Instagram Creator Accounts: What Are They and Should You Use Them?

Wait, another upgraded Instagram feature…Again?

Yes!

Now before you get frustrated with another thing to adapt and change on your profile, hold off as you might not need to change anything! (depending on your industry). If you have heard about Instagram’s new “Instagram Creators” accounts you might be wondering what it all entails.

Heck, you might even be wondering how this applies to you and your brand!

Well, in short, Instagram Creator Accounts are being tried by Instagram to enhance community connection. So, if you want to learn about what this account upgrade is all about and if it is for you then read this article.

Below we will discuss Instagram Creator Accounts in their entirety and how you can possibly use them in your social marketing once fully launched.

What are Instagram Creator Accounts and Who are They For?

As Instagram has evolved from personal accounts to business accounts—allowing brands to get more access to tools like analytics, CTA buttons, and direct message features—the platform has found a need for more detail and authentic connection with audiences.

Many bigger brands and influencers have an increased interest and need for more insights on their targeted audience, so the result?

Instagram Creator Accounts!

Instagram Creator Accounts are currently limited to accounts with a connected Facebook business page and over 10,000 followers. As the new features are being tested, and hopefully released to the masses in 2019, they are said to include features like the main ones below:

Flexible Profile Controls

On Instagram business profiles, you’re assigned a category on your profile based on the category label from the connected Facebook page. Instagram Creator Accounts, on the flip side, have the option to choose a new category!

You’ll notice most of these categories better align with personal brands and influencers than business categories (Pro tip: Choose the category that best fits your business and what your audience recognizes you for).

Simplified Messaging

A big feature Instagram Creator Accounts give to users are new tabs in the Instagram direct message inbox. Business profiles have one main inbox and have the requests tab for potential “trash” messages that come in. With Creator Accounts, you have primary and general tabs, in addition to the requests tab.

The reason for this direct message inbox breakdown is to better segment the messages that matter most to your business. You can easily move individual messages between inbox options—from Primary to General or vice versa.

More Analytics Tools

Instagram Creator Accounts allow users to have higher analytics tools to increase promotion performance. Does this give us insight at a future where organic reach is completely destroyed by the new Instagram algorithms to come?

Possibly…

Regardless of what this means for organic, these tools offer businesses more insights and information about audience growth or the lack thereof. They’re meant to give influencers and brands more details about how or why their audience has shifted in engagement and therefore allow marketing changes to happen.

Creator accounts provide more details on daily growth and loss. Cool, eh? This new information breakdown will help you determine which content contributed to content wins or losses.

Desktop Access to Analytics With Creator Studio

Switching to an Instagram Creator Account gives you access to Creator Studio for desktop use which is not typically something Instagram has offered before. This is tied directly to Creator Studio for Facebook that recently rolled out. You can find out how to access and set up your Creator Studio here.

Creator Studio acts as a desktop dashboard management tool to view all of your Instagram content and insights.

 Create Shoppable Posts with Brand Partners

Lastly, one of the biggest incentives for brands and influencers to switch to an Instagram Creator Account is the opportunity to create shoppable posts with the brands they love.

Today, creators tag the brands they are wearing, add details in the caption and respond to countless comments and DMs. With the ability to tag exactly what they’re wearing, creators can get back to expressing themselves and sharing what’s on their mind, which will make their followers happy too

With tools like this, Instagram just became an incredible marketing tool for marketers and influencers alike!

Instagram Creator Accounts Benefits

Instagram is definitely known to be a powerhouse option for marketers in the B2C and influencer space, no question.

What’s crazy is that the success of Instagram is projected to grow which means that tracking, promotion and creative will be ever so important to businesses who are wanting to thrive.

As Instagram is trying to compete heavily with Facebook and other platforms in attracting popular Internet influencers, testing Creator Accounts to better empower creators to keep track of trends in their content and provide a more customized experience is key to social domination.

