In the past few years, Instagram has quickly made its way into a top-ranking social media marketing position, with the majority of businesses signing up for an account in hopes of connecting with their audience there, too.

The platform turned out to be a huge success for marketers, with incredibly high engagement from followers. This is all good news.

The good news just might take a dip there, unfortunately.

While more users are continuing to join Instagram, more businesses are too, increasing our competition. This is only more noticeable as Instagram implements its new algorithm, which could potentially take a hard hit on brands’ organic reach (like Facebook) long term.

So what do we as businesses, brands, and marketers should do?

Keeping our engagement up is more important than ever, and while a user’s (or brand’s) actual profile doesn’t normally get a ton of attention on Instagram, it’s more important than some of us think.

To stay ahead on this important platform, we’ve got a list of updates that you should make to your profile to help you increase followers, engagement, and even clicks to your site.

Instagram’s New Algorithm

In case you haven’t heard, Instagram’s new algorithm has taken affect, and it automatically prioritizes certain content in a users’ newsfeed. They’ll place content that they believe that users will want to see most at the top of that users’ feed.

While this can be good for users by theoretically getting them the content they’re most interested in first, this may not be great for brands. Facebook’s algorithm, which also reorders content based on what they think users will most want to see, have resulted in an insane decline in organic reach over the past few years, as we all know. Now that the business profiles are starting to roll out, it only makes sense that eventually the same will likely happen here. This means that keeping our content and profiles at the top of their game is more important than ever before.

Profile Updates & Changes You Need to Make

Typically, once a user follows you, they may not visit your profile too often afterward; instead, they’re more likely to just interact with your content as it shows up in their feed. Your profile and the information in it is still important; users can click to your profile at any time, and having the right information could encourage them to follow you or to visit your site and even make purchases. To maximize engagement, the number of followers, and potential conversions, there are five changes and updates you should make to your profile (if you haven’t already).

1. Take Advantage of Your Bio Description

This is one of the biggest updates so many businesses need to make; a large number of brands aren’t making use of the bio available for them to fill out, which shows up on the main profile. And by that, I mean they don’t have anything written in at all.

Though plenty of users look at our content more than our profile, that doesn’t mean that it’s not important.

Your bio is an additional place to sell and promote your brand, letting users know who you are and why you’re on Instagram. Even if you only add your business’s motto or tagline, it still helps fill out your profile and contribute to your brand.

The bio will be one of the first things users see if you have it, so you should always take advantage of that to help form a good first impression. You can also use feature a CTA in your bio, like encouraging users to use a hashtag to share UGC.

Always add a bio to your profile

To add a bio to your profile, click on the “Edit Profile” button on your profile page. Once you do, you’ll immediately see the section aptly labeled “bio.”

Bios can be up to 150 characters but no more, and should represent your brand’s voice. For tips on how to write an amazing brand bio, check out this incredible blog post from Sprout Social.

2. Choose the Best Link

I’ve seen a surprising number of businesses who either don’t place a link on their profile, or they don’t choose the right one that will benefit them the most.

Unlike all other social media sites, Instagram doesn’t let you post links on individual posts. You only get one link period (the exception being Instagram Ads), and that will appear the designated profile area.

Adding your main site as a link in your profile can send your regular site more traffic.

With only one place for a link, you have to decide which link will best benefit your business. An obvious choice is to place a link to your website (or, in some cases, a link to a designated landing page on your site). You can also choose a link to your Facebook Page, or to a sellable shop front like those created with third party tools like Have2Have.It.

The key is knowing which link will benefit your business most.

This link takes users to a Have2Have.IT storefront.

Plenty of big name brands are using the virtual shopfront links (including media sites without sellable, physical products). If you don’t want to use one of these tools, sending users to the homepage or a landing page on your site can help boost conversions.

Unless you’re trying to drive users to a Facebook Page and have an active community already there, I’d advise against linking to a social profile, as it doesn’t hold the same potential for conversions like sales and newsletter sign-ups as the other two.

3. Keep Your Profile Public

This may seem like an obvious change, but it’s plenty easy to have it set to private and not even realize it (I’ve had this happen with not one, not two, but three different clients). You don’t want users to need to follow you to see your content; when they view your profile the first time, you want them to be able to access all of it.

Turn the switch from private to public to make your content viewable by all users.

To update or check your privacy status, click on the wheel in the top right-hand corner that leads to your settings. You’ll see the privacy setting halfway down; switch it off to turn your profile public.

4. Keep Your Username Simple

While users can get plenty creative with their names just like the good ole’ myspace days, brands don’t have that option (or at least they shouldn’t exercise it). Keep it real (and simple), if your business is “Luckys Market,” you don’t want your username to be “eat-a-lot_at_luckys.”

Your username should pretty much just contain the name of your business.

If possible, keep your username the same as your Twitter handle. This helps users find and connect with your cross-platform. Along the same lines, it’s also good to have your logo as your Instagram profile picture to drive home the branding and help users know it is, in fact, you.

Keeping your Instagram username the same as your Twitter handle makes your Instagram seem more official and makes it easier for users to connect with you cross platform.

If you need to change your username, you can adjust it from the same “Edit Profile” screen where you can update your profile picture, off-site link, and bio.

5. Convert to a Business Profile

This feature isn’t available for everyone at the moment, so if you don’t have it, don’t sweat it; I don’t have access yet, either.

When you do have access, though, convert immediately to a Business profile—while there’s the risk that being a brand on Instagram could lower us a bit in the algorithm, it will also give you access to features like the ability to give customers instructions on how to contact you and Instagram’s on-platform analytics. I’m personally dying to get my hands on those numbers.

If you do have access, you can see how to convert your profile to a Business profile here.

Final Thoughts

Instagram’s algorithm is going to require marketers and brands to step up their game even more, and updating your profile to meet best practices and encourage more follows, engagement and clicks to your site could go a long way. These four updates are all quick and easy to make, but could have a big impact on the results you’re getting, both now and in the future. 

What do you think? Are you making any changes in your Instagram campaigns after the algorithm was announced? What features are you most excited about in the business profile? Share your thoughts in the comments below!