Is your Instagram profile optimized? 

Let me rephrase that. When people visit your business Instagram profile, are they getting everything they need to understand what you do? 

We had to ask ourselves the same question, so our resident social maven Anna Klawitter did some digging and put together a helpful Instagram setup checklist to get started. We figured it might be helpful to you as well. Check it (and screenshot, if it helps) below.

Optimize Your Instagram in 2022

Part 1 of our go-to checklist for setting up an Instagram profile in 2022.

Screenshot this below ↓

• Choose an Email & Password
  • Select a Straightforward Username (30 characters max)
  • Choose a clean, easy to type username that is short and memorable. As with your photo, you want to try to have the same username across all your accounts, and ideally, it would also be the same as your web URL. If you have a long business name, consider shortening it for your social media accounts, so it’s not difficult to type in.
• Select a Profile Photo (Ideally 180 x 180 px; minimum 110 x 110 px)
  • If you’re a business, use a clear and easy-to-see version of your logo. If it’s a personal brand, use a nice headshot that shows your face. Make sure you use the same profile photo across all of your accounts for consistency.
• Create a Profile Name (30 characters max)
  • This is the name of your business
  • TIP: add a keyword in your name (if you have space)
  • People often search for topics rather than business names – for example, they might not directly search for ‘Food Fight Studios,’ but they might search for ‘Animation studio.’’
• Write an Informative Instagram Bio (150 characters max)
  • Don’t mess up here. No pressure, but your bio is the most important real estate on your profile. It’s the first thing people see when coming to your account.
  • Don’t Be Vague
  • Don’t miss important Info.
  • DO explain who you are, what you do, and how to get in touch.
• Add a Link
  • We like to use Shorby because we can fully optimize and brand the page to look as cool or uncool as we want, but feel free to use any link listing tool here. The goal is to make it as simple and frictionless as possible for users to find what they’re looking for.
• Switch to Business or Creator account
  • There are three different types of accounts personal or individual account, creator account, and business account.
  • If you’re trying to grow your Instagram account, you don’t want an individual account.
  • If you have a physical address, you want to point people to choose the business account, which will allow you to add your address to your profile.
  • BUT Business accounts don’t have full access to the music library. Only creators do.
  • Don’t worry if you initially choose the wrong account type; you can change it in settings > account > scroll to the bottom > switch account type
• Link To Your Facebook Account
  • Link up your Facebook account so you can cross-post to Facebook seamlessly. To do this, go to Settings → Linked Accounts → Log into Facebook and select your page.

the socialverse

week of Jan. 31, 2022

More AI and creator monetization features coming to TikTok

Video creators, this is for you. TikTok is planning new features, available in experiment mode and not yet being tested live. These include a customizable avatar (think Apple’s “Memoji” style) and an audio-only live streaming feature. It’s also testing a creator subscription model, similar to what Instagram is currently testing. These new features aren’t a surprise, but they’re another sign that content is moving further into creator hands. Suffice it to say: the creative cards are in our favor. 

Twitter’s new group Tweet feature 

It’s called “Flocks,” and it lets you share Tweets with a select group rather than publicly. A good comparison is Instagram’s “close friends” feature for Stories, but for Tweets. Twitter already offers control over who can see and post replies, so the new Flocks feature adds an extra level of protection and the ability to create conversations with a close group. Private access, perhaps? 

Instagram has a new banner feature for Lives

If IG Lives are your thing, this new feature might make life a little easier for you and your audience. Now, when you schedule Live streams, you can give people a way to add it to their calendar, so to speak. The event will pop up on your profile as a badge showing your upcoming streams, and people can save it to be reminded.

This means less manual reminding in Stories and your feed, letting the handy new feature do the work for you. Another benefit: it could attract a bigger audience to your Live videos as reminders stay top of mind for those who opt-in.

LinkedIn launches newsletters (& we tested it)

Of course, newsletters aren’t anything new, but putting out newsletters on Linkedin is. LinkedIn influencers have touted Linkedin newsletters as a great way to build subscribers. Your first-ever newsletter gets blasted out to every single one of your followers and connections via the connection requests notifications with a prompt that says:

“_______ invited you to subscribe to their newsletter.”
 

We tested this out on one of our clients who has a creator account with 3,376 followers. Within an hour, the newsletter had over 100 subscribers and now has 870 subscribers:

A > 25% subscribe rate is kind of impressive (if we do say so ourselves).

Linkedin will then send a notification to your subscribers every time you publish with an email in their inbox. It’s a great way to connect with your audience and promote your brand! Not everyone is approved for the Newsletter feature at this time, and most company pages also don’t have this feature, but if you do. Take advantage of it!

Bonus note: If your profile is not a creator account, we recommend switching it over.  😉 

hot takes

Topics & trends to keep you in the loop.

The creator economy, NFTs, and visual branding

What is the “Creator Economy,” and how do you get into NFTs? We’re heavy into early adopter research both on the artist and the investor side of the equation. This article easily describes how artists can get into NFTs. Especially the part about making sure you reach your following in order to have successful drops 👇