Some Instagram business accounts just hook you effortlessly.
You enjoy scrolling through their profiles so much that you often lose track of time.
Many times, you wish your own business will hook followers the same way.
What are these business accounts doing right?
And why should your business optimize its Instagram account to attract users and keep them scrolling on your profile?
According to Instagram, two-thirds of profile visits to businesses come from people who aren’t following that business. Building an effective account will help you convert many non-followers to engaged followers.
Luckily, I’ll show you 11 traits you’ll find in Instagram accounts that hold your attention and never let go.
Let’s begin.
1. Tell captivating stories
We all love stories.
In fact, our lives are literally stories.
Because of that, stories connect with us on a deeper level. And when those stories are infused with the right emotions, they make the storyteller unforgettable.
Successful businesses understand this and exploit it fully on Instagram.
Stories make your business human. Even though a business is an entity, humans who work there make all the difference.
You may be asking, “what story can I tell about my boring business and product?”
Here are a few ways to find captivating stories:
- Go behind the scenes and tell stories of unconventional things you do to create better products. This may be a manufacturing method, productivity hack, or research philosophy.
- Feature employees and let them say what excites them to create life-changing products for customers.
- Tell stories of customers who use your products to improve their lives every day.
- Show how your products have affected an important event positively.
There are even more opportunities to tell stories if you actively seek them.
If you want an example, look no further than National Geographic.
National Geographic often publishes wildlife images on its Instagram account.
But what makes those entries interesting are the stories that accompany them.
See this entry about elephants:
Imagine the same image with the caption, “see these gargantuan elephants in Gabon!”
Meh.
National Geographic tells less-known stories about animal life and the lengths photographers go to take perfect shots.
So, crank the storytelling engine.
2. Feature exciting user-generated content (UGC)
Imagine that product you love to the point that you show it off on your Instagram feed.
Now, imagine the manufacturer featuring you on their Instagram page.
User-generated content can help build a stronger connection between your business and customers.
And again, featuring them on your page can encourage more customers to show your product on Instagram.
Because being featured on your page feels like a prize to be won.
To collect the best UGC from your customers, you can specify a hashtag in your Instagram bio for people who want to be featured.
Then, feature Instagram user-generated content that shows various product use cases.
Few brands do this better than GoPro.
On their Instagram page, you’ll find exciting videos and images from users.
Through these, GoPro can feed their followers unforgettable content and show them different use cases of their cameras.
3. They run contests and promotions
We all love to win prizes.
It activates our survival instincts. It especially works when your contest prize is a valuable commodity to participants.
There are a few great reasons to run contests.
First, you can increase engagement on your account. As people like, share, and comment on your posts, Instagram will show the posts to more people.
Second, it helps to build brand affinity. As people engage with your content to try to win a prize, they tend to get closer to your brand.
At least you’ll stay on their minds more.
Third, contests can attract more followers to your account. For example, one of your giveaway requirements may even be for participants to be followers.
That said, how do you run viral giveaways?
- Use your valuable product (not an iPhone) as the gift. This also creates product awareness.
- Require actions that match the value of the gift. Don’t ask for videos to win pencils.
- Promote your contests before and during the event.
- Use the right Instagram giveaway tool to host your contest.
- Ensure transparency while picking winners.
By running contests, you can create product awareness and increase your Instagram audience size.
GoPro runs contests at various periods. One of its popular hashtags for doing that is #GoProAwards.
When you search this hashtag, you’ll find over 250,000 Instagram posts.
Run strategic contests, and your Instagram account will get a healthy ROI.
4. An optimized username and name
The first detail about an Instagram account is the username. Following closely is your account name.
For a great Instagram account, the account username and name focus more on clarity and simplicity than being clever. In most cases, businesses or influencers use their name as username.
However, if your business name is already taken, you can either pay to have your desired username or use your name and add a keyword to it.
Here’s an example from Lorna Jane:
When Instagram users carry out searches to discover new accounts in their areas of interest, one way to attract them is through a well-optimized username and name. These two, along with your profile picture appears in the search results.
Also, your username and name can help your business rank high on Instagram search and provide an insight into what your business is all about. For instance, here’s a search for cakes on my Instagram app:
The usernames and name provide details about the business and it can affect the account I’ll check out.
5. A descriptive bio
What does your business do? What value do you provide to your audience? What product or service do you render?
These and more are questions that a successful account will answer in its bio. Unfortunately, these accounts only have 150 characters to answer these questions.
Regardless of that, an effective bio will explain the benefits a user will gain by following their Instagram account or buying their product. Here’s an example from National Geographic:
Rather than talk about what National Geographic does, they express it as a benefit to a current or potential follower. Apart from that, there are other aims to achieve with your account bio.
Effective account bios also incorporate their target keywords and hashtags. This way, the account can increase its chances of ranking for that target keyword.
Another use case for hashtags in your account bio is to encourage user-generated content. Here’s BMW’s profile encouraging users to post user-generated content through a dedicated hashtag:
Moreso, successful Instagram accounts feature calls to actions to visitors. What do you want your profile visitors to do? Here’s an effective call to action:
Most times, calls to action on Instagram profiles refer users to a website page. This brings us to links in Instagram bios.
One unique, and often undesirable, part of Instagram is that you only have access to a single link, apart from your stories. For most marketers, this is a challenge as you need to run many Instagram campaigns and direct users to your website pages.
The common practice for successful accounts is to change the links in their bio according to their campaigns. Then, their Instagram posts will refer to a link in bio.
Here’s an example:
To track traffic from Instagram, accounts use URL builders such as Bit.ly, Linkin.bio, and others. Another option is to employ UTM parameters to track the effectiveness of a link in Instagram bio.
