Let’s Do It Together Instagram Bio Optimization

Kassaundra  00:01

It’s time for some actionable steps. So today we’re going to jump in and update your Instagram bio together. 

Kassaundra  00:10

So teacher authors, go ahead and reheat that cup of coffee because I’m your host, Kassaundra Foster and we’re about to get Schooled in Socials. 

Kassaundra  00:22

Welcome back to Schooled in Socials, and I’m so excited to kick off this little mini series that I’m going to be doing throughout the podcast that I call let’s do it together, where I’m going to walk you through one small piece of social media that can help you up level your Social Media Marketing. And today, we are going to be focusing on your Instagram bio. 

Kassaundra  00:53

So right now, I’m challenging you go to your desktop, open up Instagram and go to your profile and click Edit. I want you doing this right alongside me as we work together. Now I want you to open it up on your desktop, so whatever device you’re listening on, you can keep that going with me as your guide, and you can fill in the information so it’s fresh as we go. 

Kassaundra  01:27

First things first, before we start optimizing your Instagram bio. Why are we even starting there anyways? Here’s why. It is the first thing people see when they navigate to your page, and that means it’s a deciding factor in whether people will follow you or not. Fun fact, you have less than three seconds to hook someone before they are likely to click away from your page – it is an insanely short amount of time, and your bio is right up at the top of that page, in some key real estate, and that’s probably the first thing that they are going to notice and read. So we want to make sure it’s in tip top shape. Finally, it’s a key factor in SEO and how you can be found on Instagram. Instagram is turning more and more into a search engine, and a lot of your bio is searchable, so we want to make sure that it has those keywords that are going to help people find you. 

Kassaundra  02:46

All right, let’s jump in with talking about the parts of your bio. I break this down into three parts so as you’re looking and you’re editing your profile, you will see a spot where you can put your name, and this is also a spot where you can put your title. Then you’ll also see username, which you’re not going to have to worry about. You’re going to see website, which we’re going to talk about later, because you can only edit this on mobile. And then you’re going to see the field that says bio. So when I think about your Instagram bio, I think of that name field as one piece, then your bio, which is where you talk about yourself and how you help people. And within that bio, you also want a call to action. So we have three parts we really want to make sure that we optimize: your name, your bio, and your call to action. 

Kassaundra  03:48

So first thing, let’s start in that name box. And here is where we want to put our name and our title, and this is the top bolded line of your bio when it shows up on Instagram. And we want to use this area to include your name so people know who you are. Please make sure you include this. Some people don’t, and it makes it like really hard to connect with them when you don’t know the person’s name. You don’t have to put your full name, just your first name, will be great. And then you also want to put your title. So when I say title, you want to focus on how you can help your audience members. So if someone is clicking to your page and they want to quickly know how you’re going to help them, that should be your title of like what you do. And this field is searchable, so we really want to make sure we’re using specific keywords here, that our potential audience is going to be searching on Instagram. And so thinking about being specific, for example, science teacher versus middle school science teacher, you’re probably going to pull in more people who are a better fit for your audience, and you probably won’t have as much competition to show up in the search if you use middle school science teacher versus science teacher. To kind of figure out what you should put as your title in this field, you can do a quick search of the title you want to use on Instagram, just in that search section, and see what keywords pop up as you type it in. That can give you some direction on what people are already looking for. And you could pick one of those terms that’s trending that most reflects how you help people. You can also narrow it down and see what kinds of accounts pop up when you put in the term that you would like to use. Are they accounts that are similar to yours or not similar to yours? Are they actually doing the same thing as you and again, that can help you narrow down what will be best for your title. When you are putting in your name and title field, you want to make sure that you separate your name from your title people usually use one of those vertical pipes or lines to separate their name from their title section. It just makes it much easier to read. So for example, mine says Kassaundra, vertical pipe, social media manager for teacher authors. All right, go ahead and pause where you are in the podcast right now and take a minute to try to draft your name and title field for your bio. 

