How to Create a Business Profile on Instagram

More than 80% of top brands in the world today have a social media presence and especially an Instagram account. Instagram has a very high engagement rate as compared to other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. With more than one billion registered users, and more than 500 million checking their accounts every month, it is vital that you have one for your business to tap into this massive market. While most individuals begin with a personal account, you would achieve more for your business if you upgrade an existing individual account into a business profile or create one from scratch. You will, without doubt, increase your Instagram post likes with a business account.

Most people do not know the dynamics and tricks of creating a business profile. Unlike a personal account, a business profile has provisions for extra features such as adding a phone number, your physical location, and your email address. It is vital that you know how to set up such an account and how you can maximize its potential.

Here is an easy method of how to create a business profile.

Log in to Your Personal Profile

You must first have a personal account to begin this process. If you do not have one, install the app first and create a personal account. The prompts to create a personal account are straight forward. Once you have your personal profile, go to settings.

Tap on 'switch to a business profile' link. This action will take you to another one requesting you to set up your business profile. Enter the required contact information and any other data required and tap on done. Now you have a business account, but you need to curate it to get followers.

Checking Features

If you want to see the features available to you on this new account, click on View features link. You will see the available features that you can use to optimize your account. These features are absent in your personal profile.

Connect to Facebook

You will also need to have a Facebook business page as a requirement to finish up setting up your Instagram business profile. You will see a link labeled ‘Connect to your Facebook Page’ you can click on it to make this connection. Instagram has enabled the app to get your information from your Facebook page. You can edit this information and only allow what you require on your Instagram business profile.

Managing the Contact Feature

The contact feature has two options; call and text. It is upon you, depending on the nature of your business to decide which of the two to use. If you are not always on for calls, you can opt to use the text feature so that your clients can send you quick short and personal messages. Either way, your profile visitors will still have your number and may proceed to call, so it’s up to you to decide whether to have it there.

When your profile bio is complete to your satisfaction, you can start posting content to build your page and draw followers. The first obvious followers should be those from your personal account and your existing clients if they have Instagram accounts.

Using Analytics

Instagram business profiles have analytics that shows you the performance of your posts. You will see how many people have liked your posts, and which particular group of your followers is engaging the most with your content. This information is useful for guiding you to know who to target and when to post content. You will also see the number of clicks your website has had from this feature.

There is another icon labeled ‘See More Link for Your Top Posts’. This link leads to each of your posts and shows the extent to which it has been liked, and the number of people engaged with the post. If you want to view specific information of a particular post, check out the links for engagement, reach or impressions.

To see your followers’ demographics in terms of location, range, age, and gender, go to the ‘See More Link for Your Followers' and click on it. This link also shows you when your followers are most active on Instagram to guide you on when to post your content.

There are other cool features that you will find on this profile. You will learn with time to customize your account to suit your needs.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.