It used to be simple: you just had to choose between an Instagram Business profile or a Personal profile. But now you have to choose between a Business, Creator, or Personal profile – so which is the right one for you? Creator profiles come with advanced features like Shopping from Creators, but lack other features that Business profiles
have like the ability to Auto Publish with Later. Find out which Instagram profile is the best for your brand, and learn how to easily make the switch:
Instagram Business, Creator, or Personal Profile?
Instagram Business, Creator, and Personal profiles each have their own unique features, strengths, and weaknesses.
The right option for you will depend on how you use Instagram.
Want to know more before you switch your account? Here’s everything you need to know:
Instagram Business Profile Features
Instagram Business profiles get access to a ton of advanced features, like advanced Instagram Insights, Instagram Shopping, and auto publishing.
Here are 10 of the top Instagram Business profile features for brands:
**#1: Instagram Insights
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Getting access to Instagram Insights is one of the biggest perks of switching from a Personal to a Business profile.
Instagram Insights provides a breakdown of your Instagram performance, including new followers, profile views, impressions, number of posts, reach, website clicks, and email clicks — all super valuable insights to aid your growth.
Plus, you can see detailed demographic data about your followers, such as gender, age, location, and activity peaks.
If you’re using a Business or Creator profile, you can view up to 3 months of Instagram Analytics in Later’s easy-to-use dashboard. Get started today!
**#2: Instagram Shopping & Checkout
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Another huge Business profile feature is the ability to tag products directly within an Instagram post.
This game-changing update means that business accounts can now share content with direct links to their product pages, making it super easy for users to click through, engage with products, and hit buy.
What’s more, Instagram is rolling out Instagram Checkout globally, which allows business profiles to sell their products entirely within Instagram.
Although this is currently limited to users in the United States, Instagram has confirmed plans to roll it out further in the coming months.
Want to find out more about how shopping on Instagram works? Check out our blog How to Make Money with Instagram Shoppable Posts.
**#3: Instagram Ads
**
Instagram uses the same powerful advertising tools as Facebook, so with an Instagram Business profile, you can set up, run, and track campaigns the same way you do with Facebook ads.
If you’re new to the world of Instagram Ads, check out this blog post for a step-by-step guide to running your own ad campaign on Instagram.
#4: Promoted Posts
Like Instagram ads, once you’ve set up a Business profile on Instagram, you can promote your posts from within the app. It’s a lot like boosting a post on your Facebook page.
Promoted posts are extremely easy to set up, making it a very low barrier to entry for running ad campaigns on Instagram. Hooray!
**#5: Contact Options & Action Button
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An Instagram Business account also allows for “Contact” buttons at the top of a profile.
This can include an email address, phone number, or location — and is a great way to encourage your followers to get in touch.
Similarly, Business accounts also have the option to add Action buttons, such as Order Food, Gift Cards, Book Now, or Reserve. These are perfect for small businesses looking to drive extra revenue opportunities through the app.
#6: Quick Replies
If you’re flooded with repetitive DMs, the Quick Replies feature will save you both time and effort.
Quick Replies allow you to create messages for your most frequently asked questions, so you can reply to users in full by writing just one shortcut word.
To create a quick reply, you’ll need to open your profile and tap the button with three lines in the top-right corner of the screen. This will open the sidebar menu where you can access your Instagram settings.
From here, tap the settings button and scroll down to Business Settings. Here you should see an option for Quick Replies.
Then tap the “+” button in the top-right corner to create a new quick reply.
Now when you want to use your quick reply, all you have to do is type the shortcut you created earlier in your response. This should cause a blue Quick Replies button to appear in the message box.
When you tap that button, the message you wrote earlier as your quick reply will automatically appear making it super-quick and easy to reply!
Looking for more time-saving tips? Check out these 10 Hacks to Save Time on Instagram!
**#7: Branded Content Approval
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As a business account holder, you can restrict who can tag you as a branded content partner in their posts. This is a useful feature that will prevent Instagram users from falsely listing your brand as endorsing their profile.
To set branded content approvals, open your profile and tap the button with three lines in the top-right corner of the screen. This will open the sidebar menu where you can access your Instagram settings.
From here, tap the settings button and scroll down to Business Settings. Here you should see an option for Branded content.
You can use the toggle button to switch on “Require Approvals”. You can also create a list of “Approved Accounts”, who can tag your account in their content without your approval.
**#8: Links on Instagram Stories
**
If you have over 10K followers on Instagram, you can add links to your Instagram Stories with an Instagram Business profile.
This allows you to direct your followers straight from your story content to whatever landing page you choose — all within the Instagram browser — creating a direct route for sales and brand engagement!
**#9: Inbox Management
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Originally an exclusive Creator profile feature, Business profiles now also benefit from advanced inbox filtering.
With more DM filtering options, Business profiles can filter messages into 3 categories:
Requests
General
Primary
This is a great way to sort your DMs based on priority, which can be a huge help when sorting through an influx of messages.
**#10: Auto Publish to Instagram with Later
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Want to publish to Instagram without even opening the app? Well, if you have an Instagram Business profile, you can!
With Later you can plan photo or video posts in advance and schedule them to go live at a certain date and time. No push notifications required.
Later does the rest — you don’t need to worry about push notification or opening the Instagram app at all after that once you’ve scheduled a post.
