Create an Instagram Account in 3 Easy Steps

1. What do you need for an Instagram account?
2. How do you create an Instagram account?
3. How do you create an Instagram-Business-Account?
4. FAQs on creating Instagram account

Communication in the B2B, but most importantly in the B2C industry, is undergoing change, increasingly focusing on digital communication. Few businesses can avoid digital media nowadays.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok are the big networks today. And where there are lots of people, businesses are not far off.

What do businesses need to create an Instagram account? What are the differences between a regular Instagram account and a business account? What Instagram settings are there and which ones should be taken into account? - If you want answers to these questions and would like to learn some tips and tricks on Instagram, you are in the right place.

What do you need for an Instagram account?

Would you also finally like to post Instagram posts and Instagram stories? Then you need an Instagram account. You can create an Instagram account either via the website or via the Instagram app. The data mentioned below is necessary for registration and mainly refers to the registration via desktop. In order to appear really serious and avoid the risk of being classified as a fake profile by Instagram, you should enter the data in the settings.

Basically, you need the following data to create an Instagram account:

• Email address, mobile number or a Facebook account
• Password
• Name, nickname or company name
• Username

For an Instagram-Business-Account you'll additionally need:

• Imprint or a link to your imprint
• Privacy Policy or a link to your privacy policy

These two points are necessary because with your Instagram business account you are acting commercially and for this reason you must have information about the imprint and privacy policy accessible at all times.

What you also need for your Instagram account, but what is not obligatory:

• A profile picture (e.g. the company logo or a photo of you)
• A profile description (e.g. a sentence, a quote or information about your company)

The profile picture and the profile description are the first things Instagram users will see of you. That's why you should use a profile picture as it builds up a connection with your Instagram followers making you look more realistic. In addition, the profile description provides important information about you as a private individual or about you as a company. So design it as attractively as possible, but remain honest.

How do you create an Instagram account?

Now that you know what data or information you need to create your Instagram account and how to ideally design it, the question is how to create an Instagram account at all.

It all depends on whether you created your Instagram account with or without a Facebook profile.

1.1 Create Instagram account via your Facebook profile:

If you already have a profile on Facebook, whether private or a business profile, you can log in via it. To do this, go to the Instagram website, click on 'Log in with Facebook' once and you will be redirected to the Facebook login page. When logging in, you have to agree to some terms of use and privacy policies.

Tip for businesses: Clarify this step with your data protection officer. Also note that some additions may need to be included in the privacy policy on your website.

As soon as you have logged in via Facebook and agreed to the various conditions, you will be redirected back to Instagram.

Please note: Instagram will use the email address and/or mobile number stored on Facebook to send updates, security alerts, etc. Therefore, make sure that your email address is up-to-date. This information is also important if you forget your password.

1.2 Creating an Instagram account without a Facebook profile:

If you register new on Instagram, you first have to enter your email address or your mobile number as well as your full name.

For companies, it is recommended not to use a person's email address, but rather a business-related email address like marketing@company.com or maybe even a separate email address just for Instagram (e.g. instagram@company.com).

This has two reasons: The email address serves only for direct contact between Instagram and the responsible people from the company. Instagram, for example, sends security warnings to this email address if, for example, someone attempts to access the account or if important changes must be made to the profile.

A info@company.com is a bad choice because the emails often end up in a general mailing list and employees who have nothing to do with Instagram in the company quickly classify these emails as spam, so that security warnings, for example, can be lost.

Even if there is only one person working in the social media marketing team or marketing team, it may be that the team grows or the person responsible is on vacation and another person helps out. Therefore, it should not be a person-specific email address.

In the second step, you need to create a password. The password must be at least six characters long, contain a special character and be a mix of upper and lower case letters. However, be careful: Instagram is known for the many attempts to hack Instagram accounts. The password should best be created with common password systems to ensure the highest possible security.

2. Choose a name for your Instagram account

After you have registered on Instagram, Instagram asks for your full name. The full name of companies should be the company name and for private individuals the nickname or the real full name.

Why? - This field helps the Instagram algorithm to find you faster. So if friends, customers, prospects, etc. don't know your username exactly, but they know your nickname, real name, or the exact company name, you will be found better in the Instagram search.

