A question I often hear is, “Mandy, should I have two accounts, one for my personal and one for my business? Should I start a new account? How do I start a new one?” Though I won’t come straight out and tell you yes or no, I will provide some pros and cons. Hopefully this will give some insight to help you make the decision on whether a new account for your business is the way to go.
Product Based Account
This was something one of my Fierce Social Society Members mentioned during a Hot Seat Coaching session, “I am thinking about separating and doing a new account just for the products for my business”. Instantly I said no, please don’t do that! Here’s why this was a BIG NO for me.
- Running two or multiple accounts on social media is tough, friend. I’m going to be straight up and honest with you. It’s hard unless you have the ability to outsource to a Virtual Assistant.
- Even if you don’t plan to do anything with your personal account, you’ve already established some sort of following. Why start over when you have a good starting point.
- When we have an account just for products, a lot of times we default to just showing the product or pretty flat lays. It begins to look more like a catalog. Though there is nothing wrong with selling, people don’t buy WHAT you sell, they buy WHY you sell it. They buy from people and connect over experiences, values, and common interests.
Starting Your Account Over
There may come a point in time where you just want to start over. A clean slate. Maybe you’ve found that your account is no longer in front of the right people. This is where I would encourage starting a new account.
When starting over, you need to have a very clear niche of who you’re trying to service and how. I should be able to come to your brand new account and identify myself in your bio. I want you to think of your new account as a new storefront. If the signage is confusing and unclear, it’s not going to grab attention.
Your niche can evolve, so I don’t want you to feel like you’re going to trap yourself in a box. You’re just trying to hit the ground running with your really specific niche and the content that you’re going to be providing.
Once you have that down, you’ll need to work on that profile photo. I want to see a close up of your face, smiling and looking at the camera. People always respond to people that are looking at the camera smiling. Don’t forget to make sure your handles are well thought out. It should either be your name or the name of your business.
Getting Started With a New Account
You now have a clear bio and optimized profile photo, now let’s finish up this startup. You should have at least nine to twelve starter posts ready to go. You’re going to want to get them up as quickly as you can. Whether you post 2-3 per day, it doesn’t matter at this time, we’re just trying to get your inventory on the shelves.
Whether those posts go viral or not is not of concern. When you have inventory on the shelves of your store, it looks like you’ve been there for a minute. This gives the visual approach that you’re here and you mean it. So I don’t want you to start posting until you have 9-12 posts ready to go. Start firing them off two or three a day, giving you about a week’s worth before you have to start showing up.
These first rounds of posts don’t have to be your best work. Don’t worry about that. Just get them up. You’ll also want to make sure you are engaging with the people on accounts of a similar niche. You want to go and authentically connect with them, show love on their content a little bit. Connect with them in their stories. Lastly, you don’t have to go and follow a bunch of people, but I do want you to follow people that are similar in your niche or people that inspire you.
Need Help With Your Profile
If you’ve created your profile, whether new account or revamping, and wanting a second set of eyes to ensure you are optimized, sign up for an Instagram Profile Audit. You’ll receive a video recording with feedback and suggested changes on overall profile aesthetic, bio, content, hashtags and captions.