It’s official! Brand profiles are coming to Instagram. I have posted about this, and there has been much speculation. Instagram published a post today about what is coming. The speculation has been running wild on the net. I have had plenty of questions that haven’t been answered. We get a few more answers and before they are released.

Business Profiles 

The official post says “Business profiles are a free feature for accounts wanting to be recognized as a business on Instagram.” It seems by this statement if you’re a business and want to remain as a regular account, you have that option. By doing this, you will get benefits of being a business. That means no contact or insights.

This profile lets you set how to be contacted. You can set the contact button for the customer/lead to call, text or email your business. I think these are all great options. I’m not sure how many will choose text. Also, if you’re a physical store/business.  People can get directions to your business through the app. This will save time in not having to search for information about your business.

Insights

“Instagram give businesses actionable information about who their followers are and which posts resonate better than others—all from within the mobile app.’ It’s not said specifically what information they will be giving. The pictures they posted looked very much like Facebook Insights. I would love to see specific post details as well. One place to get information such as likes and comments without having to scroll through your profile. It would be even better if it could be exported into Excel. That is a big wish.

Promote

“The ability to promote lets you turn well-performing posts into ads right within the app—helping you connect with even more customers.” Facebook has been promoting Instagram integration into the ad platform. They have been wanting page owners to link an Instagram account to the page for some time. Instagram advertising for small businesses have never been easy. The induction into the Facebook Ad platform made it a bit easier. However, it was still a bit wonky. The business profiles will have a function similar to promoted posts on Facebook. It will be an easy way to boost posts. This will be a welcome addition.

The Brand Profiles are going to be rolling out in New Zealand, Australia and US over the next few months. It will be in other countries by the end of the year. More on this when it gets closer!