An often overlooked, but incredibly important, part of your Instagram account is your bio. Not sure what to include in your dog’s Instagram account bio? Read on.
Table of Contents
- What is an Instagram Bio?
- What Makes a Good Dog Instagram Bio?
- Elements of a Pawfect Instagram Bio and What to Include in Each Section
- Resources to Make Your Bio Stand Out
- Dog Instagram Bio Example
- Summary
What is an Instagram Bio?
Your dog’s Instagram bio is where you introduce your pet to current or potential followers in 150 characters or less. This is the first thing people see when they visit your profile, so it’s important to make a great fur-st impression.
What Makes a Good Dog Instagram bio?
Every successful bio on Instagram has to include a few things:
- Who you are (your pet)
- What you do (what makes your pet unique)
- Who your content is for (who your ideal follower is)
Each of the elements must be present and clear so you attract and retain your ideal audience.
Remember, you don’t want to try to appeal to everyone – in fact, that’s impossible. The more targeted and niche-specific you can get your account, the better. That way, when users discover your content and account, they know exactly what they will get by following you.
Elements of a Pawfect Instagram Bio and What to Include in Each Section
Profile Picture
As we all know, a picture says a thousand words, so it’s worth getting this tiny (110 x 110 pixels) picture right! Here’s a few things to keep in mind when selecting your profile photo:
- Make sure it’s a high quality photo. Never use a fuzzy or poor quality photo.
- Choose a photo with a neutral, simple background. Make it simple so people can quickly and easily see your adorable pooch.
- Choose an evergreen photo. Avoid seasonal or event-specific photos (i.e., in front of fall leaves or a pumpkin patch). This ensures you won’t have to remember to update your profile photo often.
- Crop the photo to show off your pet’s face. Again, this photo is teeny tiny, so a close up of your pet’s face is best.
Display Name
This is what displays under your profile photo icon. Fun fact: your display name CAN and should be different from your username (i.e., @[username]).
You have 30 characters and spaces here, so use the space wisely! Add keyword descriptions of what makes your pup unique, special and follow-worthy.
Category
If you have a business or creator profile, you have the option to choose a category. This additional field, which is only viewable on a mobile view, helps followers see at a glance who you are (e.g., Public Figure or Personal Blog – that’s what we use).
Pupfluencer Pro Tip: If you have not already switched your account from a personal account to a business or creator account, do that now. I’m serious. Stop reading this article, open the app, and make the switch.
Bio Summary
This is where you have 150 characters and spaces to describe who you are and what you do in a way that conveys your pet’s personality.
This is arguably the most important section of your bio, so take care with it.
Some things to keep in mind while drafting your bio summary:
- Use a mix of words and emojis to make it fun to read. Emojis easily convey in one character what multiple words would (e.g., use the location pin emoji in front of your location or the envelope emoji in front of your email address).
- Add keywords here to help with discoverability. This helps you to show up in search results more often.
- Include a call to action. Give people direction on what you want them to do. For example, you can say “Follow me for [whatever type of content you share]” or “Visit my website for [whatever your website shares/sells]”.
- Format your bio copy so it’s easy to read. No one wants to have to use their brain more than they have to, so make your summary easy to consume. Avoid thick blocks of text and fix any formatting that is unpleasant to look at.
Website
This is the only part of your bio where you can include a clickable link. If you have a website or another digital space you want your followers to visit, include that here.
Contact Info
If you have a business or creator account, you can include your contact information here.
This is a great way to free up more space from your bio summary. For example, instead of including your email address in your bio summary, you can include it here. Now you have more characters to add compelling copy or emojis to your bio summary.
Story Highlights
Story highlights are groups of past Stories that you can create as folder sections on your profile. These folders of Stories are a great way to feature what you’re all about.
They’re called Highlights for a reason. Be selective in what you feature here to show off your best Story content. Also be sure to update these regularly.
Resources to Make Your Bio Stand Out
In addition to having great imagery and copy as part of your dog’s bio, you can play around with including other elements to stand out.
Here’s a few examples of tricks to try:
- Special fonts. Have you ever seen profiles with fancy fonts in their bio or captions? Now you can have that too. Check out Instagram Fonts or LingoJam for various font options you can copy and paste into your bio.
- Symbols. Similar to special fonts, you can include symbols similar to emojis. A few places you can find these are cool Symbol’s Fancy Text Generator or Microsoft Word’s “symbol” insertion icon.
- Emojis. As mentioned earlier, emojis are a quick and easy way to add personality and fun to your profile.
- Quotes. Not sure what to say? People love quotes. If you have a special dog quote that resonates with you and your dog’s story, include it!
Dog Instagram Bio Example
Here’s our dog account Instagram bio as an example of how to put all the pieces above together.
Summary
What’s important to remember is that your dog’s Instagram bio is important. Take some time to create a bio that’s as amazing as the content you share. Make it easy for your followers to understand who you are and why they should follow and engage with you.
Keep it fresh, keep it fun, keep it simple.
Stay up to speed on all things dog Insta! Become a dog Instagram expert by signing up for Happy Tails, our weekly email newsletter. Every Monday, we release new pet social media tips, tricks, and trends to help you grow your account and be an even more pawesome dog parent. Sign up here!