Should you create a new Instagram account for your business? 

Why you need to create a new Instagram account as a small business owner

If you already have a personal account, the first thing I recommend you do is start from scratch and create a second Instagram account for your business. Now you’re probably wondering “Why do I need a second account? I have a whole bunch of followers on my personal account who love my vacation and puppy pics.” And that’s great but, these followers might not be interested in the content you’re going to be posting for your business.

The majority of the accounts that follow you on your personal Instagram profile are most likely friends and family. And friends and family, although supportive, are not always our ideal clients. Also, your personal profile might be a private account, which will make it impossible for new potential clients to find you.

With a fresh start and a public account, you’ll be able to attract the right people who’ll eventually become your customer base. You can of course keep your existing account, and share the good news about your business with your friends and family. That’s a good way of filtering out those who are actually interested in your new biz.

Plus, as soon as you create a business account, you’ll have access to Instagram insights and analytics that will help you to measure if your social media efforts are successful and help you better understand your audience.

How to create a business account on Instagram

Once you’ve secured your Instagram handle, you’ll head over to your new profile and click the three lines in the upper right corner of the screen. Then, click on the settings icon and choose “account”. Scroll down to the bottom of the menu and select “switch account type”.

Here you’ll see two options: “switch to creator account” and “switch to business account”. Select business account. Creator accounts are mostly for public figures, content creators, bloggers and influencers, for example. If this sounds more in line with what you want to do, then maybe a creator profile is the better option for you.

Then, you can choose your business category. You’ll find this by hitting the “edit profile” button on your main profile page and scrolling to the bottom under “public business information”.

Pro tip: if you want to create Instagram Reels with trending audios as a business account, select “entrepreneur” as your business category and choose not to display it.

This is also where you can connect your business Facebook page, if you have one, choose your contact options and the action buttons you want to appear on your profile. If ever you plan to run Instagram ads, you’ll need a Facebook page for your business. An action button can come in handy if you deal with one of the booking platforms that integrates with the Instagram app.

The biggest mistake I see business owners making on their profile is packing their bio with their phone number and address. Your Instagram bio should explain what your account is about, who you help and how you’ll help your target audience, especially since the information in your bio is searchable throughout the platform.

The best way for small businesses to share their contact information in their profile is with the contact button that includes your phone number and business email address. If you have a public location, you can also add and display your address when editing your profile as well. Do all this by clicking “edit profile”.

Features a professional account has, that a personal profile doesn’t

There is a stark contrast between a personal Instagram account and a professional one. The main difference: analytics, which in my opinion is the best thing about a business profile. The only way you’ll be able to access more information about both your account and your individual Instagram posts is with a professional Instagram account.

Your professional dashboard located at the top of your Instagram profile will show a zoomed out view of your account health including organic reach, engagement and follower growth. You’ll also see content performance. On each individual Instagram post, you can select “view insights” to see unique post performance.

All social media platforms have insights and analytics. When creating a social media strategy for your business, you need to have access to all this data to evaluate how your content is performing and if you’re reaching the right audience as well as your pre-determined goals. If you don’t want to deal with all the numbers, you can hire a social media professional to help you make sense of it all.

Instagram shopping is another fun feature available for product-based business accounts. This allows users to shop your products directly on the app. You can read more about it here.

How to get Instagram users to find you and follow you

The last thing you want to do when setting up your new business account is optimize!

If you want users to find you on the app, here are the key elements your profile should include:

• a clear profile image of your logo or a headshot (recommended if you’re a service-based business)
• an optimized name using keywords that your ideal customer is searching for
• a visually organized bio that explains what visitors can expect from your profile and a call to action to visit your website
• a direct link to your website
• highlights with branded covers (aka Instagram story bubbles) containing helpful information for your ideal customer (you’ll need to create some Instagram stories to populate these)

Since this is a brand new account, it’s a good idea that your first 9 posts really reflect what your business is all about, your values, your story, your offers or products and any other relevant information to educate your new followers.

In the captions of these posts, you’ll want to include relevant hashtags so your ideal audience can find you.

You’ll want to create quality content that your ideal customer would enjoy interacting with. Engagement (likes, comments, shares and saves) sends positive signals to the Instagram algorithm that will get your content seen by more people.

Now that your business account is ready, it’s time to get social and start interacting with others. It is social media, after all! Follow different accounts you would genuinely enjoy seeing in your Instagram feed– no forced interactions here, and leave comments to contribute to the conversation on posts that interest you.

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