Converting your Instagram account to a business or creator account

Set your Instagram reminders aside and let Buffer publish your content for you by switching your Instagram account from a “personal” account to a “professional” account (professional accounts include business and creator accounts).

Instagram professional accounts are optimized for businesses and creators, so they give you and your audience a range of tools that aren’t available from personal accounts. Your followers get a quick and easy snapshot of your offerings, contact info, business hours and latest news. You get CTA (call-to-action) buttons, direct scheduling and automatic publishing through third-party tools like Buffer, and access to analytics and engagement tools.

This article contains the following sections:

1. Converting your Instagram account to a professional account
2. Reconverting your Instagram account

Converting your Instagram account to a professional account

To connect to Buffer, Instagram professional accounts are required to have a Facebook Page linked to them. Whilst it's possible to convert to a business or creator account in the Instagram app, we recommend doing this via Facebook to ensure a Page is correctly associated to the account.

Feel free to watch this video or continue on with the written steps below (note that it's recommended that you convert your Instagram account from personal to professional via the web).

Converting via Facebook (recommended)

1. Head over to Facebook and navigate to the list of Pages you have access to (or click this link). Click on the Page that you'll associate with your Instagram account, or create a new Page if you don't already have one.

   📝 You must be an admin on the Page you're associating to your Instagram professional account. To check if you have the proper permission, please see this article.

2. Once you're in your Page, click Settings in the left hand sidebar.

   

3. Click Instagram on the left hand side and then click Connect Account towards the top of the screen.

   

4. Enter your Instagram login credentials and click Log In. (If you're already signed into Instagram, or your login credentials are saved within your browser, you'll just need to click Continue.)

   

5. You'll see a pop up window prompting you to set up your Instagram business or creator account. Follow the on-screen instructions, ensuring you enter your contact info, and then click Done.

   

   ⚠️ If you don't see the pop up window as shown in the image above, click Get Started towards the top of the Page. If you don't see the Get Started prompt either, you can try converting via the Instagram app instead, following the steps in the section below.

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   Converting via the Instagram mobile app

   Converting from a Personal account to a Professional account:

   1. Open the Instagram app on your mobile device and Click the menu button in the upper right corner.
   2. Go to Settings and Privacy.
   3. Scroll down to For professionals and click Account type and tools.
   4. Switch to professional account.
   5. Click continue until you reach the category page. Select a category.
   6. Select Creator or Business. Your Instagram account will now be a professional account.

   Converting from a Business account to a Personal account:

   1. Click the menu button in the upper right corner.
   2. Go to Settings and Privacy.
   3. Scroll down to For professionals and click Business tools and controls.
   4. Switch account type.
   5. Switch to personal account.

   Reconverting your Instagram account

   In certain situations, for example if your Instagram account is currently a business or creator account without a Facebook Page properly connected to it, or if you're experiencing an error when trying to publish posts to Instagram, you will need to convert your Instagram account back to a personal profile and then reconvert it to a professional account.

   ⚠️ Please note, your Insights will be lost when converting your Instagram account back to a personal profile. You may wish to read and save your Insights before converting.

   1. Open the Instagram app on your mobile device and navigate to Settings.
   2. Tap Account.
   3. Tap Switch to personal account, and then tap Switch back to confirm.
   4. Your Instagram account should now be a personal profile and you can walk through the steps above to convert to a business or creator account, ensuring you link a Facebook Page to it.