What You Should Know Before Opening An Instagram Account

Now that you are a regular Instagrammer, you have an understanding of how things work for your personal account.

16:54 22 March 2021

Snap a pic, Upload it, and friends comment.

 

Choosing the Username

 

Unlike a personal account, choosing a business username is very important. When you take your business onto Instagram, the first task is to choose a username. This is the name that will represent your business.

 

Whilst SexyMe might be ok for a personal Instagram account, it is not a good name for a business account (unless you are in the Adult game of course). The business username is the name that will come up in search results. It is the name that you will use in your marketing. It is critical to get this step right, as this is how your business is viewed and searched for.

 

If it is cumbersome or not related to your business it will quickly be forgotten. Or worse: flagged as a spammer. If possible try use the same username that you use for other social networks to make finding your business easier.

 

Tip: If you find that your company name is already used by someone else who is in violation of your trademark, you can submit a request to Instagram to resolve this, by following this link http://help.instagram.com/101826856646059

 

When choosing your username avoid using complicated characters such as the “_” (underscore) and avoid using words like “promotions”, “promo”, “specials” as even though these names are allowed they have a Spammy feel to them.

 

Complete Thy Profile

 

Once you create your username, you must complete your profile. This is where you have 150 characters to tell the world about your business. Information that you place in your profile will assist people to find your business, service, or product when they search Instagram. So in your profile obviously mention your business, services, and your products.

 

In Instagram, the only place to have a clickable link to your website is in the profile. Thankfully, your website link would typically consist of your company name which also helps with the searches. It is doesn’t contain your business name — fire your IT people!

 

Instagrammers would typically look at your profile when they see you adding commenting which is where they will find your clickable link. Did you know that even though Instagram is a mobile application, it is also visible via the web? Simply go to Instagram.com and login to see your profile and timeline of the people you follow. You can even comment and like images directly from your browser however, you cannot upload images from the web browser.

 

This function is strictly restricted to the mobile device. As your profile is available on the web, it is important to have your profile optimized not only for the mobile phone but for the web too. You will note that your Profile pic changes a little bit from the mobile app to the website. On mobile devices, the profile pic is rounded around the edges but on the web, it has a square edging to it. Remember to test your profile pics in both places to see that nothing is cut off from your logo.

 

References: https://www.smm-world.com/buy-instagram-likes

 

Cover-Mosaic

 

Once you upload at least 7 images, then Instagram will automatically create your own cover-mosaic made up of your photos to compliment your profile photo. Instagram will cycle through all your photos continuously and you cannot control which photo will and will not appear in this cover-mosaic. Always be mindful of the fact that what you post is public and should not harm your brand.

 

Pros and Cons of Social Sharing

 

As part of your profile setup, you can connect Instagram with other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, VKontakte. If you set those up in your profile, then every time you upload a photo you can simply tap these networks and your photo is shared there too. Is this a good or a bad thing? Whilst this is great for your personal profile to be able to send the same pic to your Facebook as well as Instagram when it comes to business you have to think if this is the best strategy to follow. If you post the same image to multiple social networks you are giving your customers fewer reasons to follow you on Instagram.

 

Why should they follow you on Instagram when the exact same image appears on Facebook and Twitter too? I would suggest deciding which image belongs on which social network. Have pics that can only be found on Instagram whilst others can appear in multiple networks. In the section on What to Post we discuss these moment pics.