The Pros and Cons of Instagram Business Profile: What You Should Know Before Switching

Over the past two years, Instagram Business Profiles have become more common, in fact, there are over 25 million business profiles connected at this very moment. However, many small brands are still unsure about how the algorithm can affect their Instagram growth.

An Instagram business profile is a type of account that makes it easy for people to recognize your Instagram feed as a business. Instagram business profile includes features like adding your business contact information, insights about your posts and followers as well as the ability to promote posts and stories within the app.

When switching from a personal profile to a business profile it’s best to know the benefits and the disadvantages you’ll face when you switch. As for the benefits, here are the top 4 advantages of a business profile.

THE PROS

Instagram Insights
Instagram insights is a great way for you to get real-time metrics on how your followers interact with your post and stories. In addition, Instagram insights also allow you to know the demographics of your followers. You’ll receive insight into their gender, age range, locations and online times (hours and days). This is great for small business or any businesses who are trying to figure out who their audience is. Instagram insights provide your business with a starting point for creating your buyer personas.

Promoted Post and Stories
Instagram offers five promoted post formats: photos, videos, carousels, canvas Story ads, and Story ads. All are seamlessly incorporated into Feeds and Stories for smooth user experience. As I mentioned, Instagram insights allow you to know who your audience is making extremely easy for you to promote your brand to your lookalike audience. This gives you the ability to target an audience with similar interests and behaviors as those of your existing customers or competitors. In addition, with promoted posts, you’re able to add a call to action (CTA) allowing your audience to be redirected to your landing pages.

Story Links Function
Ever see Instagram stories with the swipe up features? For those who have Instagram Business Profiles with 10k+ followers, they are able to direct their audience to various links with the Story Link function. Whether it’s products, event tickets, or websites – this feature is great for brands on Instagram to grow traffic to their site easily.

Contact Information

Another advantage to having an Instagram Business Profile is the ability to add contact buttons directly onto your profile page. By adding your email, phone number, and location you provide your audience with an easy way to contact you. This is extremely important for any brand that wants to grow their website traffic, leads, sales, and more.

While there are lots of benefits with Instagram business profiles there are also some disadvantages that are worth looking into. Here are my top two major disadvantages of having an Instagram business profile.

THE CONS

Less Visibility
Social media was originally made to connect friends and family, therefore, they prioritize updates from friends and family over businesses leaving you with less engagement. Therefore, as a business profile, you’re most likely to get less visibility to compare to a personal account.

Less Organic Reach
Like Facebook, Instagram generates a large amount their revenue from promoted post and stories. When switching to a business profile you signify to Instagram that you are a business which is Instagram target market for promoted posts. Also, this means that Instagram also reduces growth and engagement for business accounts to increase the likelihood of paid advertising.

Takeaway

Instagram Business Profile definitely has more benefits than disadvantages. What’s right you really comes down to what features you’re looking for – if you’re a brand on Instagram it definitely seems like the right move because of the many benefits and insights. If you’re an influencer and believe that the insight is beneficial than that’s great. If you to a business profile and find that it is not for you, the best part is that it’s free and you can always switch back to your personal account!