What are the different types of Instagram accounts?
A Digital 2024 July Global Statshot Report by DataReportal shows that Instagram is the most preferred social media platform by users above 16 years. Instagram has become a crucial marketing tool for personal brands and established businesses. But before you go ahead and sign up, what types of Instagram accounts are there? Which is ideal for you?
This blog post gives you a detailed breakdown of each type of account and its ideal users. Let's get the ball rolling!
Part 1. Types of Instagram Accounts
Instagram has 3 primary account types:
- Personal Accounts: A profile that allows individuals to share photos, videos, and stories with family members and friends.
- Creator Account: These are accounts with specialized features to help influencers and public figures manage their brands.
- Business Account: As the name suggests, these accounts have advanced functionalities for companies and organizations to manage their interactions with a broad audience.
Here is a brief comparison of the 3 types of Instagram accounts.
| Feature | Personal | Creator | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ideal for | Individuals | Influencers, content creators & public figures | Businesses |
| Private Setting |  |  | |
| Analytics | | | |
| API Access | | | |
| Content Scheduling | | | |
| Contact Button | | | |
| Third-party Analytics | | | |
| Creator Studio | | | |
| Swipe Up | | | |
| Gift Card | | | |
| Meta Verified | | | |
After highlighting the differences and similarities in features, we go deeper to help you choose the most suitable profile. Whether you are a business owner, public figure, influencer, or individual, you'll discover which account best aligns with your goals. This is essential in maximizing engagement, visibility, and overall success on the platform.
1Personal Account
Instagram has over 2 billion active users monthly, most being personal account users. These profiles allow individuals to share interests, daily activities, and experiences with friends and family. The simplicity of signing up for personal accounts makes it an ideal starting point to learn the ropes of the social media platform.
Through a personal account, you can post images, text, stories, and videos. You can upload a maximum of 10 photos or videos in a post using an individual profile. Personal accounts are ideal for anyone looking to interact closely with their followers.
You can set your account as public or private. Private accounts allow you to control your audience and approve followers. This setting is ideal if you want to create an intimate interaction with your audience and maintain your privacy on Instagram.
Unlike other types of Instagram accounts, personal profiles don't provide professional tools to evaluate performance or schedule your posts. However, they have enough features to give you a typical social media experience at no cost.
In early 2023, Meta introduced a paid subscription service, which allows users to verify their accounts. Meta Verified is available for personal account users for $11.99 on the website and $14.99 in the app. Subscribing to this service gives your account the blue badge for more credibility and features.
2Creator Account
Ideal for public figures, influencers, and content creators, this Instagram account has the necessary features to manage a large audience. Access to Instagram Analytics gives you essential metrics to monitor account growth, audience behavior, demographics, and content performance.
The message segmentation feature comes in handy when managing interactions with your audience. You can use the functionality to group the messages into "Primary", "General", and "Requests". Apart from that, the accounts have access to Creator Studio, an essential platform to manage your content and monetization.
Because creator account users have no access to Instagram API, they can't integrate third-party automation tools. This limits the scope of advanced features like scheduling and analytics compared to business accounts.
However, creator accounts have full access to the music library for Reels and Stories. So, this account is ideal for artists, education institutions, course creators, athletes, coaches, and musicians who want a vast music library, including their catalog.
Creatives can monetize their accounts through the gifts feature. This function allows followers to purchase stars to reward the account owners. You can also set up a monthly subscription for your community, which will help you earn a regular income from Instagram.
3Business Account
Business accounts are designed to help entrepreneurs sell products, market services, schedule content, run ad campaigns, and track business performance. Through the professional dashboard, you can view, filter, and analyze key metrics such as audience demographics, content performance, and engagement trends.
Although Instagram Insight doesn't allow users to download or share data, access to API means you can integrate third-party tools. Integration is also essential in getting insights beyond the 90 days that Instagram allows.
Another handy tool for businesses is the Instagram Shop. This feature allows sellers to list products or services for customers to browse. They can also view the items you have shared on your Reels and Stories, which increases conversions. The Ad Manager lets you set up more advanced advertising campaigns to complement organic growth.
The action button helps business owners add a link that leads potential customers to reserve, order, or book appointments. The same feature also comes with an option to include contact information and directions.
Instagram business accounts allow users to schedule content by setting a date and time. However, this feature only allows you to plan for a maximum of 28 days. The good thing is that you can connect a Facebook page and an Instagram account for cross-posting. This means you can manage all your posts from a single platform, reducing your workload and saving time.
Part 2. How to Change Instagram Account Type?
Considering the various types of Instagram accounts, you might want to shift from a personal to a professional profile. Here is a step-by-step guide to help you with the transition to a business or creator profile:
- Step 1.Tap your profile image on the bottom left (website) or bottom right (app). Click the settings icon on the top right of your profile.
- Step 2.Select the "Settings and privacy" option from the menu. Scroll down using the navigation bar and click "Account type and tools", tap the "Switch to professional account" option.
- Step 3.Choose a creator or business account, depending on the goal you want to achieve. Creator account is ideal for content creators, public figures, influencers, and artists. If you have a retail shop or offer services, go for a business profile.
- Step 4.Click "Next" to get a detailed description of your selected account. Tap "Next" to choose the category of your business or creative industry.
- Step 5.Lastly, click "Done" to initiate the change. After the last step, you will be redirected to new features that you can use for your profile.
Part 3. How to Deploy a Bot on Instagram?
Have you ever thought about setting up a bot on Instagram that can reply to direct messages 24/7? Unfortunately, regardless of the type of Instagram account, the platform does not currently offer this service option.
But don't worry, we can use some free AI chatbot building tools to set up a bot on Instagram, allowing you to seamlessly reply to messages even when you're not online.
ChatInsight is a highly recommended AI chatbot tool. With it, you can create an AI chatbot in just a few minutes without writing any code, and deploy it on Instagram, Facebook, and other personal social media and websites.
Unlike other AI models that provide broad responses, ChatInsight offers customized services. You simply provide the relevant documents, and it generates precise, human-like replies based on your content, rather than generic answers. Additionally, it can automatically recognize over 60 languages, making it easy to handle messages in various languages.
Currently, ChatInsight offers a free and fully functional version that allows you to create up to 5 bots for free. Give it a try!
Conclusion
Understanding the different types of Instagram accounts helps you know the most suitable to meet your goals. Whether you choose a personal or professional account, it is essential to ensure you create relevant content. You can also use AI tools like ChatInsight to improve follower engagement.
Hot FAQs about Types of Instagram Accounts
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