One of the questions I get asked most frequently by business owners is whether or not to switch to a business account. While the reasons to have a business account are tempting, I’ve chosen to pass up on it (for now) on my Instagram account.
Here are the top three features I’m passing up by keeping my Insta account personal instead of business:
- Verified account- Sure it would be great to have the credibility of the coveted blue circle and white check mark but it’s not enough to make me make the switch…and I haven't been given the chance to actually get verified, so there's THAT 😉
- Analytics- This is a juicy temptation to see my account analytics within the app itself, but with third party apps like Planoly or Later, I can just as easily get similar information I want to review without having a business account. (Better yet, I can run a $5 ad on Instagram and get access to analytic information with ease…and that’s good for a month at least!)
- Swipe up feature- As AMAZING as this feature is, for the type of business I run, I don’t need to send followers to a lot of different places online at once. If I had a lot of different products I wanted to link to, or podcast episodes I wanted to link to, or lots of updates I wanted to link to, then the Swipe Up feature would be killer…but for my line of work, it's not as important (again, this a personal decision).
As a business owner providing services in a digital capacity, I don’t personally need to utilize the contact information either (another perk of a business account). Instead, I provide my email and a link to my freebie right in my bio.
The one thing that helps me resist the temptation of a business account is ORGANIC REACH. While all of the business features are helpful, it’s just not worth the expense of losing the organic reach my account has. This is entirely speculative as the algorithm specifics are on lock down, but I really think Instagram is going to treat business accounts the same way Facebook treats Business Pages.
In the future, I suspect organic reach will be limited unless you're willing to pay more.
As a personal account, it’s weighed differently in the algorithm and my posts are able to reach followers they otherwise wouldn’t…at least that's what I believe for now.
While you can switch between personal and business accounts, I can’t help but think that once it’s been marked as a business account, it will remain flagged as a business account. But a few friends have switched back and started seeing changes in their engagement.
I don’t have concrete proof but I have a sneaking suspicion that one of these days Insta is going to follow the Facebook model of pay-to-play for business accounts. So until they come up with an incentive that’s just too valuable to resist, I’m going to keep my account personal.
So if you’re on the fence, friend, I hope this has helped you decide how you want to proceed with your account.
There isn't a right or wrong way…just the best way for YOUR business. I wish you all the best!