6 Steps to Making an Instagram Business Page
It’s 2018. Chances are you’ve heard of Instagram before. But, if you haven’t, don’t feel like a caveman. This post is designed to help anyone who wants to start up an Instagram page for their business.
If you are a firm hater of social media, I urge you to let me drag you kicking and screaming into the Instagram world. After all, there are 200 million active members, of which 80% of them follow at least one business page. Why not let one of those pages be yours?
Here are all 6 steps;
- Download the app
- Create an account
- Choose a profile picture
- Write your bio
- Switch to a business account
- Start posting and following
1. Download the app
This may seem a bit obvious, but the first thing you will need to do when setting up an Instagram business account is download the Instagram app. The way you download this depends on the type of phone you have, but it’s the same on every one. For Apple users, download the Instagram app on the App Store. Android users can find the app on Google Play. For Windows users, you should be able to download it from the Windows site. It’s a doddle!
Downloading the app not only means you can access Instagram on-the-go using your mobile, but currently you’re not able to upload anything via desktop. Plus, it downloads in no time.
2. Create an account
Now you’ve downloaded the app, the next thing you need to tick off the list is creating your account.
As you can see, the signing up process is really simple. You can sign up using a mobile phone, email address or logging in through Facebook. Then all you need to do is enter your name and choose your username and password. Your Instagram account’s username should be related to your business. It would be a good idea to match or be very similar to usernames on other social media pages you have. It makes it easier for people to find you across the different platforms and boosts that all important findability.
Remember your username will be public and all your potential customers will be able to see it, so try and avoid anything embarrassing!
3. Choose a profile picture
Your Instagram account needs a profile picture. Visitors are a lot less likely to visit or engage with your page if it doesn’t have one. Something I’d advise you to use as a picture would be your business’ logo, like the BAK Digital Instagram has;
Quick tip: It’s advised that your profile picture should be 110 x 110 pixels.
4. Write your bio
After creating your account, you need to fill in a bio. Your bio gives visitors to your page a bit of information about what your account is about and what type of business you are.
It can be anything you want! As long as, like your username, it’s related to your business. Above is an example from the BAK Digital Instagram page. Here you can see our bio is simple, and just explains what type of business we are and what visitors should expect to see on our page.
Plus, it has a link to our website. Linking to your website is helpful, your visitors can see more about who you are and what you do.
5. Switch to a business account
This step does so much by doing so little. So far, the Instagram account you’ve created is a personal account. What you need is a business account.
To do this, you need to locate the ‘settings’ button. If you’re on a mobile, the settings button is in the shape of a cog.Within settings there is another button which says ‘switch to business account’. You guessed it, select that option and it’s done! As easy as that.
Once you’ve done this, you should add you business’ information like opening times, an email address which will be linked to the default ‘email’ button on your page and directions to your business which will also be linked to the default ‘directions’ button on the page. If you see these two buttons below your bio you’ve successfully changed your Instagram personal account to an Instagram business account.
It’s great having a business account, you can’t have those default buttons without it. You can also keep track of you page’s success levels which you couldn’t do with a personal account.
6. Start posting and following
Last but not least, once your page is looking good and how you want it, get posting. You need to start building up your page’s content. As well as posting on your fresh new page, you should also follow other accounts too. You may get a follow back!
Quick Tip: Why not promote your page on your other social media platforms? The beauty of having multiple social media accounts is that they can all cross-reference each other
And you’re done. There you have your Instagram business account. If you’re wanting to make your page the best you can, take a look at our ‘Optimising Your Instagram Business Account‘ post for tips!
