With about one billion active users (Source: Sprout Social), Instagram can be a powerful tool for home bakeries to deliver meaningful content and build relationships with customers.
Your Profile
This post will focus on the profile page elements and assume you have a business account.
Username
Your username is your @handle and your Instagram identity. And, it’s on the top of your profile page. Sometimes a username is all that a person will see – it needs to make sense for your business and be easy to remember.
First and foremost, consider your full home bakery name, but know that you might have to get creative. Instagram is so saturated with profiles, what if your username is unavailable?
Here are some other variations you can try for picking your username:
Example: Dos Amigas Bakery
- Dosamigasbake
- Dosamigasbaking
- DosamigasNYC
- Dosamigas_bakery
- Dos.amigas.bakery
You can use other forms of the word “bakery,” your location, or cleverly placed underscores and periods to find an available username.
Name
Whenever possible, include your entire business in either your username or name field. If you have your complete business name as your handle, you can use the business owner’s name or the products you sell in the name field.
Photo
We all know your profile picture is small. I recommend using your logo. You might have to create a logo variation or use an icon to make it readable. Just know that you may have to tweak it because it is so small or add a colorful background, so it stands out in a scroll. Your photo would be a perfect place to add your brand color, so followers get used to associating that color with your business.
For example, if you were a cupcake shop, you could use a cupcake photo or icon as your photo with your brand color as the background. Bonus points if all your social media profiles coordinate and look cohesive.
Bio
There is an art to crafting an impeccable bio. Short, simple, with all the information a customer would need. It shows people who you are and what you sell. You only have 150 characters, so make them count. Remember, the bio is for your customer, not you.
Think about what you want your ideal customer to know. Here are just a few examples of what might be helpful to customers to know about you:
- Licensed Home Bakery
- Buttercream Cakes, Cupcakes & Cookies
- Licensed residential kitchen in City, State. Local pick up only.
- Custom cakes
- Decorated cookies
- Local Orders Only
- Your Location
- No ordering in the DMs
- No shipping
- Booked through xx/xx/xx
- Cookies by [insert your first name]
- Orders by website and email
- DM for orders and inquiries
Be sure to also add your personality with fun tidbits about you or use emojis. Everyone loves emojis!
Much to our disdain, you can only add one link to your bio. You can add URL to your website, Facebook page, whatever makes sense for your business.
To work around the one link issue, many people use the free bio link tool Linktree, which allows you to create a personalized and easily-customizable page, that houses all the key links you want to share. There is a paid version with more features, but the free gives you plenty to work with.
Category
Choosing your category as Bakery seems logical. It’s an integral step in setting up your business account. Not only does it look professional to have this title on your profile, but it also clearly explains to your followers what your business is. The category is listed under your name above your bio. It helps to quickly clue in someone who maybe is skimming your profile page. Other related category options are Local Service, Product/Service, and Kitchen/Cooking, depending on your business.
Highlights
The highlights feature on Instagram is a section of curated stories displayed directly on your profile in organized sets. Create your highlights to showcase products, help customers get answers to questions on ordering, spotlight testimonials, or behind the scenes photos.
Here are some ideas for highlights:
- Custom Orders
- Reviews (testimonials)
- BTS (behind the scenes)
- FAQs
- Menu
- Cakes
- Cookies
- Cupcakes
- Wedding Cakes
- Order
- About
- Tips & Tricks
Don’t Set It and Forget It
Have you updated your profile page since you first started on Instagram? Spend some time and give your IG profile some love. Think of your bio as your elevator pitch about your business. What do you want people to know about your business quickly.
RELATED: The blog post How To Attract Customers to Your Home Bakery dives into some ways to market your business, including social media.
