The online and digital world is always moving forward. Company directors and senior management teams are always thinking of new and creative ways to increase users online experience and appeal to new audiences. With this in mind, what’s next? The next big feature to hit the ever-growing platform of Instagram is a brand new account type known as Creator accounts!
Why Instagram Creator Accounts?
Over time, Instagram has created different types of user profiles to appeal to different audiences. The first evolution was when Instagram introduced business profiles. The idea behind business profiles was to give brands access to insight tools of their audience’s behaviour, action buttons and better direct messaging features. Similarly to Facebook, Instagram wanted to allow businesses to see their online results. However, for many brands and influencers, these insights were simply not enough. Many have asked to see details in more depth, thus resulting in Instagram’s next evolution: The Creator Account.
What Are Creator Accounts?
Unlike business accounts, Creator Accounts are hard to access and limited to users with more than 10,000 followers. Additionally, you must be connected to a Facebook business page and have access to Instagrams beta testing. Once you’ve met all of Instagram’s requirements, you can become a Creator. Becoming a Creator account means you have access to in-depth reporting such as follower growth insights, filtered inboxes for direct messaging, desktop analytics and shoppable posts in partnership.
How Can You Switch To A Creator Account?
Switching is easy! Simply access your Instagram settings, scroll down to the bottom and press “Switch to Creator Account”. From there, you start your set-up process. Choose your category, turn on your contacts and get creating. Once completed, you can start to see your new and improved insights, it’s as simple as that! Well…As long as your profile meets Instagrams Creator requirements as mentioned above.
What Are The New Features?
Follower Growth Insights
This feature allows Creators to get a better understanding of why their account followers have increased or decreased. You’ll be able to see the dates when fluctuation accrued and what content (both posts and stories) was distributed throughout that day, attributing to the follower change. Once this data has been pulled through, you can then review your account and ask yourself, “is the content am I creating relevant to my audience?” or ‘Are my followers relevant to me?”.
Filter Inboxes For Direct Messages
The most noticeable change for DM’s is the new categorisation. In addition to the request tab, Creators have Primary and General inbox tabs. The purpose of this is to, of course, filter important messages to the front and push spam/less-important messages to the back row. Brands are then able to respond in order of importance and create a strategic way to make sure the right users get a reply. As before, you are still able to mute messages and video chats. You can also unsend messages and utilise all the filters available to a personal and business user.
Category Information
Unlike Business profiles, Creators can assign their own distinct category which does not link to their Facebook Business page. With more options to choose from, users are able to find a category that suits them better. Additionally, each category has access to the different call to action buttons, so it’s important to choose your brands fit carefully.
Desktop Access To Analytics
Instagrams Creator Studio acts as a desktop dashboard management tool to view all of your Instagram content and insights. From here you are able to connect your Facebook profile and associated Facebook pages to your Instagram account. While Creator Studio does not share many differences to the in-app insights, it does give you access to everything on the desktop without requiring a third-party tool.
Shoppable Posts With Brand Partners
This new feature is becoming extremely popular amongst influencers and fashion/lifestyle bloggers. For non-creators, users must set up their own product catalogue in order to tag and link their products. However, creator shoppable posts can tag products without said catalogue as they simply need to be in a partnership with the tagged brand. This means a brand can reach out to these popular influencers and make an arrangement for them to directly promote a specific product to their thousands and even millions of followers. It is expected that more users will be able to access this feature in the future as it helps both creators and brands, as it can drive future sales and generate strong brand awareness. If this feature becomes successful, it could potentially change the way that we shop online every day.
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