The Insta Bible: Chapter 1

This Insta Bible: Chapter 1 covers how to_

• Choose and create right Instagram Account
• Choose right username and profile picture
• Write a phenomenal bio
• Build an effective landing page

Nowadays, as it is pretty obvious to stay omnipresent online for your business, one needs to expand his reach from Facebook and be strongly present in other social media sites. Moreover, as photo sharing applications are creating a big bang in the market, Instagram has become an instant hit in the business community. Don’t believe me! Okay, Look below.

Statistical Alert:- Top brands’ per follower engagement rate (4.21%) on Instagram’s is 58 times higher than Facebook and 120 times higher than Twitter. This is the sole reason why I couldn’t overlook the potential of this platform any longer in terms of marketing a product. However, there are still many reasons for you to chose Instagram. And here is an A to Z guide about Instagram that will help you create more user base for your business.

But before we move ahead, let me again clear the point why are we talking about Instagram.

As the use of photo sharing applications are trending today, different businesses are using Instagram. Moreover, as Instagram provides you the platform to share photos and short videos, it has acquired big brands like Nike as users.

Now, let’s begin with the basics of Instagram below:-

How to set up an Instagram Account

Instagram is an extremely powerful channel for business promotion. Hence, to exploit its features, firstly, you have to create an Instagram account.

• Download the app from Playstore or App store.
• Open the App and either login with your Facebook account or Signup with your email address
• Now, create a username and add a photo to your account.
• Afterwards, put in your phone number (mandatory, in case of reclaiming account) and full name.
• Then, start using your account for connecting with people

How to Choose The Right Account for You

Again, it is very important to decide which type of account is beneficial to you. Firstly, your account should provide a clear glimpse of what you are all about and that’s why it is vital to get it right from the very beginning.

There are three types of accounts: a personal account, a business account, and a fan-page account.

1. Personal Account

Here are some examples of personal accounts. Get inspired by them!

![Selena Gomez personal account]Selena-Gomez-personal-account.png?ver=1553881376)

2. Business account

As the name implies, the business account endorses its products and if you want to get more of them, you will have to click the link given in their bio.

3. F**an-Page Account**

Fan-page are an instant hit on Instagram as these accounts are not intended to sell a product. People easily accept them but they are made for different purpose. Hence, when can you create them? Like if you own a card shop, you can also create a fan page having nice quotes about life and build a business behind the scenes.

And for every type of account you choose, you need to decide an effective and consistent theme (environment) throughout the account. To make it easy for you to decide upon the account, have a look at your competitors about what they are doing and also catch the taste of your audience.

It is critical to decide on the type of Instagram account on your page as choosing a wrong account can cause confusion in the market and damage your brand. So, be very clear about which account to choose.

Profile Picture: A very important business

For the cause of Instagram being so visual and from a branding perspective, a logo or profile picture is a deciding factor for your brand. Hence, any person who visits your account on Instagram makes an opinion about your organization through your profile picture. Hence, a wrong profile picture can create confusion among your visitors and it is recommended to add a personal image or your business logo (self made or created by a professional) to your account depending upon the type of Instagram account.

For consistent personal branding, it is recommended to use the same logo for all social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and many more).

To edit or add a profile picture, select “Edit Profile” > Select the option of your preference > Save it.

How to choose the best Username available

Piggybacking a recognized brand in your niche: for example, if you are displaying news related to entrepreneurship, use entrepreneur in your username. When people search the brand “entrepreneur”, your brand will be shown next to the Big brand.

Thus, it will provide a great momentum to your branding.

H**ow to write a phenomenal bio**

Crafting a compelling bio needs focus to the thought that whom you are serving to. Identify your audience and cater according to their taste. It will directly help in boosting your sales, leads, and traffic. Moreover, you only have 150 characters as bio length and you can place your clickable link nowhere else other than your bio. This gives bio a more important role in Instagram when compared to bios in other social media sites.

So, choose your words wisely as your bio is the only place which can help your visitors to decide whether to click your link or not. That’s where the results will be coming from.

• Write a brief and interesting introduction about your service or product
• Include benefits in your bio
• Include some more information about company like location and place a call to action followed by your link
• You can also display information in the form of bullet points. It will make your information look short and to the point.
• Shorten your link in the bio using tools like bitly or goo.gle and make sure that the link is a customized link and does not look like a spammy one. You can also include emoticons if you want.
• Also, use notepad to write your bio and paste it into instagram instead of directly typing it into instagram to avoid spacing problems.
• So, make your bio, test it, and if you like it, paste it.

