Do you use Instagram as a social network for your business? Have you even looked into creating an Instagram business profile? With the launch of Instagram’s web profiles, businesses are turning to this platform as a great way of photo sharing. Until now, the Instagram website only allowed users to edit account information via the website; but all that changed with the recent introduction of web profiles.
If you’re not new to Instagram, then you will notice some differences in the web profiles right off the bat. Some things that the web profiles are missing are:
- No search section. On Instagram’s mobile app, you were able to search usernames and hashtags, but not on the website.
- Hashtags don’t display as a hyperlink, but as plain text; so you can’t bring up the photos associated with specific hashtags.
- You can’t see a list of followers or people you are following on the web. They do display followers/following counts, but you are unable to see who these users are.
- There is no popular page on web profiles. Some of you enjoy seeing which Instagram photos are trending for the day, but you cannot do that on web profiles.
- Photo maps aren’t available. Many users like to tag their photos with their location, but you won’t find this ability anymore. Instead, geo-tag information is shown with photos, such as the name of the location.
- Still, you can only edit your profile picture through the mobile app.
Some things that the web profiles do offer see, to outweigh the negatives:
- At the top of your profile, you have a Facebook-like cover collage that features a rotating selection of your Instagram photos.
- Follow/Unfollow buttons.
- Your profile biography is displayed- minus the Emoji icons that you may use for your mobile app.
- The website URL is displayed of your choice.
- There is a section that allows you to manage apps that have been given permission to access your Instagram account.
Once you have your Instagram web profile in place, you’ll want to do what you can get the most out of the site. There are over 100 million users on Instagram, so you’ll want to make sure you’re standing out of the crowd; and here’s how!
Add a link to all your Images. Instagram links appear in tweets where the actual photos used to be. Until recently, you were able to post your photos to Twitter from Instagram and Twitter users would see images- but now they see only the links. What this means is that more Twitter users will be clicking these image links that will direct them to Instagram web profiles. You’ll need to optimize your web profile to get the most out of the traffic you’ll get through these links.
Add a website link to your Instagram Profile. Adding a link increases visibility for your website and provides SEO value. Rule of thumb: as a business owner, you’ll want this link to be the brand’s homepage.
Add an Instagram badge to your website. To promote web profiles, Instagram rolled out badges for users to promote their Instagram profile on their website. There are 5 different buttons you can choose from. Once you select a badge that you like, you just copy and paste the automatically generated code onto your website. When someone clicks the badge on your website, it will link back to your Instagram web profile.
Finally, don’t forget about the mobile app. The foundation of Instagram was laid out by its mobile app; so a lot of the features that your business needs are found only on a smart phone. Instagram communities rely heavily on hashtags and geo-tagging. In fact, web profiles are really just another wonderful platform to engage with your fans in conjunction with the Instagram mobile app.
For any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at the 1440 Group. To view this full article, click on the link below.
How to Enhance Your Instagram Web Profile for Improved Exposure
