How to Transform Your Personal Instagram into a Business Account

December 11, 2022

Author: Caroline Sweet, Marketing Strategist

Social media marketing is only becoming more and more essential to reach and engage with your brands target audience. Social media platforms, and specifically Instagram, are being used as professional platforms to promote products and services. When potential customers go onto your Instagram page, they want to see what your brand is all about and you want to make sure their first impression is memorable and professional. Turning your brands account from a personal and casual page to a professional business page is vital to customer retention and engagement. It can seem like a daunting task to create a professional page, but it can be done in just a few simple steps…

1) Make Your Account a “Business Account”:

Turning your account into a business account can be done in the Instagram profiles setting and it’s as easy as two clicks. Just go to settings, account, and then tap to switch your account to “Business”.  This will allow you to see account insights, use “Instagram Shop”, boost your posts, and overall give you more shortcuts to promote your business on the social media platform. You can take this one step further and connect a business Facebook page with your Instagram by clicking “connect a Facebook” and this will connect insights and boost content.

2) Understand Your Audience:

Social media runs on the attention and actions made by the users. By understanding the demographics you are trying to target, you will be able to better cater your Instagram posts to their interests. Your Instagram target audience should be almost synonymous with your target audience. If your target audience is college students, for example, you will want to make your posts youthful and eye-catching. Using hashtags to target your audience through keywords is also a way to reach the correct audience.

3) Engage with Your Followers:

Making posts and keeping followers updated is important but engaging with them is the key to keeping followers involved and interested. Answering comments and DMs reminds your followers that you care about them and are a reliable business. Having “giveaway contests” of products on your feed will get followers excited and will boost engagement. Engaging with followers can be beneficial for your brand as well because followers might comment or ask questions on things you had not thought of yet!

4) Make Your Profile Eye Catching:

At the top of your Instagram feed is your “Profile”. This is the first thing page visitors will see before they scroll through your posts. Depending on how the page visitors feel about your profile will determine if they continue to scroll through your page. By choosing a good profile photo, writing out an informative bio, and utilizing Instagram highlight reels, visitors will have a well-rounded idea of your business before they even dive into your feed. Make sure that your profile reflects your brand so page visitors know exactly what to expect from the rest of your page.

5) Make Visually Appealing Posts:

The nature of Instagram is that it is a visual form of social media, so making sure your posts look good is very important. Make sure all of the photos and videos posted are high quality, not blurry or chaotic. Not all posts need to be captured photos or videos either. Posts can be graphics as well which is a great option when wanting to share important information with customers!

6) Choose an Aesthetic:

You want your posts to tie together and the best way to do this is by choosing an overall aesthetic. This can be done by keeping a consistent color palette and using the same filters. There are “visual feed planners” that can be used to keep the visuals of your posts consistent and help keep your Instagram maintain a certain aesthetic. You want your aesthetic to match your brand or the “vibe” of your company. For example, if you are an outdoor-oriented brand, you will want your feed to be outdoorsy using greens and neutral colors and showing content made in nature.

7) Put Thoughts into Your Post Captions:

Don’t disregard the importance of captions. Captions are where you explain the reasoning behind making the post so it’s important that followers understand why they should care about this post. If you need assistance coming up with creative and informative captions, Jasper is a free AI program that uses keywords to write captions or descriptions in a variety of different tones. Captions are also where you want to include hashtags. Hashtags will help boost your post and help you reach a greater range of users.

8) Make Posts Consistently:

Social media moves at a fast pace so make sure you are keeping up. Don’t let your posts just fall into the seemingly never-ending Instagram feed, by scheduling out or using a post-scheduling application you can insure that your posts will always be near the top of all your follower’s feeds. Loomly  and Hootsuite are a couple of reliable content calendar programs. By making posts at a consistent rate and keeping your Instagram stories updated you will keep your following engaged and interested.