Kassaundra  06:48

Okay, hopefully by now you have drafted something for your name and your title field. Don’t worry, you can always come back to it and change it later if you want to. Let’s move on and start talking about your bio. So this section is all about telling people how you can help them your experience what they can expect from your account. Again, keep keywords related to your niche in mind, because these keywords are used within the algorithm to help bring up accounts as people are searching for different things. In this section, you don’t want to have just a block of text, because that’s harder to read when people come to your page. Again, remember, we have about three seconds to capture them, we want to make sure we do it, so break your bio into several short lines and use emojis to also help break that up as well. You can also try using symbols like the and symbol as well as emojis to help give more information, because you are confined to 150 characters, so this is where it takes a little bit of revising, because you’re probably not going to get everything you want in your bio the first go around, but you can definitely do it, I promise. Also, it’s nice to include a little extra information about yourself so that potential audience members can easily see if they connect with you on a different level than just needing your resource. This can really help bring people into your community if they see that you connect on another level besides them just needing something from you. Okay, so to give you an example here, this is how I set up my bio to tell people how I can help them my experience and kind of what they can expect from my account. So I start off and I say on the first line, IG and FB – so I’m using those acronyms there to help save space – so IG and FB, social media management for busy teacher authors. That’s what I do and how I can help you. And then my next line, I use an apple emoji, and I put former teacher, and I use the air emoji to kind of show turned social media manager. So again, I am making sure that I am using those keywords like social media, social media management, teacher authors, those are the things that I want to come together when people search for me, and then my third line I’m using here to connect with people on a different level. So I say W A H M, which means work at home mom, which is what I do. And I also put coffee lover, because I am definitely a coffee lover. And again, I utilized emojis in that last little section to convey those messages so that I didn’t go over those 150 characters. Okay, go ahead and pause this. I want you to give it a go. Try writing your bio, and then come back and we will finish up talking about your call to action. 

Kassaundra  10:22

Okay, so your call to action is going to be the last line of your bio. So you want to make sure you leave some room in your bio for this call to action. We want people to do something when they get to our page. And so a call to action, it’s usually enticing people to click on the link in your bio to access a freebie, get your resources, sign up for a membership, read your blog, etc. We want them to take action. So what you put here really depends on your goals. If you’re looking to grow your email list, your CTA might be about your lead magnet. If you’re looking to promote your new membership, your CTA might revolve around that. If you’re looking to drive more traffic about your blog, then you probably want to have a call to action about reading the blog. So what we want is to be very specific, so people know exactly where they’re going, where they’re going to land, and what they’re going to expect once they hit that link in bio. We don’t kind of want to lose them in the shuffle. Now, one great way to do your call to action and save space is by using that backhand down emoji to indicate that they should click on the link to access what you just described. So for example, mine has an emoji of a camera and it says free 25 teacher reels ideas with the backhand emoji. So that last line of your bio comes right before where your link is displayed. So that’s a really great way to indicate Hey, click this link below, right here. And again, I am working on building my email list, and this is one of my freebies that is a lead magnet, and so I’ve chosen to use that as my call to action. All right, let’s pause for a second and go ahead and try to add your call to action in to your bio. 

Kassaundra  13:31

Awesome. Look at that. You have just gone through and you have optimized your Instagram bio. Here are the things I want to make sure that you take away from this episode. When optimizing your Instagram bio, remember to look at all three components, your name and title, your bio, and your call to action. Hone in on those keywords that teachers in your niche are searching for and make sure your bio is less about you and more about how you can help them. Having an optimized bio will help get more eyes on your account and help more people stay as followers, which is a win-win for sure. Now here’s what I want you to do, I want you, right after you finish listening to this podcast, to go to your mobile device, choose a really intentional link that you’re going to use for that call to action, add it in to polish off your bio optimization. Then I want you to screenshot and share your new and improved bio on your Instagram stories and tag me and let me know if you’d like some specific feedback, I’ll choose a few bios to review and give pointers on.