With a business Instagram account, you'll be able to access new business features and a useful tool called Instagram Insights, which allows you to monitor the performance of your content and collect data on your audience. It will also help you keep your personal account and your work account separate.
If you already have a personal Instagram account that you’re using for your business, it’s easy to convert it to a business account. Alternately, you can create a brand new business account.
Just follow the steps below to create or convert your account, and then optimize your profile for success.
Step 1: Create or switch to a business account
Start from scratch:
1. Download the Instagram app for iOS, Windows, or Android.
2. Open the app and tap Sign Up.
3. Enter your email address and tap Next.
4. Choose your username and password and fill in your profile information.
Note: choose your username wisely, as it’s what shows up in search results. You can use underscores and numbers in your username, but no special characters or spaces.
5. Tap Done.
You now have a personal Instagram account that’s ready to convert to a business account. Continue by following the steps below.
Switch your personal account to a business account:
1. Go to your profile and tap the three lines in the upper right corner.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Account.
4. Tap Switch to Professional Account.
5. Tap Business.
6. Add details, like your business category and contact information.
Note: see Step 2 below for more information on how to optimize your business profile.
7. Tap Done.
To make changes to your profile after setting up, go to your profile and tap “Edit Profile”.
To access multiple Instagram accounts (business or personal) from the same app, go to your profile, tap the username at the top, and select “Add Account”. This will allow you to easily switch between multiple accounts.
Step 2: Optimize your business account for success
Your Profile Pic
Many businesses use their logo as their profile photo. You can choose whatever photo you’d like, just be sure it’s representative of your brand. It will be cropped to a circle on the app, so double check that it displays correctly in this shape.
Category
This appears right under your business name and tells users what you do. To add or change your category, go to your business profile, tap “Edit Profile”, “Category”, then search and add your selected category.
Your Bio
You have 150 characters to tell visitors who you are, what you do, and why they should care. Use emojis to draw interest, include any hashtags you’d love your followers to use, and space it out to make it easier to read with line breaks.
Website
This is the only spot where you can post a clickable link on Instagram, so make it count! Lots of brands use this link to post their latest blog post, their website, or a web page they’re calling attention to for the week.
Your Contact Info
Include your phone number, email, or physical address so customers can reach you. When you add these to your profile, Instagram will automatically create buttons (“Call”, “Email”, or “Get Directions”) for your profile that correspond to each contact method.
Action Button
Adding an action button allows you to connect online resources to your account to make it easy for users to book an appointment, make reservations, buy tickets, and more. To add an action button, go to your business profile, tap “Edit Profile”, “Contact Options”, then “Add an Action Button”.
And there you have it. You’re ready to start posting and interacting with customers on your brand new Instagram business account! To learn more about optimizing your other business pages, check out the links below.
