When’s the last time you did an Instagram audit of your page? When’s the last time you really looked at your Instagram page to make sure that it’s still aligned with your current goals or even up to date on who you serve and what you do? Let’s face it, as entrepreneurs we’re pretty good about pivoting A LOT and don’t always clean up the pieces when we do it. We’re also pretty good about not updating our own profiles or even posting for that matter, because we are busy working with our clients and serving them because it’s what we love, aaaaand what pays the bills.

But here’s the thing, if your profile isn’t up to date you’re going to be giving off the wrong impression and attracting the wrong people to your page. So, let’s get that cleaned up shall we? Here are 6 things you need to do to audit your Instagram profile to help you attract your ideal clients.

Profile Picture

Starting off with something a lot of people often overlook, your profile picture! Have you had some recent brand photos done? Maybe you need to book a session to get some done? Now’s a great time to get that on the schedule or update your image in general. This is the face of your brand that people know you for so it’s important that it’s up to date with your current brand.

PICTURE TIP: Even with a brand photo you can have a little fun and add in your brand colors if it makes sense and fits the vibe. Simply go into Canva and add a boarder to your image in a brand color to make it pop.

Name

Next up is your name field, does it accurately reflect what you do and who you help? If not, get that updated ASAP. Your name field is searchable so having keywords that you want people to find you for is important. For example if you’re a website designer but you specifically work with Showit, make sure that you have “Showit Website Designer” in your name field, and in your bio but we’ll get to that in a minute. And to amp it up even more, if you only work with a specific niche, be sure to add that in there as well.

NAME TIP: If you want to have your name you still can, but be sure to also include what you do and potentially who you work with if it fits. The framework I typically use for myself and clients is “Name | (What they do) for (Niche they work with).

Bio

Your bio is probably the most important piece to keep updated. When someone lands on your profile for the first time they are going to skim your bio to see what you do and who you work with to see if you even make sense for them to follow or potentially work with. This is also a searchable space so having those keywords like “Showit Website Designer” here is key too.

BIO TIP: In your bio use emojis to act as bullet points to grab your readers attention and give quick info about who you are and what you do. Long sentences and paragraphs often get overlooked, make it simple and to the point with a little finesse.

Highlights

If you’ve ever had a strategy session with me you know how much I harp on having your highlights updated. When someone new lands on your page if they are thinking about working with you they are likely going to check out your highlights, especially anything having to do with what you do, client feedback, and projects. Be sure that these are up to date, branded, and are not too long.

HIGHLIGHT TIP: Try to have 3-5 main highlights, think of them like the navigation bar on your website (about me, portfolio, resources, etc). Then inside each highlight try to have no more than 10 slides to keep viewers interested. When there are too many no one is going to look at all of them. And even worse than that, when you don’t update them often and the first thing that comes up is from 2020, it’s giving outdated and they are definitely going to dip. Try to keep them within the last year and refresh them as often as you’d like.

Pinned Posts

Right after your bio and highlights, your pinned posts are going to see the most action. We want to get people into your funnel with ease and let them know why you are the one they want to work. Make sure these are up to date but also feel free to switch them out from time to time. The format I use for clients is a post that goes to your lead magnet (bonus points if you have ManyChat setup for comments), an overview of your services or main service you want to highlight, and something about you and your background that shows your expertise, authority and knowledge.

PINNED POST TIP: If you are launching be sure to switch out at least one of your posts to promote your launch! Get people excited and let them know as soon as they land on your page what you have to offer them.

Content

Aside from your pinned posts, if someone were to look at your last 3 posts, would they be able to tell what you did and how you can help them? If not, you’re not talking about your services enough! When it comes to your content you want to make sure that you are regularly promoting your services in some way so I always recommend at least 1 post per week being a promotional post about your services or main service that you’re offering. You also want to make sure that you are giving value and showing your authority through your content, we don’t want to be giving them a list that they could easily Google. Think beyond the basic how tos and think about how you help your clients. What’s something that comes up a lot for them? Or what’s something you think everyone knows but when you tell a client it’s completely new to them? That is what you should be sharing!

CONTENT TIP: I hate to break it to you, but the look of your feed MATTERS! I’m not saying it has to be a checkerboard or puzzle or anything like that, but it just needs to look aesthetically pleasing to the eye and not chaotic. This is where templates can be your best friend. Come up with at least 4-5 templates that you can rotate through, bonus points if you make a few variations of them to have different colors or elements each time they show up on your page for a little more variation. Then when you go to post you have quick and easy graphics you can use for posting or you can swap one out one day for an image here and there to help include you on your page and add a little visual white space for the eye to rest on your page.

That’s it! This is part of the same breakdown I use for my clients when we do our strategy session. It helps to get everything in line so that we can make sure we are getting started on the right foot. If you want some help getting your profile in tip top shape, check out my 90 Day Intensive that gets your strategy done for you and helps you build a habit of showing up and posting consistently on your page.