Should you have an Instagram business account or a personal one? This post is tackling one of the most popular questions I get about Instagram ever and that’s: “Should I switch to a business account or keep my personal account?” and today I want to walk you through my personal experience, what I believe is the best option and what I see for the future in terms of using Instagram to promote our businesses.
Click here to learn how to set up your Instagram profile and here how to plan 1 month of social media updates (links open in a new tab).
What options does Instagram offer?
Instagram offers three types of accounts: Personal, Business, and Creator.
Instagram Personal Accounts
Instagram Personal accounts are designed for individuals who use Instagram for personal and non-commercial purposes. They are commonly used by everyday users, friends, and family to share personal photos and updates. Personal accounts have limited access to insights and analytics. You can see basic engagement metrics, such as likes and comments, but not the detailed audience demographics available to Business and Creator accounts. Personal accounts also do not offer access to Instagram’s advertising tools, making it a bit more challenging to run targeted ad campaigns.
Instagram Business Accounts
Instagram business accounts are intended for businesses, brands, and organizations that want to promote products or services on Instagram and gain access to business-related features. Business accounts offer detailed analytics and insights about your followers, post performance, and audience demographics. These insights can help businesses make data-driven decisions.
On a business account you can also display essential contact information like a phone number, email address, and physical address. This makes it easier for customers to get in touch for inquiries or support.
Business accounts have access to Instagram’s advertising tools, allowing businesses to create and promote ads within the platform. And you can use Instagram Shopping features to tag products in posts, making it easier for users to discover and purchase products directly from Instagram.
Instagram Creator Accounts
Creator accounts are tailored to influencers, content creators, public figures, and artists who want to grow their online presence and engage with their followers more effectively. Creator accounts provide access to the Creator Studio, a dashboard with detailed analytics, audience insights, and content management tools.
Creators can choose how they want to be contacted, making it easier for them to manage inquiries from brands, fans, or collaborators. Creator accounts also offer additional message filtering options to help manage direct messages more efficiently.
And finally, Creators can use features like brand partnerships and sponsored content labels to collaborate with brands and monetize their content and they get access to specific growth insights, like how many followers were gained or lost in a specific timeframe.
So what kind of account should you choose?
In short, it depends. If you’re using Instagram for business purposes, such as promoting products or services, gaining insights into your audience, or running ads, switching to an Instagram Business account is the best choice.
Instagram creator accounts are best suited for influencers, content creators, public figures, photographers and artists (to name a few). When you’re a “normal” yoga teacher, coach or wellness professional, selling your services like retreats or online products, you are probably better off with an Instagram business account.
The good news is that you can switch between an Instagram creator and an Instagram business account so don’t be afraid to test both account types to see which one works best for you.
If you’re using Instagram mostly for personal reasons and don’t require the additional features, a Personal account might be sufficient.
Will switching to an Instagram business account impact your reach?
I still remember when Facebook pages where the new shiny thing and everybody spent crazy money, time and effort building up their fanbases. And back in the day, when you posted something on your page, your follower actually saw it!
Not the case anymore, as you might have realized. Now organic reach is nearly nonexistent, and Facebook wants you to pay for boosted posts or ads if you want your followers to see your updates. Which is fair enough, they are providing a free tool after all and they have to make money.
But what about the features that come with an Instagram business account?
There are definitely pros to switching to an Instagram business account, like:
- You get insights and statistics about your followers. You also get data on impressions, reach, website clicks and can see viewer trends without leaving the app. And you get additional information about your posts and your stories and how they perform for free.
- You have a contact button on your profile so people can get in touch easily. And when you’re a local business, you might also have the option to add your address or phone number.
- You can schedule your posts with a tool like for example later.com and it posts automatically on Instagram for you.
- Ad creation is seamless with the promote feature and you can set up promotions directly in the app, similar to a boost on Facebook. If you have a personal account you can still set up ads, but you need a Facebook business page.
These are all awesome features, right? So why aren’t all businesses making the switch to an Instagram business account?
Again, the biggest factor is reach. Instagram limits the amount of what is seen of business posts in the feeds with the help of their algorithm more and more. I already see this in my feed and find it really annoying. I see all the (sometimes pretty boring) posts of my friends on both Instagram and Facebook (seriously, can’t they tell I’ve already seen the 10 new baby photos from cousin Laura on one platform?), but posts from accounts I actually want to see are hidden or not shown at all. I’m really not a big fan of the algorithm, at all, but I guess there’s no turning back. It is what it is.
Another consideration might be that you’re feeling like you lose that personal touch when you switch to an Instagram business account. There aren’t any glaring differences between personal and business accounts for your followers, but it might feel different to YOU and that will impact how you communicate.
While the contact button that comes with an Instagram business account is nice to have, I don’t think it’s necessary. Not many people are actually going to visit your website, book your retreat or buy from you from Instagram directly.
So, should you switch from a personal to a business account?
It’s entirely up to you! There’s no one-size-fits-all for this question. But I think, when you spend time on Instagram and you want to use social media in your marketing to reach new customers and grow your business, you should be strategic about it. Stop treating it like a hobby, posting when you feel “inspired”, and instead have a plan and be smart about the time you spend on creating your content. Having access to analytics and insights is essential for any business and also scheduling your posts. So, overall, for most businesses, I think having a business account is worth it.
Here’s what I’ve been doing:
I started my account @susannerieker at the end of 2018 and I planned to stay on a personal account as long as it’s possible, but I switched to the Instagram business account to get the insights and seriously I didn’t see any difference in my reach. I’ve got no regrets that I made the switch, I don’t even think about it!
PS – Google brought you here FIVE years after I’ve published this post!
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