Switch to a business profile, fill in the phone, email and address fields so they match your website, choose whether to show the address, and point the single link in your bio at a page built for Instagram visitors.

A good feed with no way to call

The photographs are good. The account posts several times a week, people comment, and a few send direct messages asking for prices.

But it is still a personal account. There is no button to call or email, no address, and the one link in the bio goes to the home page of the website.

Somebody who has just decided they want what is in the photograph has to find the business some other way.

Switching to a business profile takes a few minutes in the app. Most of its value lies in filling in what the switch makes available.

What switching changes

A business profile adds contact options to the account, a category describing the business, an optional address, and Insights, Instagram's figures on who sees your posts and what they do next.

It also allows posts to be promoted as ads from within the app.

The switch requires connecting a Facebook Page that you manage, which is where Instagram picks up some of the business details. The account must be public, and existing posts and followers stay as they are.

It costs nothing. The work is in the choices it asks you to make.

The fields worth filling in

The fourth needs the most thought. A shop wants the directions option, so a visitor can tap and be routed to the door. A service business run from home does not want strangers routed to the owner's driveway.

How the buttons work

In the app, the contact options appear as buttons on the profile itself. A tap opens the phone app, the email app, or a map with your address already entered.

That is a shorter route than a personal account offers: no copying a number out of the bio, no hunting for the website's contact page.

The text option is worth knowing about. A business whose staff cannot answer calls while working, but can reply to messages between jobs, may be better served by a button that opens a text.

Use the same number, address and business name as your website and your Google My Business listing, so a customer checking one against another finds them matching.

The link in the bio

Links in captions cannot be tapped, so the bio link is the only route from Instagram to your website for most accounts. Links in Stories are limited to large accounts.

Most businesses point it at the home page. A visitor who has just seen a particular product or job lands on a page that says nothing about it, and has to start searching.

A better target is a page on your own site built for Instagram visitors: the things your recent posts mention, the current offer, how to order or book, and the phone number.

Keep the address of that page fixed and change what is on it. Then the bio never needs editing, and nobody follows an old link to an expired page.

A worked example

A food truck that parks in three different places during the week had a personal account with a strong following and a bio that said message us for catering.

Followers asked in the comments where the truck would be that day. Catering enquiries arrived as direct messages, which nobody checked during service, and some sat unanswered for days.

The account became a business profile with a category, a text button rather than a call button, since nobody can answer a phone through a lunch rush, and an email address for catering. No address, since the truck moves.

The bio link now points to a page on the truck's website showing this week's locations and a catering enquiry form. It is updated every Monday, so the question of where the truck is gets answered before anybody asks it.

The name and the bio

Two more fields do quiet work. The name, which is separate from the username, is matched by Instagram's search, so a name that says what you do and where helps the right people find the account.

The bio has 150 characters. Spend them on what the business does and where, plus one reason to tap the link, such as this week's specials or how to book.

Slogans and strings of hashtags can wait. A visitor deciding whether to get in touch wants the plain facts first.

What Insights tells you

Insights reports how many accounts saw each post, how many visited the profile, and how many tapped the website link or a contact button. It also shows where followers are and when they are most active.

The figures only cover posts made after the switch, so give it a few weeks before reading much into them.

The useful comparison is profile visits against website taps. Plenty of visits and few taps usually means the bio, or the page it points to, is not giving people a reason to go further.

Add campaign tags to the bio link, too, so Google Analytics reports Instagram visits under one clear label.

The counter-case

Some businesses gain little from any of this. A company selling industrial parts to other companies is rarely found on Instagram, and its time is better spent elsewhere.

The switch also has conditions. The account must be public and connected to a Facebook Page, which suits a business but not always an account an owner also uses personally.

And a business profile is still somebody else's platform, with rules and reach that change, as Facebook Page owners saw in January. The page the bio link points to is the part you own.

Switch, fill in every field that applies, and make the one link count.

Ten minutes in the app

  1. Switch to a business profile in settings.
  2. Connect the Facebook Page you manage.
  3. Enter the number you actually answer.
  4. Decide whether the address should show.
  5. Point the bio link at a dedicated page.
  6. Tag that link for Google Analytics.
  7. Compare profile visits with website taps monthly.

Step five is where most of the value is. The contact buttons serve people who have already decided; the page behind the bio link serves everybody who is still deciding.

Reaching a local audience on the other platform, now that page posts travel less far, is covered in Facebook groups for a local business.

Frequently asked questions

What does an Instagram business profile add?

Contact buttons for calling, texting, emailing or directions, a category, an optional address, Insights on who sees your posts, and the ability to promote posts as ads from the app.

What does switching require?

A Facebook Page that you manage, which the account connects to, and a public account. Existing posts and followers stay as they are, and the switch costs nothing.

Should my address show on the profile?

Only if customers come to you. A shop benefits from the directions button; a service business run from home should leave the address off rather than route strangers to the driveway.

Where should the bio link point?

At a page on your own website built for Instagram visitors: what recent posts mention, the current offer, how to order or book, and the phone number. Not the home page.

Why use a text button instead of call?

Because some businesses cannot answer calls while working but can reply to messages between jobs. The button should open whatever your business actually answers, so nobody rings a phone that is never picked up.

What should I look at in Insights?

Profile visits against website taps. Many visits and few taps usually means the bio, or the page it points to, gives people no reason to go further. Figures only cover posts after the switch.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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