Let’s imagine your Instagram profile as your ‘room’ – when somebody enters your room, you want to present yourself in an effective way that shows exactly what you do. This is your chance to make an impression. Visitors to your room will then want to know where to go next and this is where you direct them to your ‘sales’ pages (i.e. your streaming sites, website or online stores).
14.6 million songs were uploaded to Spotify in 2019, this translates into 40,000+ songs per day. The market is very saturated and will continue to become more inundated as time goes on; thanks to the leaps in technology and AI making production easier for the masses . For this reason you need to ensure you’re easily identifiable, reachable and clear the first time anyone visits your profile. People want to connect with your values and beliefs rather than just what you are doing. An injection of personality as well as a public CV of sorts is what a perfect bio encompasses. As Simon Sinek once said, “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.”
Did you know that an ‘About Me’ page is usually the second most visited page on a website. This goes to show that people are interested in knowing more. If you trigger their interest with content then it’s likely they’ll go further and read more about you. In this article I will show you how to structure the perfect long format bio and then how you can optimize this for your Instagram bio too. Each of your channels has a different bio format, so it’s important you pay attention to each one individually. We’ll start with a meaty bio that is typically used on your website and funnel the information down into your social channels too.
How To Write A Long Format Bio
Step 1:
Watch this video…
Simon Sinek is telling us that fans won’t necessarily just be buying into your songs or album on face value, they are buying into the reason and the purpose behind your music. A perfect example is Lady Gaga, she’s become an evangelist of self acceptance – preaching to an audience of outcasts. She has fans buying into her purpose whether it’s through her music, videos, outfits, speeches or her roles on TV & Film.
If you’re able to communicate your purpose and value through your creativity you will be able to connect with fans or new visitors immediately on an emotional level. This immediately begins building a level of trust. If you want to build a fanbase around your music you must tap into the ‘limbic brain’ as Simon Sinek refers to, this is the part of the brain you want to arouse as it’s where loyalty and trust is built. Think of how people queue for hours to get in to a show, to snag the best spot for the show, to be close to their idols. This happens because of that emotional connection in the brain and this is what you’re aiming to create through the digital realms with your bio.
Step 2:
Use Simon Sinek’s template for writing your long format bio – start with why, then how, then what. This is the perfect formula to present yourself on all of your channels. Use the template as guidelines and make it your own but remember to start with the WHY.
When we look at the greatest artist of all time, you’ll see they all had a bigger purpose with their music. Look at Travis Sott as a similar example to Lady Gaga, his purpose is serving the outcasts too, but in a different way. He brings out the anger and energy of the youth and his fanbase connects with him because they resonate with his message.
How To Break Down Your Long Bio For Instagram
Instagram bios require two main goals to be fulfilled… Firstly, you need to present yourself. Secondly, you want visitors to click the bio link. By firstly presenting yourself in an engaging way you’re creating a pull for the visitor to check out the link. The aim is to give them enough information that they know what to expect before they click that link and check out your stuff.
The first part is your introduction. This is your presentation. By only saying you are a musician, or a producer or a DJ you are not really standing out. You’re just generalizing yourself. The more niche and specific you can get the better. As your visitors will immediately connect with you and perhaps your genre. You need to stop trying to appeal to everyone and rather show your uniqueness here. See my other article on how to attract your weirdos!
A great example of this is Black Madonna:
https://www.instagram.com/blackmadonnachi/
Her bio immediately tells us who she is but also gives us an indication of the type of content to expect on her profile. Tell people why they should care and be interested in your content and profile. People like to think about what is in it for them, and on arriving at your profile they’ll evaluate further and decide whether you are for them or not. So remember to present yourself in a way where you immediately show your identity and value right away, get them wanting more.
Once your introduction section is finished it’s time to move over to the next section, the call to action. This link that’s located under the bio is one of the ONLY places to exit the platform. Once you hit 10,000+ followers this opens up the option to link from your stories, but all us common folk below that number have to rely on the bio link. This is the best piece of social media ‘real estate’ – the whole intention of your bio is to get people clicking here. You must present some value here, just asking people to click to buy your new song is not enough, everybody is asking audiences to do the same and it’s not enticing enough. Spice it up with some actionable emojis like a finger point or arrows, etc.
Here are some examples of some great call to actions in the bio:
https://www.instagram.com/yoriolijslagers/
https://www.instagram.com/followthefishtv/ (you forgot your introduction Fisher)
https://www.instagram.com/trizzytrack/
See also where he presents himself as Finger Drummer which represents his content, style and value.
Other Things to Include in Your Bio
Branded Hashtag/Tour Hashtag:
https://www.instagram.com/humphouse/
Creating a branded hashtag means to start a hashtag that is unique to you. Where audiences can click that hashtag and see results of everything you’ve created, curated and masterminded. This won’t apply to everybody, but if you’re running some sort of series, it’s good to collect everything together under a hashtag.
Let’s say you were doing a tour, you’d create a unique hashtag for it, allowing your fans as well as yourself to add content to the hashtag. This is a great way to present your shows from an organic viewpoint as well as your glitzy promo.
Emojis:
You have very limited time to catch somebody’s attention online and emojis are a fantastic way to assist with this. Driving the viewer’s eye to your bio and adding a splash of personality to boring text. Use the right emojis and it almost becomes part of your brand and personality.
https://www.instagram.com/ladygaga/
https://www.instagram.com/siamusic/
Sister Accounts:
If you’re part of a group, collective, duo, label or agency, etc. you should also link to these accounts through your bio. It lets people know that you’re part of something else and points them in the direction of finding out more. Twice the bang for your buck!
See how Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike do it, you can easily switch between their account and check out their content:
https://www.instagram.com/dimitrivegasandlikemike/
With this understanding of the steps you must take in order to write a good solid bio and how you can break it down for your other channels, you should start experimenting with some different ideas. Ask for feedback from your peers or monitor if anybody is actually clicking your bio link. You can monitor clicks by using URL shortening services such as bit.ly – see in real time how many clicks a link has had. Change things up and try out new approaches. Your face on the world wide web needs to shine through the noise and convert visitors to supporters.