Even though you only have 150 characters in your Instagram bio, it determines whether a user will decide to follow and engage with your account or leave your profile page.
6. A beautiful theme/aesthetic
Considering that Instagram is a visual social media network, looks matter a lot. Another sign of a successful Instagram account is a beautiful theme or aesthetic.
To put it simply, just posting beautiful images is insufficient to have a great theme. There has to be a similarity or pattern to those posts.
When users visit an Instagram page with a beautiful theme, there’s an urge to scroll further down the page to see more. This keeps users longer on your profile and increases their chances of following your account.
Some common Instagram themes include:
- Minimalist
- Puzzle
- Repetition
- Grayscale
- Black and white
- Single color theme
- Black and white border
- Checkerboard
- Single filter
There are even more themes and you’ll find one suitable for your brand. Here’s an example of a repetition theme from Murad Osmann:
This has grown into a popular Instagram trend with many creating similar posts using the #followmeto hashtag. Here’s another account with the minimalist theme:
The minimalist uses this to ensure that there’s a focus on the object they want their audience to see. Overall, to build a successful Instagram account, you need to settle on a theme that suits your brand and use it to guide your posts.
7. A consistent posting schedule
For any Instagram business account, there’s an audience expecting great content. An account can only become successful when it posts content to keep its audience engaged.
But how often do successful accounts post images and videos? It depends on their industry and audience. Also, consistency matters just as much as frequency.
When you have a frequency, it’s important to be consistent at posting content at these times. This ensures your audience are expectant of your content at specific times.
Before settling on a posting schedule, it’s vital to know when your audience is online. What’s the point of posting at the times when your audience can’t see it?
To know when your audience is online, navigate to your audience analytics. This will show you their most active times.
Alternatively, you can use a social media scheduling tool such as Hopper HQ or Later which will recommend the best times to post based on your audience and engagement.
Using a scheduling tool, you can schedule your posts to show up at the right time. Building consistency is vital if you want your Instagram business account to succeed in connecting with your audience.
8. Post high-quality images and videos
There’s an unwritten rule for Instagram, especially if you run a business, and that is: if you have nothing great to post, it’s better not to post at all. Considering that Instagram has over a billion monthly active users, only quality images and videos will make your account stand out.
The most successful accounts post content that’s high-quality. Now, high quality is a subjective term to Instagram users. Usually, your images and videos should have high-quality pictures and be relevant to your audience.
In most cases, successful accounts also feature people and how they use their products. Featuring people, especially happy, can increase engagement as users can relate better.
Here’s an example from football superstar, Ronaldo:
Here’s another example from @product_architect, an Instagram account that posts quality architectural images:
Apart from images, videos are growing in popularity as you can now have videos on your Instagram feed, stories, and IGTV. Successful accounts today also feature videos.
According to Instagram product lead for discovery, Will Ruben, videos are more likely to show up on Instagram Explore page as they auto-play and attract users. This is an opportunity to reach even more users and convert them into followers.
9. Uses Instagram Stories highlights
Sometimes, when you upload some videos or images on your Instagram Stories, you wish they can live forever. Well, Instagram now allows you to achieve just that.
Through Instagram Stories highlights, businesses can keep their stories on their profile even after the original story has disappeared. The most successful Instagram business accounts have taken advantage of this feature to showcase vital aspects of their businesses.
One advantage your stories highlights have over the regular Instagram posts is that highlights stay permanently at the top of your profile. Some common use cases for stories highlights include:
- Product details
- Product launch
- Tutorials
- Testimonials
- Case studies
- Promotional offers
- User-generated content
- Seasonal events
Through stories highlights, you can deliver important information about your brand to a profile visitor. To set up a stories highlight, navigate to your profile and click on “Story Highlights.”
After that, you can then select the Stories you want to add to highlights and click on “Next.” The next step is to select a cover photo for your highlight. Once you’re done with that, you can finish your setup.
Instagram allows you to add as many highlights as possible and up to 100 stories in a single highlight.
10. A consistent brand voice
No two successful businesses are alike in all ways. And apart from names, many successful businesses have different brand voices for easy identification.
Unsurprisingly, this also translates into their Instagram profile. On a successful Instagram profile, it’s easy to identify the business’s brand voice.
Is the brand formal? Informal? Funny? Sarcastic? If you want to be unique on Instagram, then your audience should find it easy to identify your brand voice.
More importantly, your brand voice should be one that your audience can relate to. When this happens, you’re more likely to gain followers and engage the current ones.
Here’s an example from Chipotle:
Even though Chipotle is a restaurant chain, their Instagram account is full of humor and sarcasm.
11. Engages with followers
After all, Instagram is a “social” media network. Therefore, it’s a no-brainer that a business is likely to find more success when it’s social with its audience.
The successful Instagram business accounts find ways to engage with their users. This happens through likes, comments, and reposting followers’ content.
One way to know followers have left comments on your posts is to enable notifications. Navigate to your Instagram settings and turn on push notifications.
If you want to repost your audience’s posts, you can make it easier by giving out a dedicated hashtag to your audience for an opportunity to repost. Here’s an example from Fashion Nova:
By engaging with your audience, you can increase engagement, deepen your relationship, and make them likely to take your intended action.
Conclusion
Growing a successful Instagram business account is vital to reaching your ideal audience on the platform. But it can be difficult to know what characteristics successful accounts have.
Luckily, you can go through this list and implement these 11 traits into your account.
As usual, I’ll be sharing more digital marketing content with you soon. Ensure you use the share buttons to share with your friends who might also need this information.
