Hi friends! I’m back with another Blog 101 post and it’s coming at a great time because I’ve also decided to start offering up consultation services. I’ll still be adding to this series but the consultation services will allow for 1 on 1 time with me to chat through your blogging or Instagram strategy in more detail. If you’re interested in learning more, please send me an email at mel@headstandsandheels.com
Alright, on to the good stuff. Let’s chat Instagram.
So you created an account, you’ve found your aesthetic, you’re posting amazing content regularly and have even built up an engaged following… but you’re still not hearing from brands as often as you had hoped. There’s a variety of factors that could contribute to this and for the purpose of this blog post, I’ll focus on one that you may be overlooking.
Your Instagram bio.
Yes, that little blurb on the top of your Instagram profile may hold a little more power than you think. Similar to a website’s home page, an Instagram bio is typically the first thing your new followers and brands will see when they stumble across your page. In a matter of seconds, they should be able to pick up on a few key things that will help determine whether you end up on their outreach list or if they’ll move on to someone else.
It’s important that I acknowledge that this doesn’t necessarily apply to well established influencers or individuals who have agents or who are represented by larger agencies like DBA. To be honest, as brands, PR firms and influencer marketing agencies become more savvy I do believe that the majority of influencers will be sourced through their own databases. In fact, many companies like Fohr Card already do this.
However the reality is that as of right now there are a ton of brands that are still finding influencers manually for each of their campaigns, and if you’re a micro-influencer or are relatively new in the industry (those two aren’t mutually exclusive) the following 3 tips may be helpful in appearing more appealing to brands.
Always include your location
Perhaps the most simple yet overlooked thing on an Instagram bio is your location. Many brands choose candidates based on specific markets, which means if they stumble across your page and aren’t sure if you happen to live in the location they’re looking for, there’s a good chance they’ll move on. Obviously if your content is incredible and they have a general idea that you live in a certain location, they might still reach out to you. Buuuut keep in mind the longer you make someone snoop around your content for geo-tags or even your website looking for some kind of location information, the bigger the risk you’ll be passed up.
Tell them what they should expect
A photo is indeed worth a thousand words so brands should be able to get a good grasp of what you’re all about from scrolling through your content. However, it really does help when you can add in some tidbits about yourself that may not be so blatantly obvious. For example, if you’ve started your own company, have any certifications, have an affinity for plants, own a dog, etc. You don’t need to give away your whole life story, a few bullets or even one sentence should do. Be sure to only include things that you’re willing to post about!
Include your email
Yes, Instagram has a handy dandy little email button feature that I think is very helpful for this purpose. However, because you can’t access this email button via Instagram’s website and many brands are sourcing influencers on their computers, not their phones, it’s helpful to include contact information in both locations. The goal is to make contacting you extremely simple. Once, I was sourcing influencers for a specific campaign and needed to include the name, handle, location, follower count and email of each girl into an Excel spreadsheet. There was one girl that I thought would be perfect for the campaign but not only did she not include her email information on her Instagram, there was no email button enabled and her website lacked a proper contact page. Needless to say, I had to remove her from the list of potential collaborators.
That’s it! So simple but it can really make a world of a difference. Now I’m not promising that you’ll suddenly have brands banging down your door, or rather your inbox, but it’s an important step in the right direction.
I hope you find this helpful as you continue your Instagram journey! Check back next month for another post in the Blog 101 series.
Good luck!
The email thing is SO important, whenever I’ve done PR outreach for companies I’ve worked at I’m usually using my computer to do research and it’s so helpful to be able to copy and paste emails easily.
Totally! I’m always amazed at how many people choose to leave this out of their bio.