How to improve your Instagram profile | Instagram Academy

If you are reading this article it is because you need to improve your Instagram profile.

You are in the right place. I will try to give you the right pointers for building a good Instagram profile that gets you more visibility and more followers.

In this article you will learn how to choose your Instagram name and profile picture, along with the bio. We will also talk about your images and choosing a theme for the page.

After that short introduction, I should warn you that becoming popular on Instagram is not simple: it takes effort, consistency, creativity, originality and more. But don’t be discouraged.

I am writing to help you, so let’s start.

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Want to improve your Instagram profile? It all starts with the username

When you start using Instagram you begin asking questions, above all because what everyone wants straight away is a good Instagram profile that works and that other people like.

So there comes a moment in our life as an Instagrammer when we ask: is my username right? What should an Instagram username be like? Will mine actually work?

Clearly a good, original username matters, above all if you use Instagram professionally.

An Instagram username has to be easy to remember, original, and able to tell other people who you are and what you do. That makes you easy to understand, and people interested in your work or what you represent are inclined to follow you straight away.

Be careful not to use a username that is too long. It is easily forgotten.

An Instagram username should be distinctive. If you were a photographer, for instance, you could write:

name.surname.ph
name_surnamephotography
photographer_name
photographer_city
businessname_city
photographername
photographernamecity
namecityph
name_ph

It matters that your username carries the name of your business or your profession next to your own name, and you can add your city too. If your business name is taken and you are a brand, put the brand name first and the activity second. That way people recognise you and know what you do.

If you don’t have a business, pick an Instagram username that represents you: find words that say something about you and your personality.

Be creative — you can combine words that sound good, as long as they say something about you. Names that make you feel good, that can spark curiosity and draw people in. Don’t use generic names or ones you have heard endlessly; choose a name you like and believe in, and it will convince other people too.

One last tip: it is worth having a single username across every social network you use, so you are easy to find.

How do you get a perfect Instagram profile? Look after the profile picture

The Instagram profile picture is visible immediately, on the left as soon as you open Instagram.

As you can imagine, the Instagram profile photo matters a great deal, because it tells people who they will be interacting with or what kind of work is being done. The photo communicates, and you have to be careful which one you choose, because it too helps you have a good Instagram profile.

What should an Instagram profile picture be like?

If you are a brand you could certainly use the company logo, which you have probably used on your other company profiles, so people immediately associate every photo you post with your brand.

The profile picture is round and very small (110 x 110 px), so I suggest uploading one at 160 pixels, square perhaps (you can crop it as you like by moving the circle when adding it), or at 110, the minimum.

Either way, remember your photo has to be authentic and good quality. Don’t use an image downloaded from Google as a profile photo — that never pays off. Don’t use photos of objects or people that don’t represent you or your work. Let people see who you are.

Image from instagram.com

The bio matters too if you want a good Instagram profile

What is an Instagram bio? And what should you write? Here is the answer.

The Instagram bio should not be left to chance, and here is why: it is one of the first things people see when they open your profile.

So what is the Instagram bio? It is the space reserved for you to introduce yourself.

Write an original Instagram bio. It sounds obvious, yet this is exactly where you have to concentrate your interests and what sets you apart.

For a bio with impact, try not to ramble; put the main keywords that represent you and tell your story in short points, because you have a maximum of 150 characters. Give people the information they need to decide to follow you.

Instagram bio: what should you write?

Talk about yourself: your interests, who you are, what you do, what you love.
Prefer bullet points to long, rambling sentences.
Add elements that catch the eye: yes to emoji.
Add the link in bio: your website, your blog, the social page you run, or why not the link of a company that asks you to feature their site or product on your profile. Remember the bio is the only space that carries external links. You cannot put any other pointer to sites, blogs, articles or pages anywhere else. You can have fun with the link, since you can change it whenever you like. Say you have written a new article on your blog and want people to read it: post an image with a caption that starts telling the story, then send people to your site through the link in bio.
Add your contact details, otherwise you are unreachable. Add an email so getting in touch is simpler (who knows, someone may propose a collaboration).
You could create your own hashtag identifying your photos and highlight it in the bio as a promotion technique, so other people can learn it and use it (widening your reach).

Want a good-looking Instagram profile? Choose the theme of your page carefully

You may never have thought about it, but if you look closely, the most followed Instagram profiles are the ones with a theme.

Finding your own style is fundamental. Profiles with plenty of followers are well set up and have an underlying value, a thread running through them: the Instagram theme.

Instagram theme: choose the stylistic line of your photographs.

What does that mean? As you are probably sensing, and will now notice far more often, there are instagrammers who choose a recurring colour or a personalised photographic effect (a filter), or keep the same tones across the images they post, or try to show different objects with the same logic every time.

Stop for a moment and ask yourself: what do you like to photograph? What makes you feel good and keeps you entertained? Don’t think about selfies alone — there has to be more.

Theme ideas: here are the ideas I can offer for building a personal theme.

Let yourself be inspired by other Instagram profiles. Here is one that decided to always use a shade of pink that defines the profile. It is recognisable and, in my view, charming.

The profile is @aspynovard, with almost 2 million followers.

Image from instagram.com

Others keep the background always white, others lean on different shades — everyone has to build their own style.

If you have found an idea you like, try setting parameters on your own photos and, where possible, saving them (there are apps that let you store filters and your own adjustments). There is an app that makes your photos look like paintings, for instance, called Prisma.

The theme should give a sense of order, cleanliness and uniformity, so keep your photos balanced, without heavy borders that don’t suit what you are publishing. If you decide to add a border, keep it thin and use the same one on every photo you post.

You could specialise in a certain kind of photograph (some focus on detail, others on wider views). It is worth thinking, even before opening an Instagram profile and posting photos without logic, about the strategy to follow, or deciding to focus on something specific — the thing that will make you interesting.

Build a connection between the shots you have published and the ones you will.

Instagram themes: all that is left is to browse the most followed profiles and build your own favourite theme.

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How do you get a popular Instagram profile? Look after your images

To have a popular Instagram profile you have to stand out by looking after the images you post.

On a photo-led social network, images are practically everything, and the ones that are well made and professional — or look it — are what make the difference.

Instagram gives you editing options; start using them to get comfortable, adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation, shadows and the rest by hand. Don’t worry if you don’t like the result — you can always go back and start again.

Enjoy yourself, create, and arm yourself with photo editing apps that give you effects beyond Instagram’s basic ones and are far more customisable.

Some apps worth using: VSCO from the App Store, or here is the Google Play version: download VSCO for Android.

Another is Snapseed, which allows a wide range of edits, along with Photoshop Touch or Camera+.

Take the time you need to practise with these tools; you will find plenty more online, so try others too and discover which suits your photographic project.

Free image from Pixabay

Conclusion

After learning to create an account on Instagram in the first lesson and then understanding why using Instagram matters so much, in this third lesson of our Instagram Academy you got a clearer idea of how to write the bio, how to choose an Instagram username, and how to improve your Instagram profile and what it takes. In the next lessons we will go further into detail and cover more complex Instagram subjects, right up to explaining how to advertise on Instagram and grow your followers.

Want to grow the followers on your Instagram profile? Get in touch — we will work out the best Instagram strategy to do what it takes and reach your goal.

Want to sharpen your Instagram knowledge? Get in touch — we will find the course that fits you.

Want to ask us something or just talk? Get in touch — that is what we are here for.