Is It Unprofessional to Upload an Instagram Link to a Piece in My Portfolio

Are yous a social media pro? Mayhap you lot love getting inspired past beautifully curated squares and connecting with your audition through stories and posts. Or peradventure, like me, yous just recognize social media as an effective tool—and your posts are scheduled long in advance to minimize your fourth dimension scrolling through the app (thank yous, Tailwind!). Whether you dear Instagram or hate it, in that location's one affair you should keep in listen as a creative business concern: your Instagram is not your portfolio.

That's not to say Instagram tips for creatives aren't helpful. In fact, Instagram can be a highly effective marketing tool… but it's not the identify where you plough a lead into a booked client. Sure, Instagram can generate leads. Information technology tin can help keep y'all top-of-mind among potential clients and referral sources. Social media has a lot to offer… and it is gratis marketing (minus the cost of your time managing it)!

But Instagram is only i slice of the marketing funnel—and it'southward certainly not the end goal.

The stop goal is your website. Why? Information technology'south your best chance of converting potential leads into booked clients.

Your website is your defended space. You can tailor every part of the online experience – design, words, images – to reverberate your brand and entreatment to your ideal client. A website is a space where yous can institute a brand, create personal connection, and build trust. It's a space where you lot have your customer'southward undivided attending. You are no longer competing for algorithmic favor confronting a million other voices hashtagging for attending, only ane swipe abroad.

Your website is your online home. All other marketing efforts lead dorsum to it. Google searches, Pinterest traffic, emailed links from referrals… all of these lead dorsum to your website (not to your Instagram account). All clicks should funnel to your website: your habitation base.

The goal of your Instagram account is to generate leads to your website—non for your website to generate followers on Instagram.

Wouldn't yous rather take a new customer on the books than another follower under your handle?

It'southward much harder to convert leads if they don't have an incentive to visit your website. If they don't click on your website, they won't accept a risk to learn about you or your offerings. At best, perhaps they'll send yous a dm inquiring near your services… but listing your packages over a dm volition never exist as polished, professional, or convincing as a well-designed website page.

All of your Instagram efforts lead dorsum to your website. And if your audience does go far on your website, it's important that they receive a cohesive brand experience. There'south nil worse than a gorgeously curated Instagram feed linking to a website that hasn't been updated in years… All of that work on Instagram is for naught if the website fails to impress.

That'southward why Instagram is not your portfolio. It may assist y'all become your foot in the door… but all roads ultimately lead back to your website. Your website should be a shining example of your work, complemented past a cohesive user experience and tailored messaging that make your make irresistible to your ideal client.

Then what can you lot practice to shift the focus away from Instagram and onto your website? I've got you covered with a few quick tips:

Three quick ways to encourage your audition to visit your website:

1. Discussion of Mouth Referrals. When people enquire where they tin can connect with you, kickoff by listing your website—non your Instagram handle. Straight traffic to your website first: information technology'due south meliorate for SEO, and information technology'southward an opportunity to provide your audience with targeting messaging and a tailored brand experience.

   If they like what they see and desire to connect with you lot on Instagram… great! They can utilize your website to find the link to your IG account.

2. Get rid of your Linktree. Using Linktree puts a third-political party app between your Instagram and your website. Skip the middleman! It disrupts the brand experience, and information technology's amend for SEO to drive traffic to your website… non Linktree's.

   Become your audience onto your site, where you accept control over the design and the user feel. Instead of a Linktree, employ a custom page on your own website for your "link in bio." (here's mine, and hither's ane of my client'southward!).

3. Update your website portfolio. It ever feels like a missed opportunity when I overhear someone say, "Oh, don't wait on my website, those images are then outdated. Here, just look at my Instagram!"

   That person could have had a atomic number 82 directly on their website, in a dedicated online environment… just now they've thrown that lead back into the endless bounding main of competitors on Instagram. Yikes!

   Keep your website updated with your best contempo work (I recommend an update in one case per quarter). Y'all should feel confident directing leads to your website, knowing your nearly impressive piece of work will be there to captivate them.

With just three steps, you tin begin prioritizing your website as the terminal step in your conversion funnel—leveraging your Instagram account to support your website, non the other manner effectually.

Let me know how it goes! And be certain to bank check out more than Tips for Creatives here on the web log.

Instagram Tips for Creatives // Sarah Ann Design

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Source: https://sarahanndesign.co/instagram-tips-for-creatives-portfolio/

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