How to Create an Engaging Instagram Bio That Helps Increases Followers

Did you know that with just 150 simple characters, you could potentially make or break your audience growth on Instagram? That’s because when someone lands on your Instagram profile, the very first thing they typically notice is your bio. Your bio is the most crucial part of your profile because it’s where you introduce your brand, make personal connections, and drive traffic to your business. 

Writing a creative Instagram bio is key to making a great first impression. It should clearly describe what your business does in a compelling way, giving potential customers a reason to want to follow. 

According to Forbes, within the first seven seconds of meeting someone in person, people will have a solid impression of who you are. But, your window of opportunity is even shorter online. In fact, research has shown that it takes just 50 milliseconds or 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about your website! This is precisely why your Instagram bio is so important. 

In this post, we’ll share tips and tricks that will help you write a stand-out bio. We’ll also provide examples of some of the top bio tools available, as well as highlight a variety of influencers and brands who are really nailing it with truly inspiring Instagram bios.

According to Datareportal’s Global Social Media Stats, Instagram is the 4th most used social media platform in the world, so your brand can’t afford to not have a strong presence.

What is an Instagram bio?

Let’s start from the beginning. An Instagram bio is a small summary, found underneath your username, that describes yourself or your business. Your bio should include a short description, contact information, hashtags, emojis, and a website URL. In order to create the best Instagram profile possible, you need to stay under the aforementioned 150 character limit—so it’s important to make every letter count! 

As a reminder, your bio is one of the main things if not the first thing that people look at when deciding whether or not to follow you on Instagram. A strong Instagram bio is one that explains what you do in a few short sentences or bullet points. Once you fine-tune your bio, you can target your ideal audience, making them more likely to follow. 

What your bio should accomplish

Before you start writing your bio, first think about what it is that you want to accomplish for your brand. For example, a solid Instagram bio should do the following: 

• Highlight essential information including your brand name and category. 
• Provide your contact information so users can get in touch with you. 
• Showcase your and your brand’s personality, style, and voice. 
• Establish your selling proposition so that your target audience understands your brand’s value.
• Drive actions such as sharing content or directing to your website to make a purchase. 

How to write an Instagram bio

Once you’ve established your brand positioning, you’ll be ready to create a top-notch bio. The following are seven of the most important components that your Instagram bio needs in order for your brand to succeed. 

1. Profile photo

Be sure to add a clear, quality photo that visually represents your brand or business. This could be a company logo or a photo of one of your products for example. Your profile photo should tell a story and be representative of your brand. It’s also important to choose images that are consistent across all of your profiles—this helps create your brand identity. 

2. Name and username

Your Instagram username or “handle” can be seen on top of your profile page and is preceded with the @ symbol. This is your Instagram identity and is also a part of your profile URL (instagram.com/myusername.) You should ideally use your company’s name as the account username. The actual Instagram account name will appear bolded on your profile and should be your real or full brand name. 

3. Bio section

When writing your Instagram bio, which is notably the key ingredient to a successful Instagram profile, think about 3 words that best describe your brand. This will give you a starting point that you can expand upon. Be sure to give your bio a personal touch and have fun playing with different types of popular emojis. 

This section is prominently located under your name and is where you have the opportunity to tell people what your Instagram profile is all about in 150 characters. Describe what your brand offers and let users know why they should follow you. 

4. Website

Don’t forget to add a link to your website—having a CTA is key to driving business. Pro Tip: Consider using a link shortening tool such as bit.ly so that you can create a short and concise vanity URL. 

Since this is the only section of Instagram where you can add a clickable link, you want to make sure that you choose wisely. Perhaps you want to drive users to the homepage of your website. In other cases, you may want to drive to a specific product page or to new content. You can also update this link as often as you like. 

5. Category

So that potential customers can more easily find your brand, be sure to mention what category your business falls into, whether a coffee shop or an online consulting firm, for example. The category will appear right under your business name if you enable that feature. 

6. Call-to-action buttons

If you set up an Instagram Business account, you will have more space to add call-to-action buttons. This way users can take action directly from your Instagram profile from the mobile app. It’s a great tool for selling tickets to an event or booking a reservation, for example. 

7. Contact information

This is a crucial component of your bio and it is suggested that you include the location, email address, and phone number of your business. This provides potential customers with the information they need to contact you or your business. 

Ways to make your bio more attractive

Once you’ve built out the seven key components above, you’ll be ready to take your profile to the next level. In order for your brand to stand out among the competition, you may want to add some of these additional features to your Instagram bio to make it more attractive:

• Hashtags: Start by researching the top-ranked hashtags in your category. You may also want to create a “branded” hashtag that is unique to your business making it easier for users to find your profile. 
• Tagline: Consider adding a unique tagline to your bio telling users exactly what you or your organization does—this could include your values or your mission statement.‍
• Emojis: Adding emojis allows you to convey your brand’s personality and spice it up by using emojis instead of certain words. ‍
• Line breaks: This allows you to separate your strengths and provides a clean look—making your profile more easily digestible. 

