To become a Vamp verified creator, you must either have an Instagram Creator or Business account.

The good news is, switching to Business or Creator has a whole host of benefits that you don’t get with a personal account. Even if you’re not yet collaborating with brands, switching to one of these accounts could be an important first step in growing your following and boosting your engagement.

Instagram recognises that businesses and creators have different requirements when it comes to social media management, so there are some key differences between these accounts. Both have unique features and tools specifically catered to their needs.

Instagram’s Product Marketing Lead, Alexander de Leon, told us: “There is a lot of intrinsic value to gain from using the right account type, based on the persona you are on Instagram. This is because although each account has similar features, their differences benefit each Instagram user.”

So, which one is best suited to you?

Instagram suggests that the Creator Account is best used by public figures, content creators, photographers, artists and influencers. Whereas the Business Account is suitable for retailers, local businesses, brands, organisations or service providers.

Let’s look closer at what each account offers and how they differ.

Similarities

Gaining insight

Creators and businesses pay close attention to their content’s performance and audience data, to ensure they’re sharing the right content for their followers. This is why both account types offer insights. This covers how content performs, such as impressions breakdown, reach, saves, shares, profile visits, website clicks and follows.

Owners of Creator and Business accounts can also view audience demographic data. This provides information on follower growth, top audience locations, age range, gender split and their most active days and times. These account analytics also share insights on recent content interactions and your account’s overall impressions and reach from the past week.

Two-tab inbox

With wide reach comes a large amount of DMs. That’s why both accounts offer the two-tab inbox, labelled Primary and General, to better manage your incoming DMs.

The Primary Inbox is where high priority messages land from the accounts you follow, accounts you have previously messaged or tagged in a Story or accounts that Instagram believes would be of interest to you. These accounts may be verified, have mutual followers or are well known.

The General Inbox is for you to move incoming message requests or primary DMs to that you don’t find a priority. They will sit there for you to come back to at a later date. This inbox automatically has notifications turned off, but they can be turned on in your Settings.

Shoppable posts

While predominantly used by businesses who sell products online, both Creator and Business accounts have the ability to create Shoppable posts.

Business accounts can set up Instagram Shopping which allows them to add a Shop to their profile, tag shoppable products in posts and Stories and view insights about their Shop. While creators have the ability to tag shoppable products from brands that have approved access to do so.

Differences

Profile categories

Since Instagram differentiates between creators and businesses - and treats them as different entities - it makes sense that the two accounts offer completely different profile categories for you to label your profile with.

Creator Account holders can choose from titles such a chef, gamer, writer or dancer. While Business Accounts provide options such as advertising agency, hotel resort, bakery and footwear store. You also have the option with both accounts to hide this information if you wish.

Content scheduling

Scheduling content through third-party scheduling tools, like Hootsuite, is the perfect way to help you stay organised, share content regularly and is another avenue for you to track your insights and analytics.

Unfortunately Instagram’s API doesn’t currently support automatically publishing scheduled content via a third-party app from Creator Accounts. However, you do have access to Instagram’s Creator Studio tool which allows you to do all the same things as a third-party app.

Contact information

Both accounts provide users the option to add in their best email address and phone number for interested collaborators or customers to reach you. The only difference is that Business Account holders have an extra option to add in their location, such as their head office, cafe location or store address. Both accounts allow you to hide this information if you’d prefer to be contacted via DMs.

Call to action

The final difference is the call-to-action buttons that sit on your profile under your bio and above your Story Highlights. These CTA buttons connect your customers with other online services that you offer, without needing to leave the app.

A Business Account can add CTAs for customers to order food, book now or reserve. Whereas a Creator Account only has the option to add the book now or reserve buttons. Again, you have the ability to hide these buttons if you choose to.

If you still can’t decide

Both the Creator and Business Accounts offer similar features and tools with only minor differences. By selecting the account that Instagram suggests is best for you, you can’t really go wrong.

Switching between these two professional accounts is easy and won’t cause you to lose any data or insights. Just head to your Settings > Account > Switch account type > Switch to Business Account or Creator Account. But beware, you will lose historical insight data if you choose to go back to a Personal Account.

Follow our step-by-step guide on switching to one of these professional Instagram accounts here:

Want to join Vamp’s global community of creators? Download our app to apply.