A few months back, Instagram began rolling out business accounts.
Think about how Facebook works. You can either have your personal account (here’s mine) or you can have a business account (or a combination of both–like I do).
There are advantages to having a Facebook Page for your business. It basically allows you to separate the “business you” from the “personal you.” There are other advantages as well; business pages allow you access to analytics (which personal pages do not), and you can buy ads for business pages.
Facebook owns Instagram, and you can now create a proper business account on Instagram. Previous to this, there was no real division between a brand and a person; everyone used the same account, and it was basically a business account if you called it that, but basically every account was the same, whether for business or for personal.
There are three advantages (pros) to transferring your personal account to a business account:
- Contact button allows you to get directions, call or email the business. Handy!
- Business accounts come with Insights built in. There are very few free Instagram analytics tools. There are lots of paid ones, but almost no good free ones are available. Business accounts give you access to analytics.
- You can now create Instagram ads right inside the app. Meh. Not a huge deal. You could always buy ads on Instagram, you just had to go through Facebook to do it.
Disadvantages:
- You must have a Facebook Page for business in order to convert your account from a personal to a business account.
- Instagram’s Algorithm. Here’s the thing: I got burned. We all got burned. When Facebook Pages for business came out, I created one, just like many of you did, for my business. I was excited. I put time, energy and money (yes, I bought ads) to drive Likes to my FB page. And then Facebook brought down the hammer in the form of their algorithm. Now, I basically have two choices: to suffer with low views and engagement on my page (yes, I try, much like you guys do, to post engaging content, but sometimes it just flops), or to pay FB to boost my posts. I have worked very hard over the last couple of years to really build up my Instagram, posting every day, following interesting people, liking and commenting on people’s posts. What if… at some point in the near future, Instagram pushes a button and all of a sudden, no one sees my posts any more? This is the gamble.
So. If you currently are using Instagram and you don’t have an Instagram business account, should you convert your account over?
If you have a legitimate business, then yes. You should. It makes you look more legitimate, and the analytics are helpful. However, if you, like me, are your own business, and your own brand, then honestly, I’d hold off a while and see what happens.
As ever, I’d love to hear your comments below!
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