5 Reasons to Switch to an Instagram Business Profile

Instagram Insights and Analytics

I’m definitely a data analytics guy, so this reason alone would be enough for me to switch my account to a business one. Having valuable insights about my followers at the click of a button? Count me in!

If you keep up with Momentum Digital’s Instagram page, you’d definitely see us stressing the importance of data to make more informed decision in regards to social media content. Whether it’s content type, hashtag use, demographics, consistency, or even posting times, having the right information at your fingertips can often be enough to push your pages’ engagement to the next tier.

Once you’ve switched to a business profile, you’re able to see data like impressions, engagement, and reach for individual posts, but the real value in this feature is when you check out the new “Insights” icon  at the top of your Instagram app for a more holistic overview of your account’s performance. Some of the metrics available to you include:

• Followers in the last 7 days
• Impressions per day in the last 7 days
• Follower gender split and age range
• Geographic locations of your followers
• Times of day your followers are active on Instagram*

These are all super important for growing your company’s Instagram account, but the most important insight in my opinion is the ability to see the days, and especially the time of day, that your followers are active on the app.

Everyone’s audience is different, so seeing that your followers are particularly active in the 1PM-2PM time slot might make you want to rethink that spontaneous 3AM post!

This is especially important if you’re a business trying to target local customers! Essentially what this feature adds to your account are possible contact options.

Business profiles have the option to add Email, Call, or Get Directions buttons right below their Instagram bio. These buttons open the user’s designated mail, dialer, and maps applications on his or her phone. No longer does a potential lead need to click the link in your bio and navigate your website to find key information about your business.

It’s all available to them at the click of a button which not only makes them more likely to click them, but also shortens the marketing funnel to get in contact with you. A definitive win-win!

Page Identity

This one is more important than a lot of people give credit for. You only have a few seconds to capture the attention of a person who stumbled upon your page. How do you do it? Let’s chat about the Identity of Your Instagram Business Profile.

There are more than 800,000,000 monthly active users on Instagram and the average person’s attention span shrinks every year. Immediately showing a user what your business is and what you do could be the difference of a new engaging follower or just another impression on your page.

Monthly active users on Instagram (Statista)

An Instagram Business profile, when linked to its accompanying Facebook page (required), will display its category under its username. This provides a lightning-quick snapshot of what your page is. Whether you’re a coffee shop, retail store, fashion brand, or blogger, any new viewer will know what you’re about and what to expect from your content below.

Hyperlinked Stories

We’ve been using this quite a bit here at Momentum, and I’ve found this to be an incredibly powerful tool with plenty of uses! Instagram Business Profiles with 10,000 or more followers have the ability to add a “Swipe Up” hyperlink at the bottom of any Instagram Story.

“So what’s the big deal” you may be asking.

Currently, the only real hyperlink an account can have is the link in the bio, but this new feature adds a whole new avenue to send your followers to different places on the web (e.g a specific page on your website).

Typically, it’s best practice to have your bio link point to our website’s homepage to showcase everything your company does, so the option to have Instagram Stories that send your followers exactly where you want them to is huge!

New blog post? Don’t just let ’em know; send ‘em there! Your cupcake shop launching a new flavor? Link the page to order. Interesting news article for your industry you think could bring value to your followers?

Still not convinced to give Instagram Stories a shot? Check out some of these statistics from MediaKix

This is another big one depending on your business and marketing objective. Some companies will run Instagram ads every day to reach new customers while others won’t look twice at the “Promote” at the top of their Instagram Business profile.

You select an existing post to boost and add a URL that you want your target Instagrammers to visit. Select one of 6 call-to-actions for the ad, create a targeted audience (or let Instagram automatically select one – not recommended!), pick your budget per day, and select the duration of your ad. It’s pretty similar to Facebook ads, which makes sense since Facebook owns Instagram.

You never know the results you could get with a promotion. It doesn’t hurt to throw a few bucks into it and see the return it brings you!

In March 2017, over 120 million Instagrammers visited a website, got directions, called, emailed, or direct messaged to learn about a business based on an Instagram ad (WordStream)

So there you have our top 5 reasons to switch to an Instagram Business Profile! I’m a huge proponent of the features offered by the switch and I use them nearly every day. Worry not, the switch to a Business Profile is not permanent, so there’s no reason not to give it a shot!