Attention! The name is later visible in the Instagram profile, but it can be changed at any time in the settings.

Tip for companies: If your product name is more known than your company name, then the product name should better be included as a username and the company name as a full name.

Example from our guest author's company:

"Our software products are called, for example, priint:suite, priint:publishing hub or priint:comet and our subsidiaries in other countries e.g. priint Americas or priint Japan. However, our company in Germany is called WERK II Medien- und Informationsges. mbH for historical reasons. In this case, when entering a username, the company name from Germany is entered, i.e., priint Group / Werk II, and the username is priintgroup."

3. Specify a username for your Instagram account

To create an Instagram account, you need a username regardless of your Instagram profile type. This should ideally be close to the company name for companies, close to the content for fan pages, or close to your own name. Instagram then checks that the username does not exist yet, so companies in particular should secure their company or product name as early as possible.

Also, the username should only contain Roman letters, digits, underscores, and periods.

Moreover, the username is important because you can be tagged/linked under this with an @-sign. Be it directly on pictures or in texts. Although you can essentially change your username every 14 days, your tags/links will not be automatically updated. Therefore, you would have to ask everyone who has ever tagged/linked you to renew this tag/link.

As you may notice, the username should be well thought out.

How do you create an Instagram-Business-Account?

The basis for an Instagram-Business-Account is a normal Instagram account. To turn this Instagram account into a business account, you need to make a few adjustments in the settings.

So go to your Instagram settings and there to the sub-item "Account". At the bottom you will find "Switch to professional account". As soon as you click on it, you will be shown a list of categories. Choose a suitable category from this category list.

Note: This category can be changed later.

Then, the distinction is made between "Creator" and "Business". If you are a business and, for example, later want to use the well-known shop function, you should select "Business". The creator account is suitable for independent content creators, for example.

If you have chosen the business account, you will be asked for publicly visible company details such as email address, phone number and address. Here, it is recommended to use an info@company.com address, as customer inquiries or product questions from users may come in through this.

Once you have filled out all the data, you have successfully created an Instagram business account. You can now use the variety of Instagram formats and win your first followers. This is most easily done with a social media strategy or a social media concept.

Important! - As a company, you are obligated to provide an imprint, even though Instagram does not ask for this directly. There are various assumptions as to how you must or can include your imprint (and your privacy policy) on Instagram. Please consult with your data protection officer on this matter.

FAQs on creating Instagram account

How much does a (professional) Instagram account cost?

Nothing. No matter if you want to create an Instagram-Business-Account or a private Instagram account. Your Instagram account basically costs you no money, but data.

However, it does cost companies or advertisers money to place Instagram Ads or Facebook Ads. This then has to do with the advertisements and not with the Instagram account itself.

How to create a second Instagram account?

Basically, it follows the same logic as explained above. However, if you have already logged in with a Facebook profile, a second Instagram account cannot run on it.

How to switch between Instagram accounts without constantly logging in and out?

Using the Instagram app, you can easily switch between two (or more) Instagram accounts. To do this, you have to press and hold on the profile picture at the bottom right. After that, you have to add the other Instagram accounts and enter the login data once. Once you have done this, you can switch between the Instagram accounts either by double clicking on the profile picture at the bottom right or by holding down long.

How to stay anonymous on Instagram?

Basically, Instagram is not a platform where you can be completely anonymous. However, there are one, two measures which you can use to remain as anonymous as possible. For example, you can use a nickname or a fantasy name for both your username and your full name, this way, your real name remains unknown to outsiders. Also, in your Instagram settings, you can specify that your Instagram account should remain private. Although other users can then find your Instagram account, they cannot follow you automatically (but must first send you a request) nor see what you have posted on Instagram.

With which tools can you create and plan Instagram posts?

There are countless social media tools, with which you can create, plan and automatically publish your Instagram posts and Instagram stories. We have also compiled a collection of several Instagram tools for this purpose. For instance, Canva is a tool for creating Instagram posts. With it, you can create really nice images or graphics that fit your company. And with the Facebook Creator Studio or Hootsuite you can schedule your Instagram posts, so they go online automatically on a day and at a time you define. More social media tools can be found at OMR Reviews.