Unfortunately, unlike Facebook and Google+, Instagram doesn't differentiate between professional and personal accounts. Similar to Twitter, Instagram tends to me a little more relaxed. As a result, many people often manage multiple Twitter accounts depending on their purposes. And likewise, many have done the same with Instagram. So, the question is usually, how many Instagram accounts should you have?
If you're currently using Instagram for personal use, is it ok to start using it for your business? Or should you create a new account?
It all depends.
If your personal account is full of images of your kids and family, you might want to keep that personal. You may even want to keep this account set to private. However, if your images reflect a part of your brand and your audience is used to connecting with you like this, then you might be ok transitioning your account to a professional use. Just remember that professional or business accounts should always be set to public.
If your personal photos are completely unrelated to your business, then you might want to start a second account related to your brand only. This will allow you to focus more on what your audience wants to see. You can still mix in the occasional personal photo, but remember that this is your professional account.
It's also important to remember that your business Instagram account is for your audience. In contrast, a personal account is usually for yourself. These can be drastic differences in how you create and share content on your Instagram account.
And for some people, you may want even more than two Instagram accounts. Depending on your business, or businesses, it might be best for you to have separate Instagram accounts for different aspects of the business.
For many, though, managing multiple accounts and having to alternate between accounts can get cumbersome. Keep this in mind if you choose to create multiple accounts.
For me personally, I use one Instagram account for both my personal and professional uses. However, I know many people who choose to the separate the two and have found this to be very successful.
So, if you're trying to decide how many Instagram accounts you should, have, it depends. Sorry I can't give you a better answer. It really depends on you, your brand, your personal preferences, and your audience.
If you have any questions about how to create an Instagram strategy for your business, please contact me and we can determine what will work best for you.
Hi Jenn,
Right now I’m using Instagram for personal use, but occasionally I will share a blog graphic or YouTube thumbnail. I do have plans to start a second account for my blog one day.
I heard there was a limit to the number of Instagram accounts you can use from a given device. Any truth to that? What’s the limit?
Thanks for the insights.
Hi Ileane. As far as I know, there is no limit to the number of accounts you can have. Each account is tied to an email address and whatever username you create – those are your only limitations. However, to access the different accounts on your device, you would need to logout of one account and log into the other. This does get cumbersome if you’re regularly using both.
As Claudia so kindly mentioned, you can use Hootsuite (and other tools) to manage multiple accounts more efficiently.
Hi, it depends on what you’re using Ileane. If you are using the Instagram app on your mobile device, you will need to log in/out every time you want to switch accounts. This can be a little cumbersome. You can, however, use something like Hootsuite to manage multiple Instagram accounts. Jenn covers Hootsuite and Instagram in this post: http://jennstrends.com/manage-instagram-with-hootsuite/
Hope this helps!
Claudia, thank you so much for answering this question and taking the time to link to my other post. Being sick has taken so much out of me and it is so rewarding to see wonderful people like you jump in to answer questions! I sincerely appreciate it 🙂
Great post. An additional problem of having multiple accounts is the risk of posting in the wrong one (we all have heard thousands of funny examples of twitter fails)…
Such a good point, Antonio! It is definitely important to be extra careful to monitor which site you are posting to if you use multiple accounts.
My husband and I have our own instagrams. Can we link them both to facebook (the one Facebook we share)?
Thank you.
Hi Christina. Your Instagram account will be able to connect to whichever Facebook account you have active (via the mobile app) on your device. Therefore, if both you and your husband have the same Facebook account active on your individual devices, then, yes, you should be able to both connect to the same Facebook account.
Why can’t I have more than three account being registered on my iPhone ?
I’m honestly not sure of the limit per device, Sam. From the research I’ve done, this seems to be more of an issue for iOS users than Android users, but that’s not confirmed. You should be able to have up to 4 accounts registered per device, each with their own associated email address. So I’m not sure why you’re getting cut off at 3. If you’re not actively using all of those accounts, you could try uninstalling the app and reinstalling it to reconnect the accounts you are actively using and create a new one as well.
I have a personal instagram account but I would like to add one for my business but I’m not sure how to do that through my phone, I have a droid. It keeps signing me into my personal instagram, am I doing something wrong?
When you log out of your current account on your device, you need to “sign up” to create a new account, not just log in. Once the new account is created, you’ll log in to access either account.
I have 10 instagram accounts for my business and would like to merge them into 5. We just wanted to see which accounts were most popular with followers.. we’d like to keep the followers that we have for the 5 accounts that we are deleting.. is this possible?
There is no way to currently merge Instagram accounts. If you decide to eliminate certain accounts, I recommend you let followers on those accounts know where to follow you instead. It will take time, effort, and a strategic approach, but you should be able to get many of your followers to follow you on the other account(s).
Thanks Jenn!
Hi,
From everything I read, you want your instagram business account to coincide with your business twitter account, right? So, to do that, you need to use the same email address for both account – is that correct??
I really appreciate you taking time to answer questions on this blog post. It’s very VERY helpful.
Cheers!
Ruth
Hi Ruth. Yes, in general, it helps if you can make your Twitter and Instagram accounts related – ie. the same handle or username. And, while it will make your personal organization of information easier to maintain if you use the same email address, there’s no other reason why you would need to. Instagram relies on your mobile device – you will very rarely have any information or content exchanged via your email address and Instagram.
That makes sense. thanks for taking the time to reply!!!
Ruth
Hi I have two instagram accounts and I have one that is registered to my Facebook is there a way I can registered my second account to my Facebook as well far as resetting my password Thur Facebook then email ?
Instagram connects to whatever Facebook account is active on your mobile device. If you log out of one IG account, and log into the other, you’ll still share to the same FB account because that is the one active on your mobile device.
I have 2 ig accounts i cant log in to the lne registered with facebook, what do i do
Make sure that you are fully logged out of the one IG account and that the correct Facebook account is active and logged into on your mobile device. Otherwise, check your log in credentials and log in again.
Hi I really want to create two accounts but it’s telling me I can’t use my email twice saying (it already exists) I really don’t want to open another email address just to have a second account, is there anything I can do? X
Hi Sheralene. You can only have one Instagram account per email address. You would need to create a second email address to open another IG account.
if I created a second account with a different email, does it automatically connect with my Facebook and do all my Facebook friends get notified about my second account even if I used a different email?
Instagram (whichever account logged into) will automatically connect to whatever FB account you’re logged into on the same device. That being said, I don’t know if it would tell your FB friends about your second account, but I don’t think it does. When I created my second account, I don’t think anyone received notifications.
Hi. I created an Instagram account through my Facebook account recently. My plan is to have Instagram on my website for my business. Since this account is linked to my personal account how will my business be represented by it?
Will I have to change the name on it to my business name? Thanks
Instagram will only represent what you present. Your personal FB friends will see that you’re on IG with that business account but that’s the only real connection. If you want to represent your business, just make sure that the name and username on IG represent your business. But there’s no need to change anything on FB.
Hi. I actually wanted to create a second IG account just to keep pictures of my son and our day to day adventures. I would obviously set it to private and would not allow any followers since I just want to use it as an electronic photo album for my son. He’s a toddler now and won’t be using IG for a very long time, but I just think it would be neat to start an account for him to look at years from now (if IG is still around)… Kinda like an 18th birthday surprise. 😉 Is this safe or is there another form of creating something similar? Thanks
Creating the account and keeping it private should be perfectly fine, Diana. I would keep the followers to a minimum too, to reduce chances of people sharing or exposing any images. Of course, in an online world, there are always some risks and concerns but this is likely as safe as anything else 😉
And what a fun idea to have for him when he gets older!