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Instagram for Business:
A Step-By-Step Guide to Set Up Your Account (with screenshots)

This article will teach you how to set up Instagram for business.

Between Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube and the myriad of other social media sites, the challenge is knowing whether or not you actually need it...

If you answer yes to any of the questions below, you should probably consider using Instagram as part of your overall Social Media Strategy.

  • Are visuals an important factor in selling your product?
  • Do your customers shop for your products or services through Instagram?
  • Can you educate your customers through short easy-to-consume videos?
  • Does your brand have a fun personality, and enjoy a meme or two?

Here's why Instagram is important

According to Facebook, 83% of users say that Instagram helps them discover new products or services, and 80% of them say that Instagram helps them decide whether to buy a product or service.

If that’s not enough to convince you, check out these stats from Oberlo.

If you’re particularly handy with a camera (yes, these days a phone counts as a camera!), here’s how you can put your photographic nouse to good use, and promote your business on another great - free - tool.

Here's what you'll need:

A SMARTPHONE

Listen, we’re probably at a time now where we can stop referring to phones as ‘smart’, right? Any phone worth owning will let you download and use social media apps.

THE INSTAGRAM APP

Instagram is a little different to Facebook in that it will only let you share posts from mobile - you can still log in and view accounts on a desktop
 but that’s about it.

CONTENTS

STEP 1:

Prepare your logo for Instagram

STEP 2:

Register your business account

STEP 3:

Set your account to professional

You can do this via email, AirDrop, or by saving it from an online service like DropBox or Google Drive.

Instagram have made the registration process very simple - but the thing that can get tricky, if you’re new to this, is making sure that you’ve got all the files you need on your phone, when you need them.

If you haven’t already, check out this quick tip on how to format logos for social media.

No... you don't need to be a graphic designer to do this! It's super simple.

STEP TWO:

Register your Instagram Account

For the purposes of this article, let’s assume that you already have your own account (because let’s face it, most of us do). 

This is important because there are actually two ways that you can set up an account - 

Open the app on your phone and navigate to your account select the down arrow next to your name then click on ‘Add Account’ at the bottom of the page.

This will start a bunch of prompts to create your account. 

It might take a few goes to find the right name for your account - don’t worry you can edit this later.

This process will step you through a couple of other things, like asking for your Date of Birth and email address.

Now, Instagram have hot policies on the age of people who use the platform, but they're okay with whatever date you choose to put for your business - they even recommend using your own...or your pets birthday.

Add the logo that you sent to your phone earlier, and then choose to either save or skip saving your login information.

If you choose to skip, make sure you remember the login information you’ve used.

Et Voila

You have just created an Instagram account for your business
 Just one more step to go.

STEP THREE:

Set Your Account to Professional

New Instagram accounts are personal accounts by default.

There are a couple of differences between a person and a professional account.

The major difference between an Instagram Business Profile and a personal account is access to features like Instagram Insights, contact information, Instagram Ads and more.

Think of an Instagram Business Profile as a “beefed up” version of a personal profile.

Sure, you technically could manage your brand’s Instagram account with a personal profile, but why limit yourself when you can switch to a business profile in a matter of seconds, and get so much more?

Brands used to rely on tactics like packing bio with contact information or make assumptions about who’s their target audience.

When you switch to a business profile, that’s all taken care of.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to actually make the change!

In the sandwich menu (the three lines in the top right corner of your screen) and select ‘Settings’ and choose which page type you’d like.

Unless you’re an influencer, politician or an artist, you’ll probably want to choose ‘Business’.

One of the best things you can do with your new Instagram Business account is to link it into your Facebook Business Page.

This will let you cross-post meaning that you can share posts across both platforms at the same time
 a massive time saver for a busy business owner!

NOTE: You may be prompted to log in to your Facebook account if you don’t already have the Facebook app loaded and logged in on your phone.

Choose your business page, review your contact information and select ‘Done’.

Now you're all set up, let us know how you're going!

There's no denying that Instagram can be a powerful business tool, when it's used right.

We'd love to hear from you! Let us know what tips and tricks you've picked up to help drive business and win customers over on Instagram!

Feel free to send over any questions you have about how to tell your brand story social media too.