Auto Publishing with Later is a huge benefit of having an Instagram Business account.
Not only will it help you plan your feed and save you time, but it also allows you to publish your posts when your audience is most active — which means more engagement on your posts!
Set up Auto Publish with Later today — it’s free. All you need is an Instagram Business account to get started!
Instagram Creator Profile
Although the Creator profile shares many of the same features as the Instagram Business profile listed above, there are a few key differences, such as access to Shopping from Creators.
However, there are some downsides to making the switch to a Creator profile. For example, Instagram Creator profiles aren’t yet compatible with some Later features, such as Auto Publish.
Creators can use Later’s Best Time to Post, Collect, Conversations, and Analytics features.
Here’s a round-up of exclusive Creator profile features:
**#1: Shopping From Creators
**
Another unique Instagram Creator account feature is the ability to tag products from brands directly in your Instagram posts. This allows your followers to easily shop your posts without ever leaving Instagram.
Until the launch of Creator profiles, shoppable posts were only available to retailers driving sales from their accounts. Now, creators can tag brand products and make sales directly from their own accounts, making a completely streamlined and seamless approach to shopping on Instagram!
NOTE: This feature is still being rolled out and may not be available to all Creator accounts at this time.
Not sure whether you should switch to a Creator Account? Check out our blog post for everything you need to know about making the switch!
**#2: Access to the Creator Studio Dashboard
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In addition to the same analytics available on an Instagram Business profile, Creator profiles also get access to the Instagram Creator Studio dashboard.
Designed with influencers in mind, it’s packed with insights to help track follower growth, which is really useful for creators to easily see what content is resonating (or isn’t) with your followers!
Plus, it has insights on when your followers are online, growth metrics, and new discovery data. As well as the reach and performance of our posts, stories and IGTV videos.
DID YOU KNOW: You can still use Later’s Analytics with a Creator profile! Access up to 3-months worth of data in an easy-to-use dashboard today!
**#3: Extra Creator Profile Labels
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Much like with an Instagram Business account, Creators can categorize their profile label by choosing from hundreds of options — ranging from Athlete to Blogger.
This means you can go as niche as you need for your personal brand.
Personal Instagram Profile Features:
While Business and Creator profiles offer a number of advanced features, such as analytics and ads, Personal profiles are way more simple.
That being said, there are two features that are exclusive to Personal profiles:
**#1: Private Account
**
It might not be the most exciting feature, but while Business and Creator accounts can’t be set to private, Personal accounts can.
Although it’s not the most obvious route to gain more followers, some large meme accounts have been known to switch their accounts to private in order to grow their followers count.
The idea here is that by making your account private, when one of your followers sends a post to their friends, that person has to follow you in order to see it.
Obviously, this only works if you regularly share viral, shareable content and your aim is specifically to increase your follower count. If your goal is to increase wider awareness of your business, going private might not be the best option for you.
**#2: Linking to Multiple Facebook Pages
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A second feature that’s exclusive to personal profiles is the ability to connect multiple Facebook pages. That’s right, while Instagram Business and Creator profiles can only link to one Facebook profile, with a Personal profile you can link to as many Facebook pages as you like.
This is a useful benefit for brands who have multiple Facebook pages for different divisions of their overall brand — such as regional stores or a new product line.
The Winner? It Depends On Your Goals!
There are unique advantages and disadvantages to each Instagram profile, and it ultimately depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your account.
If you want to optimize for brand marketing and auto publish posts, unlocking the advanced features of a Business account could be the best route for you.
But if you’re an influencer who regularly promotes brand products, switching to a Creator profile could make more sense.
And if you’re looking for a fuss-free profile with limited frills, a Personal profile might be best.
How to Switch to an Instagram Business Profile or Creator Profile:
Now that you’re up-to-speed on the benefits of Instagram Business and Creator profiles, you can make the switch that’s right for you.
Here’s how:
How to Switch to an Instagram Creator Profile:
If you’re thinking of moving to a Creator profile, the first thing you need to do is check if Instagram has made the feature available to you:
Open your profile and tap the button with three lines in the top-right corner of the screen.
Select “Settings” and then “Account”
If you see the option to “Switch to Creator Account”, congratulations you can easily make the move over!
How to Switch to an Instagram Business Profile:
Open your profile and tap the button with three lines in the top-right corner of the screen.
Select “Settings” and then “Account”:
Tap “Switch to Business Profile.”
Select the Facebook page that you’d like to connect to your Instagram Business account. If you don’t see your business’ Facebook page as an option, make sure that you’re listed as an admin in the settings menu. Once the correct Facebook page appears, select it and tap “Next.”
Make sure your profile is set to public. Private accounts can’t switch to Business accounts.
On the “Set Up Your Business Profile” page, review your business’s contact information, including your phone number, physical address, and email. Once everything looks good, tap “Done” to save your Instagram Business account settings.
Hopefully, you’ll know now which profile is right for you, and if you’ve decided to make the move to a Business profile, you can automatically publish your posts with Later.
By scheduling your content when your audience is most likely to be online, you’ll see an engagement boost as you’re targeting your audience when they are most active.
Plus, with all the other added perks that come with a Business profile, you’ll soon see your account grow.
Ready to level-up your Instagram strategy? Start planning and scheduling your posts with Later today!