your page first loads and they scroll on.
3. Include strong CTA buttons
If you have a website, social account, or third-party integration you want to direct your followers to, include it in your bio. Using the action buttons, as mentioned above, can be an effective call to action.
Hyperlink text will also stand out, adding some eye-catching color to the block. You can also use a link shortener if you want to take up less space, though you may want to keep a branded URL for your own website.
In any case, a short CTA will encourage visitors to click a hyperlink or action, but try to keep it short and engaging.
4. Use a link in the bio tool for ultimate traffic conversion
Your Instagram bio can be an effective first piece of your conversion funnel. Linking to a website allows your fans to conveniently progress to the next stage of your sales funnel.
5. Customize your link to reflect your branding
Customizing links can make them more targeted and easier to read than a long URL (especially one with subdomains or folders). It will also take up less space in your bio.
6. Enable Shopping on Instagram to showcase your products
If you have your own website where you sell products, directing your Instagram followers there is a great way to boost traffic and sales. You can also set up Instagram Shopping so your fans can make purchases without leaving the app!
You can even use Instagram Shopping as a direct selling platform. It is usually best practice to have your own website for this type of business model, though Instagram Shopping is a good alternative if you don’t have the resources to set up a standalone website.
7. Leverage IGTV
Instagram TV is a great way to diversify your content and reach new viewers. By utilizing different avenues like IGTV, Reels, and Instagram Stories, you can cast a larger net that will drive new traffic to your page and give your current followers more ways to engage with you.
8. Share a social media-only promo code
If you have an affiliate partner or other sponsorship who provides you with custom coupon codes, sharing them on your bio is an excellent tactic.
Promo codes not only provide value to your fans but can help you earn an affiliate commission. If you make this a common occurrence, you are more likely to attract potential followers and keep your current ones checking back regularly for unique discounts.
9. Curate Highlights for your profile
If you post a lot of quality Story content, collecting them into Highlights is a worthwhile endeavor. This not only extends the life of this content beyond the normal 24-hour limit but allows you to organize different categories that showcase your interests.
10. Utilize clickable tags to promote branded hashtags and sister accounts
Clickable tags, like website links, will help break up your bio and direct your profile visitors to other areas of Instagram. This is a great way to build a network among sister accounts and broadcast your niche.
11. Get Creative With Your Bio to Make it Unique
There are billions of other Instagram bios, making it hard to be unique. Try to leverage your brand to make your bio stand out from the crowd however you can.
You want to keep it short and easy to read, though making it eye-catching can also help. Play with line spacing, special characters, and relevant emojis to help break up your bio and add some color.
You can get creative by changing up your bio often. This could be a daily or weekly quote or question, new links, or even simple text art. It’s hard to be unique among billions of other profiles, so you have to get creative!
Instagram Bio Examples
If you want to learn how to make a good bio for Instagram, just look at the pros. Here are a few examples of bios from successful Instagram accounts. See if you can spot any patterns or tips we covered in this article.
The first thing you probably notice about all of these bios is how short they are. Few of them are even nearing the 100-character mark, let alone 150. But as you can see, it only takes a few seconds to read each one. Even the IBM bio, which still isn’t close to 150 characters, seems long compared to the others because it has one long sentence. This is a great example of why brevity is key.
While we see some use of emojis, hashtags, and Instagram links, every example links out to an external website. Don’t be shy to direct your visitors to other facets of your business.
As you can see, there are a lot of similarities among these popular Instagram bios. If you want to learn how to create an effective Instagram bio for your personal page or business, just look at what the most successful accounts are doing. It’s no coincidence that they look similar!
FAQs
Below are some answers to common questions about crafting an attractive Instagram bio.
Get More Action with a Stunning Instagram Bio
Compared to your posts, Reels, and Instagram Stories, your bio isn’t the most exciting part of your page. But since most of your followers will see your bio, it’s worth putting a little time into optimizing yours.
Hyperlinks will add some functionality to your bio and a bit of color. Simple emojis can help too. Perhaps the most important thing is to keep your bio concise because that will increase the likelihood of it actually getting read.
Whatever your goal is for your Instagram page, your bio is another tool you can use to help achieve it. If you want help learning how to make a good Instagram bio, check out what the pros are doing. For aspiring influencers who want to learn even more, partner with Scalefluence for expert tips and guidance about optimizing every corner of your Instagram page.