How to create a Landing Page

As told earlier, Instagram is one of the best platforms to acquire thousands of opt-ins every week. There are already many organizations using the social networking site to the fullest. Here are some points which can improve your landing page building skills:-

1. Give away the FREE gift

It is called the “lead magnet” and it will certainly increase your customer email database. Now, the choice of the product to be given away will be dependent on your wisdom to judge your audience. After studying your audience’s desire, problems or frustrations, provide a product for FREE. This is very important.

Note:- Always give something that looks worthful and that solves a serious problem. Test your product before rendering it to the audience. Moreover, keep that analysis handy (the statistics can be used for your product’s promotion).

Now, remember the link that you provided in your bio! When your customer clicks the link, he will reach your landing page. Then, he will be greeted by the FREE gift.

2. Characteristics of Landing Pages

Let’s discuss about landing page. There are certain points that have to be kept in mind while designing a landing page:-

• Add benefits of the product
• Provide a Social proof for the acceptance of the product like testimonies from people who have used it
• Great copywriting
• Great case Studies
• To the point information and very spacious landing page
• Very easy or 2-click signup process (where he or she just needs to enter email address)

Also, provide a RED button for CTA. Click here to know why. To gain more information about the design of landing pages, read the article.

You can use these tools to create a super-simple landing page that is attractive as well:-

• Unbounce
• Lead page
• Instapage
• Click funnel

And you can find a handful amount of tools online.

3. How to customize your landing page URL

It’s very simple to customize your link. Here are the steps to follow:-

• Install the Wordpress plugin pretty link
• Click on “Add a pretty link”
• Put in the “target URL”
• Then, put in the link that you want to see
• Then, click “create” and it’s all done
• On the dashboard of pretty link, you can see for the hits on your links

Other than pretty link, you can also use “bit.ly” in the same way. Just open the bitly website, paste the targeted link and it will shorten your link. There, you will get an option to customize your link.

Here you can check the statistics of the link by clicking on the name

Know the Influencers in your Space

For a successful business, it is very necessary to know the influencers in your space. To find them, check who your followers are following. By analyzing the market presence of the present influencers, you can start interacting with them and coming into their radar with the help of your presence on Instagram and market.

Account Security in Instagram (Highly Recommended)

When you reach up to a state where you are doing good with your business and followers, you will be not at all happy to see your Instagram account getting hacked then. Even at the primary stage, it will be stressful to lose your account. Well, here are some strategies which can help you to safe-guard your account against the odds.

• Use your phone number and if you don’t have it, add it momentarily. You can recover your account using this information
• Use an email address which is least used or seen in public or the one anyone knows about.
• Use a strong password. You can also set very strong passwords and use password managers like LastPass to store them
• Ensure that you have linked your Instagram account to your Facebook account. In case of  a reclaim situation, your Facebook account can help you to reclaim your Instagram account. If you haven’t done this, go to settings (top right corner) > Linked accounts, you will see the option to link your Facebook and other social media accounts with Instagram account.

More Security For Your Instagram Account

Instagram has already announced the support of two-factor authentication to increase safety in the platform. For those who don’t know, two factor authentication is a technique in security where the user needs to clear a second step of authentication to use the service. Hence, the attacker needs to gain username, password and a unique code to enter your account.

You can receive the code through SMS on your registered phone number or backup codes (one-time users).

How to turn on Two Step Authentication

• To turn on two step verification, select the profile option in the menu bar (at the bottom side of screen).
• Select menu icon at the top right corner.
• When your profile opens up, scroll down till you find “two factor authentication option”. Now, enable two factor which will again ask for your permission to enable the feature and you will get a code on your phone number. If you haven’t provided the number, it will firstly ask for the number and verify it.

Remember to link other media accounts with your Instagram account, create community, use appropriate hashtags and always evaluate your metrics with analytics.

Like any other social media platform, you need to stick to a plan and be ready to accept new ways to improve your follower base. That’s how you are going to win the game on Instagram.

Stay tuned for the next series of articles on content strategy and growth hacks on Instagram. Till then, share your experience with Instagram in the comments below.

Happy Photo Sharing To You!