Instagram Business Profile: To Switch or Not To Switch

August 12, 2018

You might have held back from making the switch to Instagram’s new business profile, smart move!

 

Millions of businesses and brands have already made the switch and have come back with all the gossip you need to know about changing from personal Instagram profiles to business accounts.

 

Now we have huge amounts of fresh opinions, arguments for and against this new feature and tons of obscure, hard to find information – We can make sure you make the right choice, for your brand’s long-term success within Instagram’s marketing minefield.

 

We’ve gone through hundreds of responses, comments and articles from successful brands and businesses selling on Instagram. Then we collected the best and worst points, weighed them all up for this in-depth guide to help you make the switch… or not.

Core Business Profile Features

  • The new contact button allows users to call, email and see the address of your business.
     
  • A Niche/Industry tag which shows users what niche you’re working in.
     
  • Instagram Analytics which show user’s demographics, most active times, and post reach.
     
  • Of course, Instagram paid post boost which expands the audience which sees your posts.

 

 

Best for Brick and Mortar Retail Businesses?

For businesses selling products and services in physical retail spaces, (brick and mortar businesses) making the switch is simply the best choice for you.

 

Potential customers are able to connect with you in an instant with Instagram’s business account contact button. Potential customers can find your physical location within moments. (This also helps customers save time scouring your website for the information they need!)

 

But it’s not all sweet smelling roses. Here’s one aspect of Instagram’s new business accounts which could turn against you in the long-run…

 

 

Deal Breaker Problem with Instagram’s New Business Account?

To understand this problem well, we need to go back in time. Back to Facebook’s good old days!

 

Facebook pages used to be incredible tools for connecting with current and potential fans. Your posts would be sent out to followers and fans without a hitch. But then Facebook went into full profit hunger mode and reduced the amount of organic reach your posts would have.

 

Essentially, after the update, Facebook limited the amount of people who could see your posts.

 

Since then each Facebook page receive just 2% organic reach without purchasing extra post boosts.

 

So what has Instagram got to do with that?

 

Businesses and brands using Instagram for marketing and promotions are worried the same thing will happen with their Instagram Business accounts. Lower reach, less connection with followers and forced “pay to play” scenarios, is the possible outcome many brands are afraid of.

 

Now is this just a conspiracy? Could this happen? Well Facebook has done this before, and now owns Instagram. Would you put faith in their hands?

 

We’re attempting not to get ahead of ourselves or spread rumours.

 

Instagram has shown no signs of following Facebook’s path. However, there are millions of brands and businesses that are cautious of the switch for just this reason.

 

It’s no wonder questions like “Should I switch to Instagram’s Business profile” keep popping up from time to time. It seems as though we’re caught between two overpowering rocks!

 

On the one hand, Instagram could throttle our posts, demanding payment for the organic reach – which we worked for. On the other hand, these new business profiles might increase engagement, look more professional and benefit our work in the long-run.

 

Should you switch your common personal Instagram profile to one of the new business accounts?

 

Don’t make your mind up just yet!

 

We’ve considered only a few reasons so far, and now we’ve weighing them up even further.

 

 

To Switch or Not to Switch, That’s the Instagram Question

You might already be leaning one way or the other.

 

Transforming your profile might be the best choice but continuing with your personal account isn’t all that bad either. The deciding factor might be the extra Instagram business account features listed below.

 

Instagram’s Email Contact Button

Instagram’s email contact button isn’t valuable for all businesses.

 

Can you imagine waking up to hundreds of emails each morning? Whenever there’s a contact button, people with questions turn to that first before searching through website FAQs.

 

 

Instagram’s Phone Number Button

There’s also the option of having your phone number listed on your business profile.

 

This works out well whenever there’s someone on the other end equipped to handle customer calls.

 

For most online businesses and brands this feature is overkill. You often don’t need or have the resources to handle calls 24/7 and it’s possible to stretch yourself too thin.

 

Physical Address on Instagram

Well, this one’s quite simple. For physical retail businesses and brands, Instagram’s address button is perfect for helping customers get the information needed in a heartbeat. However, for most of us, you don’t need or want this feature.

 

Showing your followers and fans the address of your online business is useless, potentially dangerous and ineffective. Using this feature means inviting random people to pop up and knock on your front door. Weird right?

 

 

Instagram’s Back-end Analytics

Instagram’s analytics are great, but these can be found elsewhere on the internet, often free of charge.

 

Also, it seems that personal accounts have also been given access to these analytics, without switching to business. Because of this, we’re under the impression that all accounts, regardless of type will gain access to analytics sometime in the future.

 

Instagram Ads Business Accounts Vs Personal Profiles

Instagram adverts can be created within Facebook, without an Instagram business profile.

 

Boosting posts for potential fresh reach is possible without the new features. All that’s needed is to setup the advert within Facebook, there are thousands of tutorials online showing how this is done.

 

 

Our Conclusion

Overall, most online businesses won’t need the extra features these new accounts offer – And there are hundreds of other resources to set up and analyse Instagram analytics.

 

Work out what you need, and what you want from Instagram. Does the switch from personal account to business account make sense and fulfil those needs? If not, then the change might just waste your time, cause more fuss than is needed and come back to bite in the future.

 

Take some time, think on this for the next few days then make the decision.

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