Create your Instagram Business Account - for Small Business Owners

1. Intro: Is Instagram still worth it? Since you're already in this course, it's going to come as a big surprise, if I say. Yes. But for real, if you're a small business owner, you most probably should be on Instagram. Firstly, this platform has amazing potential to sell your product, and it's an incredible marketing tool. And I say this as someone who has sold hundreds of thousands of dollars on this app these past years for all sorts of businesses from all over the world. Secondly, it's a great tool to raise brand awareness. 30 Instagram is free. I mean, kind of free. If we don't count the ads that you'll have to run later on on your account, and that when something is free, that means that you're the product. Oh, and plus one. I mentioned this before in my courses previously, but Instagram is now becoming kind of like a search engine. For example, I recently visited Norway, and where do you think I searched for Pilates classes? Instagram course. I just typed in the city and the keyword Pilates, and that's how I found accounting, and that's how I went to a Pilates class there. So these arguments by themselves, could justify you having an Instagram account alone. But is it the right thing for you specifically? Generally, I would say yes. If you're a small business owner who offers a service, if you're someone who is mainly B twoC, if you have a smaller budget, also if you have a bigger one, of course, if you're location based, and if your target audience is on Instagram plus, if you have stories to tell, you should definitely be on it. Now, when you don't need to be on it, probably, this might seem odd that I'm talking against myself since I manage accounts for a living. But hear me out. Not everybody needs to be on Instagram. The platform originally is about beautiful images, creativity, sharing your personality, and showcasing images and videos. But just for just for the sake of it, it's not going to serve you much. I might sound a little bit harsh here, but the world doesn't need another random business account that uses AI generated Instagram. Generic copies. If I see the phrase again, the epitome of, Italy know that it was written by Check GPT, or if you're an account that uses super difficult termino technical words or post stock images and post every one in a blue moon, you're not going to see results. And people want to engage with your content to be honest, you're going to hate it. You'll hate it, and you will post on it. And then when someone by chance visits your profile, that will wonder if this given business is still operating since the last post was in 2022, December, wishing happy holidays. So, generally, no. You don't need an account. If you don't have any original content, only AI generated copy and stock images. No. If someone if you're someone who is mainly b2b. I'd suggest LinkedIn or Google ads or having a web page. No, I your target audience is not on Instagram, once again, rather on LinkedIn. Or if you don't have any stories to tell. For example, you're a proper E commerce sp. Focus on on your website and Google ads instead, rather than being on Instagram. But if you're still in the pickle, if Instagram is for you and your business, feel free to ask me in the discussions here, and I'll be happy to brainstorm with you together. 2. Class Project: After finishing a course here on Skillshare, you're usually required to do a class project. You're going to have a pretty easy task this time. Thanks to your supermazing, fun teacher. You're welcome. But for real, all you have to do is upload a screenshot of your newly created Instagram account and attach the link to your account. You know what? If you do so, I promise I'll be one of your first followers. How does that sound? 3. Why you need an Instagram profile? And who doesn't??: Is Instagram still worth it? Since you're already in this course, it's going to come as a big surprise, if I say. Yes. But for real, if you're a small business owner, you most probably should be on Instagram. Firstly, this platform has amazing potential to sell your product, and it's an incredible marketing tool. And I say this as someone who has sold hundreds of thousands of dollars on this app these past years for all sorts of businesses from all over the world. Secondly, it's a great tool to raise brand awareness. 30 Instagram is free. I mean, kind of free, if we don't count the ads that you'll have to run later on on your account, and that when something is free, that means that you're the product. Oh, and plus one. I mentioned this before in my courses previously, but Instagram is now becoming kind of like a search engine? For example, I recently visited Norway, and where do you think I searched for Pilates classes? Instagram course. I just typed in the city and the keyword Pilates, and that's how I found accounts, and that's how I went to a Pilates class there. So these arguments by themselves, could justify you having an Instagram account alone. But is it the right fit for you specifically? Generally, I would say yes. If you're a small business owner who offers a service, if you're someone who is mainly BTC, if you have a smaller budget, also, if you have a bigger one, of course, if you're location based, and if your target audience is on instagram plus, if you have stories to tell, you should definitely be on it. Now, when you don't need to be on it, probably, this might seem odd that I'm talking against myself since I