Optimization

From an SEO standpoint, there are also ways that you can improve your discoverability and reach with your Instagram bio. The following are ways you can use keywords to your advantage: 

• Incorporating a keyword in your name and username will improve your chances of showing up in relevant searches. 
• Your bio is also a great place to sprinkle in keywords that you want to rank for. 
• Writing descriptive captions with relevant keywords will help your profile show up on the “Explore” page of relevant users. 
• Your hashtags within your posts can also be used as keywords which will allow users to more easily find you when searching. 
• Encouraging tagging in posts is another great way to increase discoverability 

Instagram link in bio tools 

You can only include one link in your Instagram bio, but by using a “link in bio” tool, you can connect your users to all of your content in one place. This allows you to transform your single Instagram bio link into multiple links, and it provides additional options for your Instagram followers. 

For example, you can let your followers know about exclusive deals and promotions, add a link to your latest blog post, or post a video snippet linking to your YouTube account.

The following are three of the most popular and widely-used Instagram link in bio tools on the market that can help you level up your game.  

1. Linktree

Linktree lets you create a single link to use across all of your social media platforms. Once you’ve created a custom or vanity URL, you can use the tool’s drag-and-drop editor to easily create a landing page. They offer a free plan that includes unlimited links, social media icons, and basic analytics.

2. Campsite

Campsite allows you to create a simple landing page that pairs photos with a headline. The landing pages have static links that drive to your other social media profiles, website, and email. You can add a list of links with titles and images underneath those clickable buttons. One cool feature of this tool is that it has a Canva integration that lets you design custom images. 

3. Milkshake 

Milkshake is a cross between Instagram Stories and a website. What makes this tool unique is that it features individual “cards” instead of a list of links. The cards take up the entire screen allowing Instagram users to easily swipe through to see more content. This free tool is app-based, enabling you to build websites entirely from your phone. 

Brands with winning bios 

There are many ways that you can spice up your Instagram bio to make your brand or business truly stand out. The following are six diverse examples of winning bios from an influencer, fashion brand, tech brand, food brand, and celebrity. 

1. Influencer

As an influencer on Instagram, it’s important to choose the right niche and your bio content is especially important. Beauty influencer, Ashley Brittany Vasseur (@vasseurbeauty) is also a video creator. She does a great job sharing with her audience exactly who she is and what she's about in her Instagram bio. She is a mom, a lifestyler YouTuber, likes to have fun, and links to everything! Ashley also makes use of Linktree to direct users to her landing page where they can access her social media accounts, her skincare website, and her Amazon storefront all in one place. 

2. Fashion brand 

As a multinational sports shoe brand, Nike (@nike) has several Instagram accounts, but this primary account does a great job of sharing its position on several sensitive topics. They directly mention what their profile is all about and let their audience know that the brand ‘Spotlights athletes and stories.’ They follow that with hashtags and hot topics such as #BlackLivesMatter and #StopAsianHate. A bio link is added in the third line where Nike effectively delivers its thoughts and brand values. 

3. Tech brand 

Tech company Citrix (@citrix) does a great job of telling their story in their Instagram bio in just two sentences. They incorporate the hashtag #UnlockPotential and talk about their mission to deliver a better employee experience. They also make use of the link in bio by featuring their Instagram posts and driving followers to their website. 

4. Food brand 

Food brands such as SHAKE SHACK (@shakeshack) have a unique opportunity—they can rotate content to feature new product offerings and specials. Currently, they are using their Instagram bio to let their followers know that the Black Truffle Burger has arrived. They engage with their audience with a call to action encouraging the download of their Shake App for early access. This brand is also a perfect example of the successful use of a link in bio which drives followers to a landing page featuring images and a link to download their app. 

5. Entrepreneur

NYTimes Bestseller, Mario Forleo (@marieforleo) has a very strong Instagram bio, and some even say it’s one of the best. The first line of her bio clearly describes who she is, an entrepreneur. The second and third lines of her bio enhance credibility by describing her as a ‘New York Bestseller’ and mentioning her position as CEO. She uses hashtags and emojis well and mentions that she was ‘recognized by Oprah,’ hosts MarieTV, and TheMarieForleoPodcast. The final key ingredient is her contact information including a bio link. 

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6. Celebrity

Actress Anna Kendrick (@annakendrick47) keeps her Instagram bio short and sweet but her tactic works! She infuses her witty personality into her bio but simply describes herself as an ‘emotional eater,’ but she can get away with that because we all know who she is. The best part is that she uses Instagram and her influence to direct followers to donate to ActBlue, which supports numerous organizations fighting for racial justice. 

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Your impression is everything 

Instagram is a proven impactful social media channel to uplift business growth. In fact, 36.2% of B2B decision-makers use Instagram for research and discover new products.

This is why a catchy Instagram bio is a perfect opportunity to capture attention and leave a lasting impression on your followers. Your bio speaks to your brand’s purpose, mission, and values. By incorporating the right content, you can successfully grow your business and gain followers.

Think of your Instagram bio as sort of an “elevator pitch.” It’s short but powerful enough to share important information with your audience while capturing the essence of your brand voice and personality. 

First impressions are everything and most people will attest to that. If you’re building a brand or business online, the impression you leave on potential customers is just as important as one that you might make in person. Once someone has formed an initial opinion of you, it’s difficult to change their mind. That’s precisely why you should use your allotted 150 Instagram bio characters to your advantage.  

At the end of the day, a killer Instagram bio will start a conversation and engage viewers, hence creating a larger and more loyal following for your brand. Now that’s a win-win!