My Experiences with Personal Account vs Business Account on Instagram

This post is sharing what I learned when I switched back to a personal account on Instagram – to test the impact of a personal account vs business account for a blogger. 

Who runs the world?

Instagram.

If you’re checking out this post you’re likely a fellow blogger, influencer, social media manager or small business dying to get the inside scoop on how to beat that darn forsaken algorithm. Ah yes the Instagram algorithm. The algorithm and I have a love/hate relationship. On being mostly “hate” status as of late, I decided to run a little test.

Why I chose to experiment with personal account vs business account on Instagram

You see, like many, the once organic platform worked as aesthetic growth for building communities. And it worked beautifully. Until it didn’t. Now, don’t get me wrong…I am still awestruck how one little platform and set of squares has brought us tremendous opportunities to go out and earn business. It’s enabled us to have a voice and essentially be whoever it is that we want to be on this little magical place called Instagram. But growing lately on the gram has been tough cookies.

Those of us who use Instagram to monetize, secure sponsorships and grow our businesses have noticed drastic changes in our reach and engagement within the Business Profile. While the business profile has a lot of benefits, I was curious to see what would happen if I switched back to a personal profile. Here is what I saw…

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

36 ??

A post shared by JENNY | Lifestyle Blogger (@chocolateandlace_) on

Disclaimer, I’m not an Instagram or even a social media expert. I’m a platform user, that loves to connect with my audience and learn and grow by maximizing usage of the platform.

Reach (finally) to My Own Followers

Here’s what’s been happening, in the form of one opinion. Instagram has been withholding your own audience, those that choose to follow you, from seeing your posts. There are many conspiracy theories around this as far as what percentage of your audience is withheld, what percentage sees your post and there are even theories that say Instagram “holds” your likes and comments and then releases them all at once encouraging your dopamine to rise.

In the first post I made to my newly switched personal account, I was finally reaching more of my own followers. Accounts that have followed me for years and people I actually know in real life were coming out of the woodwork both liking and commenting on my post. It was totally obvious to me that my posts were being shown in my of my own followers feeds. Over a 7 day period, my reach increased by +65% and my impressions grew by +31%.

Engagement Went Up

Because of my increased reach, accounts that genuinely enjoy following me were able to see my content and then due to the quality of the content, they engaged. Comments, DM’s, likes, saves and shares soared up an increase of +35%. My posts were jamming with a little extra love.


What Didn’t Happen

During the switch I did jump from 13.4 to 13.5 followers, but I didn’t get a huge influx of new following. The switch did not bring on a million new followers and I just want to make that clear incase that’s one of your goals.

I lost the ability to put in an email, call or other functions in which none those losses translated into more traffic for my site. Depending on your goals, these items may not be important to you.

RELATED: Here is Exactly How I Set My Rates as an Influencer.

So Did I Switch Back or Stay a Personal Account?

What it came down to for me, is that I LOVE utilizing Instagram Insights. Tracking your insights help you diagnose where you can make improvements in your content and engagement. It helps me to see what my followers love (and what they don’t) and give them more of the content that they deserve. After all…this is what building a community is all about.

After 7 days…I made the switch back to a Business Profile.

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

SCREEN SHOT READY ⭐️ The other night you guys helped me build the most banging list of favorites from @traderjoes 🙌🏼 Wow does this group know how to shop {and EAT!} I’ve compiled your next Trader Joe’s shopping list here. You’re welcome 🍴 Cauliflower Gnocchi #1 THING Everything But the Bagel spice Dark Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Cups Cheddar with Turkish Apricots Chili-Lime Seasoning Pistachio Toffee Peanut Butter Pretzels Lemon Chicken Chocolate Lava Cake Mango Mochi Cashew Butter Orange Chicken Microfiber Dishrags Apple Carrot Fruit Squeeze Chevre Goat Cheese with Honey Lemon Cookies Zucchini Noodles Pizza Dough Smoked Paprika Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Almonds Parmesan Crisps

A post shared by JENNY | Lifestyle Blogger (@chocolateandlace_) on


After I switched back to a Business Account, within the hour I literally lost 10 followers and dropped back to 13.4k followers. I’m uncertain if that’s a direct correlation of switching profiles however my first post back on business did not fair as well as the previous posts. While their are many factors that play into a post performance such as hashtag usage, time of day, quality of content and type of content, my experiment left me feeling confident that your reach is potentially greater on a Personal Account.

