Instagram What’s Working: Building Your Profile Like A Business Card & Portfolio

This is Part 5 of a 10-Part series. Find all the links here.

What’s the first thing you do before following someone on Instagram? I’m willing to bet that after seeing an interesting post, you check out their profile and grid. It’s important to be intentional here, because it’s likely someone’s first impression of you. I like to think of the top of your profile like a business card and your grid like your online portfolio.

Instagram Profile: Business Card

Most highly-engaged accounts on instagram have a few things in common with their profile. Let’s breakdown the anatomy of a good profile: public, recognizable handle, searchable business/name, identifiable profile picture, informative bio, optimized profile link.

Public Profile

This might sound obvious, but if your goal is to reach more people on instagram (for whatever reason), you want a public profile. For people to be able to discover you and your business, they actually need to see what you’re all about! The good news is that you can choose exactly what you do and do not share publicly. For example, I allow people to contact us via DM or email, but I don’t share my private phone number.

Recognizable (Simple) Handle

As more users join Instagram, it can be challenging to snag the perfect handle. That said, I would encourage you to make it as recognizable to your business and SIMPLE as possible. Why? Because when you think about why anyone would be looking up your handle, it’s generally for two reasons. They are either trying to find your account or tag you. You want this to be easy.

Think of your favorite accounts on Instagram. I’m willing to bet that their handle is easy for you to both remember and look up. If at all possible, avoid handles that are repetitive in your industry. There are some flower farm accounts I absolutely adore on Instagram, but there names are so similar I always have a hard time looking them up or tagging because I can’t remember which farmhouse flower account they are. It doesn’t mean there is anything inherently wrong with these names, they are just are not as easy to remember or as immediately identifiable.

Searchable Business Name & Category

By adding a name and category to your profile, it makes your account more searchable. I like to include my personal name as well as our business name. I know that when I am interacting with people and businesses on Instagram, I like to use the person’s actual name whenever possible. Making this clear to your audience helps build that know, like, and trust factor. You can also add a category to your business, making it more searchable. For example, ours is listed under “Farm” which then shows up on our profile as well.

Identifiable/On-Brand Profile Picture

When it comes to affective marketing, consistency is key here. Once again, we want a profile picture that is recognizable and on-brand for our account. Not only does this tell folks that there is a real person here, it helps as far as visibility when socializing on the app. While I think a logo is perfectly fine, I tend to lean toward a profile picture that actually has a picture of you! I know getting in front of the camera lens can sometimes feel daunting, but becoming the face of your business can have a huge impact. Bonus if you can include a profile picture you doing what your business offers (i.e., I am holding flowers in mine). Erin @floretflower has had the SAME profile photo for years and for that reason it is extremely recognizable.

Informative Bio (Personality)

Your bio, like a business card, should tell people what you do! I also prefer when a profile has a bit of personality to it as well, but you still want it to be clear and concise, so people understand what you’re all about. For example, I love how Krynn @bloomchickflowercompany has a really simple profile, but it still has personality: “Floral Design Studio//Tulip Witch//Kiel, WI”. If you sell flowers, it should say you offer cut flowers. It should promote upcoming sales. If your comfortable, it should include your location (especially if you are selling physical products locally).

Antonio @antoniovalenteflowers is another great example. His profile clearly states what he does (specialty cut flowers). There is a call to action (flower growing tutorials in story highlights). His profile states where is located (Ontario, Canada) and promotes an upcoming sale (bulb sale). Another great example is Hailey @rivermerlefarm. She clearly states that they specialize in hybridizing dahlias, as well as promotes their next tuber sale. If you follow these accounts, you likely already know what they are about, but there profiles clearly reflect this as well.

Optimized Profile Link

While each user’s goal with Instagram may vary, most folks want people interacting with their businesses both on and OFF the app. You can include a clickable external link on your profile. Since you only get one, it’s important to optimize it for the best experience for your audience. Instead of one link, my personal preference is a link to a little landing page that has a number of links. This way, each user can easily find what they are looking for (and ideally, these correspond to your unique goals with Instagram). For example, mine has a number of different options (cut flowers, bulbs, education, newletter sign-up, etc.).

Instagram Grid: Portfolio

Finally, treat your Instagram grid like an online portfolio. Remember, this is likely a viewer’s first impression of you and your business. For that reason, your grid should showcase you and your work (or the work you WANT to be doing). While there is no right or wrong way of showcasing this, just remember that it is a reflection of you. Instagram also has a cool feature where you can pin up to 3 posts at the top of your grid. This is a great way to showcase your work.

Now, there are all kinds of opinions on curates vs non-curated content. Certainly, there are really successful accounts on either end of the spectrum. But even those accounts that are “not curated,” I think you’ll find that most actually are, even if it’s in their own “curated, non-curated” style. The key to success here is a consistent visual representation of you and/or your business, whatever that means to you.

Personally, I like this to be in an aesthetic way. I don’t need it to be overly curated, but I want it to be cohesive and visually appealing. I used to think this was kind of dorky to worry about, but I heard Peter Mckinnon (one of my favorite photographers) talking about how much he considers the visual appeal of is his grid because it’s a reflection of him, as an artist, at that moment in time. And this really resonated with me. People interact with our business in a variety of ways, and I hope those interactions have certain things in common.

Some things that come to mind are plant lovers, lush, beauty, magic, whimsy, mystery, awe, light, fun, etc. I want my grid to reflect those things and I also want it to look cohesive. Often times, I’ll achieve this with certain colors or posting in a pattern that’s visually appealing. For example, I like to go flat lay, straight on, flat lay, straight on (which you can see demonstrated in the photo above). It breaks up the grid so it’s more visually appealing, if that makes sense.

To plan out my grid, I like to use an app (more on that below). While I will plan out the visual piece ahead of time, I like to write the posts real-time (or close to it). Before that, below are some accounts that I find visually appealing to get those creative juices flowing.

Portfolio: How to Plan Grid

Finally, to plan out my grid ahead of time, I use an app and it’s been one of my favorites for 4–5 years. You can easily drag and drop images and shuffle them around to see what they will look like when someone visits your profile. The app I use is called Later App (P.S., you can use this link for a 14-day free trial). It’s really helpful for planning your grid in an aesthetic way, but I also love it for batch-working content.

Aside from great tips, Later is also an official member of the Instagram Partner Program and a Pinterest Marketing Partner. So, you can trust that your account won’t be dinged for using a 3rd-party posting app. P.S., they can also auto-publish for you, but I prefer to do this manually.

You can see what the planner looks like below. I like to use it for planning the grid, knowing when to post (it gives you optimum time for your audience), and saving different hashtag collections.