manage accounts for a living. But hear me out. Not everybody needs to be on Instagram. The platform originally is about beautiful images, creativity, sharing your personality, and showcasing. Images and videos. But just for just for the sake of it, it's not going to serve you much. I might sound a little bit harsh here, but the world doesn't need another random business account that uses AI generated Instagram. Generic copies. If I see the phrase again, the epitome of, I instantly know that it was written by Cat GPT, or if you're an account that uses super difficult termino technical words or post stock images and posts every once in a blue moon, you're not going to see results. And people want engage with your content to be honest. You're going to hate it. You'll hate it, and you will post on it. And then when someone by chance visits your profile, that will wonder if this given business is still operating since the last post was in 2022, December, wishing happy holidays. So, generally, no. You don't need an account. If you don't have any original content, only AI generated copy and stock images. No, I someone if you're someone who is mainly b2b. I'd suggest Linked in or Google ads or having a web page. No, I your target audience is not on Instagram, once again, rather on LinkedIn. Or if you don't have any stories to tell. For example, you're a proper E commerce Shop. Focus on on your website and Google ads instead rather than being on Instagram. But if you're still on a pickle, if Instagram is for you and your business, feel free to ask me in the discussions here, and I'll be happy to brainstorm with you together. But 4. 4 Pros And Cons Of Instagram (and Tiktok, Facebook and Youtube): You might know about or even use TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, and all the rest of the social media platforms. Where does Instagram stand in 2024 among them? If you're more of an analytical and don't believe me, I don't blame you, but believe the numbers. Let me run down a fast comparison for you about a few social media apps such as Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. Let's start with TikTok. I love TikTok. Its organic reach is incredible. If you're lucky and if you're doing it right, TikTok is an amazing tool for going viral, gaining fame overnight, building brand awareness. If you have the time and the creativity, definitely go for it. But the platform is delicate. What works on Instagram might not work for TikTok and hard selling and cringy corporate content won't work there. But let's see the numbers, the fun facts for you. TikTok was one of the most downloaded apps in 2021. By the end of 2024, TikTok is expected to reach about 1.8 billion active users per month. It's the most used app by young people with TikTok, YouTube, slash Instagram, Snapchat. Now let's talk Facebook. We all see the downfall of Facebook currently, since all we see now is ads. Yet most of us still scroll on it mindlessly during the day. The average audience is getting older on the app with younger generations favoring TikTok and Instagram and YouTube. It still reaches audiences, even though you have to pay for it to do so, which is a shame. But don't overlook Facebook just yet. It has 3 billion monthly active users, making it the largest app in the world. That's like third of the world's population right there. And since Facebook bought Instagram, fingers crossed that it doesn't get in the same rate as Facebook this next decade. But what about YouTube? You can find the longest engagement on their time wise, and you can watch it Atlas, which is a huge perk. I do wonder though, which one is more beneficial for YouTube. Having ads or having people to pay for ads. I mean, being Atlas. It has about 2.5 million active users per month worldwide, which makes it the second largest app at the moment. Also, the younger generation favors it making it their second or third most used app right after TikTok. And now Instagram in numbers. Instagram has about 2 billion active users per month, making it the third largest app at the moment. Although TikTok app downloads are high, Instagram overtook TikTok in 2023 as the most downloaded app. The app has seen 127% increase in monthly active users from 2019 up until 2023. The demographics are among people aged 18 and 34. Research also shows that Instagram has the most impact on cultural trends, which is interesting. Also, which is quite a fun fact, 90% of Instagram users follow at least one business on their socials. According to my years of experience, here is personal and bias pro and con list of Instagram. Let's start with the P. Great way to build brand awareness. Great way to connect with your audience directly and daily. Great way to send online. Great SEO for your business. It's free for now. It's cheap to advertise for now also. It's widely spread. If you offer value, the reward welcome. And there's plus one. I quite like the algorithm update videos, videos by the Instagram Head Mosseri. I'm not just saying this for some bonus points. Now for the con. Con is that it's connected to Facebook and Meta, which might lead to it becoming a second Facebook throughout the years. It's not technically yours because we all heard about the horror stories of accounts that are getting hijacked and hacked. It's getting harder and harder to grow organically. Engagement is getting lower. You need to run ads and the constant and confusing changes to the platform and algorithm. It's quite hard to read support and all the spam messages that we started getting in the past years. This is my bias list. In the next video, we're going to learn how to create your very own business account. 