Focus on the controllables

At the end of the day when you’re considering a personal account vs business account for as a content creator, what matters most is quality of your content and how well you connect with your community. I say this even with the ups and downs of the Instagram game.

I know there are MANY IG experts out there and would love to hear your opinions, experiences and best practices in the comment box below!

RELATED: How to Use Instagram Stories to Jumpstart Your Engagement.

 

Do I lose insights if I switch back to a personal Instagram account?

Yes, your insights will no longer be available.

If I switch to a personal then back again to a business account, will the insights come back?

No, the insights will not come back again.

What’s better a personal or business instagram account?

This truly depends on your purpose. For anyone utilizing Instagram as a business tool, the insights are powerful enough to have a business account.

How do you gain more followers on Instagram?

Build your community, produce quality content and stay consistent.

Do I lose the swipe up if I switch to a personal account?

Yes you do lose the swipe unless you have a verified account which isn’t common.

Follow:
Share:

13 Comments

  1. April 1, 2021 / 8:16 pm

    Hello Jenny, how are you? I have a question! When you changed to personal account and then back to professional, did you loose your statistics? Or you got back your history of insigths from the old posts? Thank you!

    • Chocolate and Lace
      Author
      April 9, 2021 / 2:03 pm

      Hello! Yes that correct you would lose all your insights. Let me know how it goes!

      • Luke Emmers
        December 22, 2021 / 9:43 pm

        Do you lose all of your followers and people you follow, as well as all of your videos and pictures, when switching back to a personal account?

        • Chocolate and Lace
          Author
          December 23, 2021 / 1:25 pm

          Hey Luke, no nothing was lost when I switched from business to personal and vice versa. You only lose access to insights. Thanks for checking out the article!

  2. Tessie W
    May 11, 2021 / 2:02 pm

    Hello! I am looking to switch from business to personal profile on IG. I know you lose the swipe up. But can you still see who watches your stories? Which followers see them? Also can you still see your exact number of followers if you’re over 10k followers? I know I’ll lose the insights which is fine with me.

    • Chocolate and Lace
      Author
      May 21, 2021 / 5:39 pm

      Yes you do – the swipe up is very helpful!

  3. roozbeh
    May 23, 2021 / 8:26 am

    Hello, thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts about all this. very helpful!
    I’ve switched to a business account long ago now I’m regretting it. I was looking forward to changing it to a personal account and having a normal reach, rather than promotions that I never use.
    Some people have mentioned that the business account will still be marked as a business account after switching back to personal and it cants help anymore. is that true?

  4. August 8, 2021 / 1:59 am

    Hey! I recently switched to personal account from business account. Again, after few days I switched back to business account and posted new stuff. But now, I’m unable to view insights of my latest posts as well. Can you please help me with this?

    • Chocolate and Lace
      Author
      August 13, 2021 / 3:12 pm

      That’s SO strange. Did it come back yet? I never had this happen, so sorry you’re dealing with that.

  5. Demy Delfi
    October 6, 2021 / 8:43 am

    Hey! I am also having a business account and I am dealing with a problem regarding the music sticker. I only had it for one day and then dissapeared. I searched on the internet and found the following: “Did you recently go from a personal Instagram account to a Business account? If so, the missing Instagram music sticker didn’t switch. Business account users are not permitted to use the music sticker in their Stories.

    That’s probably due to some copyright infringement because many of them advertise and sell products on their accounts. Your only option is to switch back from Business to Personal. However, to get the music sticker back, you will have to forgo several features you can only get with the Business account. “Swipe up,” and “Email” are some of them.”
    Is that true? Did you have music sticker problems while having a business account?
    Thank you!

    • Chocolate and Lace
      Author
      October 9, 2021 / 5:10 pm

      Hey! Does the music sticker not work? On one of my accounts it was severely delayed. I just had to wait it out. Good luck!

  6. February 23, 2022 / 3:05 pm

    Hello, thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts about all this. Very helpful! You wrote about personal account vs. business account on Instagram. By this I have understood very well the gap between personal and business account and its benefits.

  7. March 20, 2022 / 4:26 am

    Greetings! My business account has been converted to a personal account. In a few days, I switched back to my business account and posted new content. However, I am unable to see insights for my latest posts as well. Is there anything you can do to help me?

Add comment

What do you think?

powered by chloédigital