Your Instagram bio is your chance to introduce your brand on Instagram. It’s a small space, but when used effectively it can a powerful tool.
Instagram bios are 150-character description under your username on your Instagram profile page. Your photos show users what you do. Your bio is your chance to tell them who you are.
Your Instagram bio needs to convey your brand personality and show your audience they have come to the right place. After reading your bio, people should understand what you do and why they should follow you. It seems a lot to ask of such a small amount of text.
So, what makes a good Instagram bio? The best bio for Instagram is one that helps compel new profile visitors to stick around and click the follow button. When thinking about what to put in your Instagram bio, ask yourself the following questions:
- What is your brand promise?
- How about your brand personality: Funny? Serious? Informative? Playful?
- What are your special skills?
- Are you a local business? National? Multinational?
- What makes your product or service unique?
- What is the first thing you want people to do after they visit your profile?
On that last point: All good marketing material includes a clear and compelling call to action. Your Instagram bio is no exception. Give visitors clear direction. You might want to use your Instagram link in bio to send people to a page where they can buy your products/services. But you might have a different conversion goal in mind. Maybe you want people to Like your Facebook page or sign up for your newsletter.
If your goal is to build an Instagram following, your call to action might be simply to ask visitors to follow your feed, or to share their photos with a branded hashtag.
Here are some cool Instagram bio ideas;
- Funny Instagram bios
While it won’t work for every brand, sometimes humour can be a great way to break the ice. Old Spice uses humour that aligns with their well-known ad campaigns. “MUSCLES. SMELLS.” Yup, that’s Old Spice in a nutshell.
Totinos takes a different approach, using a funny character in their bio. (We’ll admit we had to say “Pete Zaroll” out loud before we got the joke.)
- Instagram bio quotes
Using Instagram bio quotes can be a great way to express an idea or create a feeling of connection.
You could use a saying, a line from a poem or song, or any phrase that will mean something to potential followers. Just make sure to give credit where credit is due if you use someone else’s words.
Here are some quote ideas you can copy and paste directly into your Instagram bio.
- I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done – Lucille Ball
- It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what’s required – Winston Churchill
- The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing – Walt Disney
- Imagination is more important than knowledge – Albert Einstein
- Cherish forever what makes you unique, cuz you’re really a yawn if it goes – Bette Midler
- If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one – Dolly Parton
- Creative Instagram bios
If you want to stand out from the crowd, and it makes sense for your brand personality, you can get creative with tricks like emojis and puns.
MeUndies uses a clever pun and a cheeky peach to highlight their brand promise, while Wendy’s goes all-emoji to let you know that their Insta feed is all burgers, all the time.
- Cool Instagram bios
Some brands are all about playing it cool, and they extend that outlook to their Instagram bios.
CitizenM identifies itself as a misfit—a classic cool-kid move—while Ben & Jerry’s riffs on a lyric from a 1979 Elvis Costello song.
- Short Instagram bios
If you can sum up what you do and what your Instagram feed is all about in just a few words, there’s no harm in doing so.
Instagram bios are not searchable, which means you don’t need to include any keywords in your bio, and nothing you write in your bio will boost your profile in Instagram search results.
The Oatmeal and The Globe and Mail both take a factual approach to the short Instagram bio game. The Oatmeal takes a more casual tone. The Globe highlights its achievements in a few words that get straight to the point.
You can also use your mission or value statement or your tagline as a short Instagram bio. In this case, it’s a good idea to add some secondary information like a hashtag, link, or call to action. Apple uses its short Instagram bio to encourage followers to share content (more on this below). Bumble sticks to its well-known tagline.
- Clever Instagram bios
When creating a creative Instagram bio, make sure you strike the right balance. You want to be clever, but not too clever. You don’t want to alienate potential followers by being over the top.
John Fluevog Shoes makes a clever play on words that’s right in line with the brand’s playful approach to footwear. Hulu draws attention with, well, a call to attention. It’s a clever Instagram bio for a brand whose product offering is all about holding the rapt attention of its customers.
- Instagram bios with emoji
Emojis convey a lot of information in just one character. They’re a great way to highlight your brand personality and provide key details when creating a short bio for Instagram.
Emojis are also a great way to break your instagram bio up visually. They make a great substitute for bullet points.
Here are a couple of good instagram bios to model using this technique, from two wildly different sources. Alexandra Gater is a home decor YouTuber, while the NFL is, well, the NFL. If this technique can work for these two very different accounts, it can work for anyone.
You can also use emojis for emphasis, or just to add a bit of personality to your bio, like Victoria Emerson Designs does here.
Here are some common Instagram bio emojis for you to copy and paste:
- 📍: Use in front of your physical location or address
- 📩 : Use in front of your email address
- 👇: Use in the last line of your bio to point to your clickable URL
- 👉: To draw attention
- ✈️: Commonly used by travel brands
- 🎥 : To call attention to you YouTube channel
- 🎉: To indicate an achievement or award
- ✨: Also used to indicate an achievement, or just to show off your “sparkle”
Flags: Can be a great way to indicate your home base, or to highlight your local brand accounts in different languages or countries.
- Instagram business bios
Great Instagram business bios tell potential followers exactly what your brand is all about so they know why they should follow and what to expect when they do.
All three of the Instagram business bios here also include a branded hashtag, which can be a good way to build a community for your brand on Instagram. We’ll go into more detail on that aspect of Instagram business bios below.
- Add a category
If you have a business profile on Instagram, you can choose a category for your business. This appears under your name and can help people see at a glance what you do.
Using a category for your business can free up space in your Instagram bio, since you don’t need to repeat this information. However, it only appears in the mobile view, so you can’t assume everyone will see it.
- Add contact buttons
Business profiles can include contact buttons that allow people to phone you, email you, or get directions to your business directly from Instagram.
- Add a call-to-action button
You can encourage people to act straight from your Instagram bio with CTA buttons. These allow your followers to take direct actions like ordering food from your restaurant or buying tickets for your event.
You’ll find these options under Action Buttons when editing your business profile.
- Add a link in bio
You get one clickable link in your Instagram bio. Since you can’t use clickable links in Instagram feed posts (unless you’re using Instagram ads or Instagram Shopping), your bio link is valuable real estate.
You can change the URL as often as you like. You might want to link to your newest or most important content (like your latest blog post or video), a special campaign, or a landing page specifically for visitors coming from Instagram.
You can also use Instagram tools such as Linktree to set up a mobile landing page with multiple links, so you don’t have to keep updating the link in your Instagram bio, which can lead to outdated “link in bio” statements on older posts.
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