A business profile on Instagram for an account allows you to see extended statistics on publications and stories, launch advertising campaigns directly from the application, add addresses and buttons for booking. Learn how to switch a page to business and why you don’t have to create a Facebook account in this guide.

Business profile features on Instagram

A business profile isn’t just useful for stores, restaurants, or bloggers. Thanks to advanced statistics, you can learn more about the effectiveness of posts, and to launch advertising campaigns you do not need to switch to Ads Maaeger – promotions will be available immediately from the mobile application. This is useful for anyone who keeps track of their Instagram content statistics. Let’s analyze in detail what will change in the account after switching to the “business” or “author” profile.

From the visual side, after switching, the following buttons on the author’s or business account will become available to subscribers:

• write (translates into direct),
• contacts (shows phone number and email),
• make an order (active button if online service is connected).

For the author himself or the business, a whole range of new functions opens up:

Extended post statistics… In the business profile, you can view the statistics of each post – the button appears in the view mode. By clicking on it, data on the number of likes, comments, reposts to direct and post saves are available. You can also see the number of interactions with the post, find out the coverage and sources (from the profile, by hashtags, by geolocation.

Account statistics… In the professional, the “Statistics” button is available (it can also be found in the settings), which shows the profile statistics for the week: the number of accounts covered, the total number of interactions with all content, growth and audience characteristics (age, gender, geo). You can also view in detail the statistics for all stories and posts published over the past period.

Launch of promotions… With a linked Facebook profile, you can launch advertising campaigns directly from the mobile application. You can only advertise a post released in the feed – the corresponding button will appear next to the “View statistics” button. Here you can select an audience and set up a budget. Payment – from a linked card. Read more about working and setting up promotions in our article: How to target ads on Instagram

Setting up quick replies… These are ready-made templates for answers to popular questions, which can be used in the directive. Instead of typing the same thing over and over, or copying out of the box drafts from your phone, you can save answers to frequently asked questions in the Instagram mobile app. For example, information about product delivery, cost, or store location. An answer and a short tag are prescribed in the settings – just enter a short text in the messages and the “insert template” icon will appear.

Specifying a minimum age to view content… Suitable for alcoholic, tobacco and other areas of activity that are not intended for minors. In the settings, you can set the default minimum age for all countries or select for individual ones (for example, for Russia – 18 years old, for the USA – 21 years old). After setting the age, posts and stories will only be shown to people who fall under that age.

Instagram Shopping… The feature, unfortunately, is still not available in Russia. Thanks to it, you can sell and tag products in posts, and users can pay for purchases without leaving Instagram.

See also: How to upload videos to Instagram from a computer

How to convert a personal account to an Instagram business profile without linking to Facebook

Step-by-step algorithm for switching to a professional profile on Instagram:

1. Go to the Instagram mobile application and click the “Edit Profile” button.
2. In the window that opens, select “Switch to a professional account”.

3. We select a category that corresponds to a business or type of activity (you can later hide it in your profile).
4. We indicate the type of activity: author or business.

Important: the choice of the type of activity affects the future available active buttons in the profile. A business account can connect CRM services for ordering. For example, Delivery Club and Yandex.Food. There are no active buttons in the personal profile.

5. We check contact information: mail, phone number, city.
6. We skip linking the linking of the Facebook profile.
7. Done: now you can view extended statistics on your Instagram account,
   launch promotions, indicate phone number and address.

Important: promotions, i.e. launching targeted advertising via the Instagram mobile app, are also available without linking to a Facebook page.

How to create an Instagram business page and link a Facebook profile

Algorithm of actions for linking a Facebook profile to Instagram:

1. Make sure you are the admin of the Facebook business page (Group Settings-Page Roles) or create a new one using the Facebook Create button.

2. Go to the Instagram application and click on “Edit Profile”.
3. Click Page and choose Create Facebook Page, Anchor Existing Page, or Edit or Create Page.
4. Log into Facebook using your username and password.

5. In the list that opens, select the Facebook page in which you are an administrator and which you want to link to your profile.
6. Done: Facebook and Instagram are now linked. You can run advertising campaigns through the Facebook Ads Manager for your Instagram account and freely transfer information between social networks (for example, publish posts to two social networks at once).

Also Read: How It Works: Instagram Hashtags 2020

How to change the category of the current account

Algorithm of actions for changing the category of a professional Instagram account:

1. We go to the mobile application Instagram.
2. Go to your personal profile.
3. Click “Edit Profile”.
4. We select the “Category” section.
5. We select the desired account profile.
6. Click on the checkmark and exit.

Note: if the page is not linked to Facebook, then it will not be possible to change the status of “personal author” to “store” or “business”. Also, you cannot link multiple Instagram accounts to one Facebook account.

Setting up and editing a business account

The following settings are available in the business profile: selection of the linking page on Facebook, account category, method of communication, action buttons and display of profile information. Let’s examine each in more detail.

Profile page. The user can change the page linked to Instagram – connect a new one or create it from scratch. When linking, contact information (for example, date of birth) and Facebook avatars are usually pulled.

Category… Allows you to change the category of the business profile – this is the field of activity that is indicated under the name of the account in its profile. There are a lot of options, the sample depends on the specified field of activity. For example, for the initially selected profile, “author” is available: blogger, web designer, gamer, graphic designer, designer, journalist. For “business”: real estate, law, restaurant, local services. You can find the desired area through the search bar.

To switch back to the author account you need:

1. Go to profile settings in the Instagram mobile app.
2. Select “Account”.
3. Select “Switch to personal account” at the end of the list.
4. If you need to go back to “business” – repeat the algorithm and select “business profile”.

Communication methods… It is necessary that future customers can conveniently contact the author of the account and place an order. The email, phone number and address (profile geolocation) are indicated here. Also, this information can be displayed on the Facebook page (to do this, you need to switch the plate).

Action buttons… After combining with online services, special buttons “Order food”, “Book” or “Reserve” will appear in the profile. This allows the services to be linked together. Services such as Yandex.Eda, Delevery Club, MyTime, BookSay, Tock and others are now available for connection.

Show in profile… You can choose what to show on your profile and what not. You can hide the account category (author, restaurant, businessman) and contact information (phone, mail, address).

Read Also: Guide to Instagram Post Formats

Conclusion

A few years ago, a business profile on Instagram was useful mainly for shops and restaurants, but now it is advanced functionality that will be useful to both a novice blogger and an experienced professional. Thanks to the ability to view the statistics of posts and the entire account as a whole, you can competently build a promotion strategy and see what content comes in and what doesn’t. It’s a pity that Instagram does not have a post scheduling function, but this is our SMMplanner service – it will help you plan the release of posts and stories a month or even a year in advance.