Making the IG Switch (for now)

So if you aren’t aware, last week IG made it available for profiles to be categorized as either a personal (what it has always been) or you could make the change over to business account. The internet is going batty over the fact that Instagram is going to limit your visibility as a business so a lot of people aren’t buying into the switch. Remember FB and IG are siblings and FB makes business pages ability to organically reach its tribe very difficult.

Well as soon as my update to business button was there I jumped with two feet ready to see what everyone was talking about. I made the switch on July 19th. Prior to making the switch my previous 25 posts averaged 182 likes each. Since making the switch, the 8 posts I have posted at the same time and using same hashtag strategy my previous posts average 112 likes. Hmmm. Now in Instagram’s defense they have had some bugs since the switch. Hashtags weren’t working for 2-3 days, top posts weren’t updating, and then it appeared as IG said on Twitter “a small amount” of users apps have a bug and you need to delete and reinstall. They are obviously having some growing pains so before I make a permanent decision as to what direction I am going to go, i’ll give it more time and enjoy the analytics that come with it. I’m such a numbers nerd so I am loving every bit of the data that comes with this.

Before the switch I would head on over to Iconosquare Pro to check out my numbers and help develop my strategy. It gave me decent information and appeared to be accurate, but coming from a third party you never know and truthfully I want to know who my audience is, not just when they are active.

Heres a peak at what you get with a business profile:

Impressions: the total number of times all of your posts have been seen.

Reach:The number of unique accounts that have seen any of your posts.

So while my likes and comments have gone down since switching over to a business account it is obvious it is still getting out in front of people. (see individual picture below)

One of the main differences in analytics between 3rd party and IG is I’m able to tell WHO my audience is. I knew I was heavy on the women side but I would have never thought they were so close in proximity to me. Since the majority of my business is done online and we operate in US and Canada (soon to be AUS) I’m not focused on local as much as a brick and mortar business should be. But I love Nashville and Nashville apparently loves me!In addition to general analytics of account you can even dive deeper into each individual post. Here is a picture a couple days old. Majority of comments come within the first 6 hours so this picture won’t get much more action. I had around 4300 followers at the time of this picture.