Since its founding, OVB has helped more than 4,000 clients grow their Instagram accounts. We’ve boosted accounts in a variety of industries, including tattoo artists, architects, doctors, restaurants, and more—and based on our experience, we’ve identified five things to avoid when creating your Instagram account.
Private profile
It's true—sometimes we're approached by clients who want to grow their Instagram account, but it's… PRIVATE!
What does this mean? It means that external users don’t have access to published content: in practical terms, your future followers— the people you want to target—won’t be able to see your account or discover your products or services… without following you. What I’m about to say might be controversial, but generally speaking, Instagram users don’t like to take the initiative; they won’t go out of their way to follow you, so they’ll simply ignore such a profile. Furthermore, your content won’t appear in the “Search” tab, which limits the reach of your posts.
Be sure to set your profile as PUBLIC. This will give people who aren't following you yet a chance to read your content and may encourage them to follow you.
The untapped potential of biography
The BIO (or BIOGRAPHY) section allows you to describe in a few words your Instagram profile, who you are, your business, and your geographical area.
To me, that's one of the most important things!
In fact, when a visitor discovers your profile, your bio is one of the first things they’ll see (along with your account name and profile picture). It’s essential that this bio represents you as well as possible in order to convince the visitor to stay on your page and follow your account.
Many people don't know how to use this space or what to put in it. It's important to ask the right questions, gather the right information, and explore them from every angle. I suggest using a simple method: 3QOCP
3QO… what? Let me explain.
In business, the 3QOCP (or QQQOCP) acronym is a simple and effective method for analyzing specific situations in context. It helps you analyze all aspects of an issue using open-ended questions: Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?
You don't have to use or highlight all of these questions, but the more of them you address in your bio, the more detailed your description will be.
The most important thing is to put yourself in your future customer’s shoes. They’re discovering you, and they need to understand within 5 seconds who you are and what you do on Instagram.
Note: When you create an Instagram profile, be sure to select a category as well. This way, anyone who visits your profile will immediately know who you are and what you do. It’s perfect for creating a professional profile.
Important P.S.: I see way too many Instagram accounts without a link to their website, or with a link that’s entered incorrectly and therefore impossible to click on. Keep that in mind! Instagram is a great way to drive qualified traffic to your website. Forme, that translates to over 300 clicks every month from my Instagram account to the OVB agency’s website! That’s nothing to sneeze at.
Neglecting the visual quality of your articles
Now that we have seen the biography, let's talk about the contents.
Whether it’s a graphic, a photo, or a video, it needs to be of the highest possible quality. It sounds silly when you put it that way… but don’t forget that people scrolling through Instagram have seen just about everything. It’s essential to stand out to draw attention to your post.
Only once you've captured the Instagram user's attention will they look at your post's description and read its content.
If you need inspiration for the visual style of your future content, I recommend taking a look at what your top competitors are doing (this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, but very often their content looks great). Also, get inspired on Pinterest! It’s a great site for finding interesting, high-quality inspiration. Finally, you can also use Instagram’s “Search” feature and use your expert eye to identify the best content in your industry.
OK, I've got the inspiration, but I'm not a graphic designer! No problem!
Use the Canva website. It’s a FREE design tool whose mission is to let anyone design whatever they want and post it wherever they want. As an added bonus, Canva offers various formats for Instagram (so you don’t have to worry about the size of your images).
P.S.: Instagram offers more and more filters and tools to enhance the visual appeal of your content. Check them out and share your best creations with me—either directly on Instagram or here: mickael@agence-ovb.fr
Duplicate Your Content
As we know, duplicating content is the easy way out. The problem is that if your followers are following you on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, for example, and you post the same content everywhere, they may get annoyed and lose interest in the repetitive posts. It’s best to create different visuals and text for each platform.
We know this may involve some extra work, but your followers won't get bored and will be more likely to follow you on various social media platforms.
Share existing content
Reposting content from other accounts… on your own Instagram account is a bad idea. Since the Instagram update in April 2022, the social network has been heavily favoring original content over reposted content.
Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, announced in a video a major change regarding how posts are ranked: “If you create something from scratch, you should get more credit than if you repost something you found on someone else’s account. We’re going to do more to try to give greater prominence to original content, especially compared to reposted content.”
If Adam says so… then we can only recommend that you create your own content. Keep in mind that authenticity is key on this platform. You’re not Steven Spielberg (and neither are we)—we know it, you know it, and your community knows it too. Trust me, with a little effort, a dash of imagination, and plenty of authenticity, it’s entirely possible to create engaging content. You are your Instagram account—whether it represents you personally or your business: be yourself, be authentic!