In short, I believe Instagram is wanting to position itself as the premier content creator in the social sphere. Aside from Instagram’s goal to take over the world, below are some of the reasons why Instagram Creator Accounts might matter to your business and or brand:

Organic Reach is Dying Rapidly So How Will You Adapt Strategy?

Instagram Creator Accounts appear to be the next step in Instagram’s long term game in killing off organic reach. Instagram’s first move to kill organic reach: paid partnership tag.

The tool helps creators disclose when a post is sponsored and also allow businesses to gather insights about how their sponsored content campaigns performed.

Generally speaking, the reality is that using the paid partnership tag lead to lower engagement rates across the board. In fact, there are tons of negative studies and variances that show that using any marker like #ad #spon on paid-for content drastically hurts performance.

The #ad mark also has the lowest negative impact on engagement rate.

Woof!

So, as a brand, this account switch gives you insight into how you will adapt your Instagram strategy when organic reach is killed off.

Adapt or die my friends!

Content Quality, Is It What You Are “Putting Down?”

Now, on the flipside, death to organic reach does not have to be the only thing we can learn from these new account rollouts. There is a positive side to Instagram Creator Accounts which is how it affects content creation.

With better analytics comes better content to be created!

Yes, many Instagram influencers have noticed falling engagement rates on their content over the last 12 months but its because the content delivered on Instagram sponsored content is “not so great” and too frequent on user’s feeds.

If you want to succeed, use your analytics to create content people engage with.

Failing to deliver higher-quality sponsored content will ruin your business so this new type of analytics can be a great help in creating meaningful content. If Instagram Creator Accounts can improve content, then the change is probably a good thing for not only content performance but audience enjoyment!

Instagram Creator Account Downsides

It is very clear there are certain benefits to switching over to Instagram Creator accounts but there are definitely snags you should be aware of before you hop in.

One of the first and most basic downsides to Instagram Creator Accounts is like Instagram, you cannot post content through the Creator Studio Desktop platform. Although it helps you see and manage a lot more than typically Instagram does, it still will not allow you to work in that platform space.

Another big snag you will see is that there are no API connection for third-party tools. The Instagram API only supports business profiles for third-party tools.

This means saying goodbye to all of your apps in regards to scheduling tools like buffer!

By switching to a creator account, you’ll lose that connectivity and no longer be able to rely on a scheduling tool, auto-publishing, or content creation dashboard to post your content for you! Blah!

How to Set Up an Instagram Creator Account

To switch your personal account or Business profile to a Creator Account:

1. Go to your “Account” and click the three stacked bars icon on the top right corner of your Instagram profile account home page
2. Select the “Settings” wheel icon at the bottom of the sliding option bar
3. Select “Account” which is the 9th option on the settings option listing
   • If you are migrating from a personal account, choose “Get More Tools”
   • If you are migrating from a Business profile, choose “Switch to Creator Account”
     

1. Select your category, one that best fits your brand and business
2. If desired, connect to your Facebook Page
   • If you have a Facebook Page you would like to link to your account, select it from the list that appears.
   • If you do not want to link a Facebook Page, select “Skip.”
3. Review your contact information. At least one form of contact information is required. You’ll have the option to display or hide this option
4. Chose your profile display options. You can decide whether to hide or display your category and contact information on your account

Conclusion: Is the Switch Worth It?

Well, is switching to an Instagram Creator Account worth it to most businesses?

In my opinion, probably not at this point as this is a new interface and you are:

• Limited to the switch if you are a smaller account with less than 10,000 followers
• Losing the value of posting and third-party apps that help run your business

If you are a brand or business not relying on scheduling tools or third-party apps to track metrics, social listening and posting schedules, I say this might be a good fit but most businesses are not in a place to see that value compromised.

Instagram is a platform constantly evolving for the heavy lifter influencers and brands, but that does not mean every roll out and change fits the needs of every business.

If you need more information about Instagram marketing, or want to chat further about this account switch, feel free to reach out to me here!

What do you think of this account rollout? Have you made the switch to an Instagram creator account- if so why or why not?  Share your thoughts below!