5. A Step-By-Step Guide to Create your Own Account: Buckle up, we're going to get technical. Let's get tech technical. Okay. Okay. In this lesson, I'm going to show you exactly how to create an Instagram profile for your business, and I'll explain exactly where you need to click through screen share videos that are coming up. To set up your account, you'll need to have an e mail address, get that ready, and also a Facebook page to connect to your Instagram account. So, firstly, make sure that Instagram is downloaded on your phone. And when you go on the app, it will have an option for you to register an account. I decided to register with an e mail address. You can also do it with your phone number. But if you register with an e mail address, make sure that it's your business e mail. It will get a confirmation code to your e mail account, which you'll just have to type in right here. Perfect. After that, you will be asked to create a password, make sure that it's a good password and that you store it somewhere safe. Usually, I would say that you should save de login info just in case and type in your date of birth. And it's going to ask for your name as well. For now, it could be your normal name. Later on, you will be able to change this, of course. So for now, it's going to be Socher John. In order to create a user name, here you could put anything you want for now, but I have a different class and course explaining what kind of user name it should be. For now, it could be your business name. Then you'll have to agree to Instagrams, Derman conditions. And then once this goes through, you'll have an option to add your profile picture. I'm going to skip this for now. And here you go. Here is your Instagram account. For now, this is a personal account, so it's connected to your personal whoever you are. I'm going to skip this for now as we don't want to find your friends. Remember my login info. I don't want to follow any random people for now, so I'm going to skip this one as well. And here is your account. Keep in mind though that this is just these are just random videos that the app suggests that you should watch. But for now, this is Skillshare John's Instagram account. So if you go in the edit profile, this is what you will see. This is basically as your being a normal person. But here you can switch to a professional account, which I highly recommend, so it will become a business profile. So from the free account, you're going to switch to a free business account. Here you can select what describes your business. So either a restaurant or a photographer or a creator. I'm going to go with photographer for now. And I also want it to be displayed on my profile. Next, And here, as a business, I would firstly suggest you become a business rather than a creator. Creator has different perks, but in this course, we're learning about becoming a business profile. So here, after you created this, you will have the option to add your location, your business address, your phone number, And this is new. Is to Grandma Do calling. Hello. And you have an option to connect to your Facebook account, and I'm going to descrip this for now, but since I didn't create an actual business account for this one on Facebook. But you'll be able to connect it here or anytime later on while you want to edit your profile. You could do this later. And if you go into your professional dashboard, this is one of the perks of being a business profile that you could check out your reach, check out your audiences, your ad spendings here. You have a and a lot of extra tools as a business owner to maximize your Instagram account, tons and tons of potential here. Also, you could also switch back to an account type you wish to even to a personal or creator one. You can connect your Facebook page over there as well. And if you go into your edit your profile now, you'll see extra information here compared to what we've seen before. Here you can also connect your Facebook page so you have a lot of extra options there and make sure that your contact info is seen. And Seems like you just created an account. You have now reached your destination. Okay. Your business account is now ready to use. Yeah. I'm not going to get into further details about how to set up the rest of your account as I have a complete other course about how to set up the Instagram bio perfectly, how to choose ideal Instagram name, what you should put in your bio, how to optimize the page, where to add the contact button and such, but feel free to check out my other related courses for more information. 6. Conclusion: Thank you so much for attending this course. I hope you're now a happy new Instagram account business owner. To sum up in this class, we have learned about. Number one, why Instagram is still a great tool to build awareness and to boost sales as a small business owner. Two, which kind of businesses should have an account and communicate through this platform? Three, we listed the pros and cons of the Instagram platform. And lastly, we have went through a step by step process of setting up your own Instagram account as a business. Thank you again for joining me. If you have found this class useful, please make sure to leave a review at the end. It really helps me to make more and more courses for you guys. Thank you. See you next time.