Your Instagram profile in fifteen minutes
Most people find your Instagram after they have already heard of you. It only has to answer three questions.
The short version
Put your trade in the name field, say what you do and where in the bio, point the link at the booking or quote page, and make sure the first nine squares show the work. The profile matters more than the posting schedule.
For a local business on Instagram, most of the value is in the profile, not the posting. That is the thing almost nobody says about social media.
Someone hears about you, searches your name and lands on your page. They are not scrolling for entertainment. They are checking you are real, seeing what your work looks like, and finding out whether you are still trading. Three questions, answered in about ten seconds.
Get the profile right and an account you post to once a fortnight still does its job. Get it wrong and posting daily will not save it.
Use a business account
A local business should use an Instagram business account rather than a personal one. Instagram itself says business accounts are best for retailers, local businesses, brands, organisations and service providers, and switching costs nothing.
A business account adds three things that matter here. A contact button near the top of the profile, with directions, a phone number and an email address. A category label under your profile picture, so a visitor sees what you are at a glance. And insights, which show how each post performed.
One trade-off: a professional account cannot be set to private. For a business that wants to be found, that is the point anyway.
The name field and the bio
Instagram search matches what people type against names, usernames and bios, so put your trade in the name field as well as your business name. Instagram’s own advice is that a handle or profile name related to your work is your best bet for showing up in relevant searches. It is the field people most often miss.
The same Instagram article says a location-specific account, such as a small business, should put its location in the bio to help people nearby find it. You have up to 150 characters, so spend them on facts rather than atmosphere.
- What you do and where, in the first line. A barber in Leeds might write “Barber · Headingley, Leeds”, and it does more than any slogan.
- One thing that makes you specific - walk-ins welcome, open Sundays, thirty years in the same shop.
- How to book or ring, plainly.
Skip the emoji ladder, the inspirational line and the list of hashtags. None of them answer the three questions, and hashtags belong in captions anyway, where Instagram allows up to five on a post.
The link
The link on an Instagram profile should point at the thing you most want to happen. For most local businesses that is the booking page or the quote form, not the homepage.
If you genuinely need several - book, menu, directions - a link page is fine, but each extra tap loses people. Two links used is better than six offered.
If customers mostly message you, a WhatsApp click-to-chat link with a pre-filled first message works well here too.
The first nine squares
The first screen of your Instagram grid is your shop window, and it should show the work. Not quotes on coloured backgrounds, not stock images, not a graphic saying “Happy Friday”.
Nine photographs of what you actually do - the cut, the plate, the finished bathroom, the shopfront - tell a visitor everything they came to find out. If your last nine posts are announcements, a visitor learns nothing about whether you are any good.
Try this now
Open your own profile on a phone, as a stranger would. Cover everything below the ninth square. Can you tell what the business does, where it is, and whether the work is good? That is the whole test.
If the grid is thin because posting keeps slipping, making a dozen posts in one sitting is the fix.
Highlights, and what to keep there
Highlights are saved stories that stay on your profile under the bio, and they are the closest thing Instagram has to website navigation. Keep four or five, named plainly, covering the things people ask:
- Prices or a menu
- Before and after, if your work shows that way
- Where to find us - the outside of the building, parking, the door
- Hours
- Reviews - screenshots of your Google reviews
Use covers in your own colours from your identity rather than whatever frame the app grabbed. It takes ten minutes, and it is the difference between a profile that looks tended and one that looks abandoned.
A few common questions.
How often should a local business post on Instagram?
Less often than the advice usually says, and consistently. Once a week, forever, beats daily for a fortnight and then nothing for three months, because a dormant account reads as a closed business. If once a fortnight is what you can sustain, do that.
Should I use a business account or a personal one?
A business account. Instagram recommends business accounts for local businesses, and it gives you a contact button, a category label under your name and insights on how posts perform. There is no cost. The one trade-off is that a professional account cannot be private.
Do hashtags still matter?
Much less than they used to. Instagram now allows up to five hashtags on a post, and its own search advice is mostly about the name, the bio and keywords in captions. For a local business, a clear trade and location in the name and bio does more than a stack of generic tags.
What do I post if my work is not photogenic?
The people and the process. Plumbing is not photogenic; a clean install, a tidied-up site and a van outside a job are. Before-and-afters work for nearly every trade, and faces work for all of them.
How long should my Instagram bio be?
Instagram allows up to 150 characters. Use them for what you do, where you are, one thing that sets you apart and how to book. That usually fits in two or three short lines.
