Recently in the Savvy Social School, one of my students and I were discussing a question I get asked a lot: should your business have one or two Instagram accounts? If your brand has two business branches, or if you have a main job and a side hustle, or even if your business is launching a podcast, the question may come up as to whether or not you should keep all your profiles on one account or split them up, and there are pros and cons to both options.
This blog post covers 6 things you should consider before creating a second Instagram account.
1. Multiple Accounts Allow You to Segment Your Audience
If you have multiple interests or products, having two accounts allows you to separate your content between different demographics.
Suppose you’re a lawyer in your day job and you also have a YouTube channel that you work on nights and weekends. In that situation, you might want to have a separate account so that you weren’t trying to market the same content to two audiences that are interested in wildly different things.
Separating audiences might also be important if you have a business with a few different locations. This makes the most sense for franchises and businesses that operate somewhat independently, getting different stock or keeping different business hours. Having separate accounts lets each account speak directly to their exact audience.
2. Differentiate Your Content
I can think of a few publications out there who branch their content out into different subdomains that produce content around separate topics. For example, a digital magazine might have a women’s health account, a food account, and a home décor account.
If you have a lot of print and visual content, this can be a good tool because you can loop into topic-specific hashtags and the audience interested in that exact subject matter.
3. Two Account Allows You to Isolate Your Business and Personal Lives
Some professionals have a business account for their collective or agency that represents the work of multiple people on their team.
Even if one person is the “face” of the organization, that account is still a professional brand that you manage. In this case, separating your personal posts on a separate account is a great way to differentiate your personal brand from your agency’s brand. Real estate agents and agency folks often fall into this bucket. And the OnlineDrea & Savvy Social School accounts could also fall into this category.
4. The More Accounts You Have, the More Time It Takes to Manage Them
One of the biggest downsides to having two Instagram accounts is that you’ll need to put more time and effort into both. You’re going to be making double the content, spending double the time replying to comments and answering DMs.
Plus, if you do decide to separate them, then your content and audience are likely different, which means sourcing separate graphics, using different hashtags, connecting with different influencers in separate fields. It can end up being a lot of extra work.
5. Multiple Accounts May Confuse Your Users
It can be confusing to someone who’s new to your brand to look you up and find two different accounts. Which one should they follow? If the distinction isn’t clear, they may not know who to follow or why.
Say you’re a business coach and you run a podcast about business coaching that has your name in the title. If you separate your Instagram accounts for the podcast and your consulting business, but they both have your photo on them and use your name, it’s likely to make your followers unsure which one of you they should follow.
Having a centralized account for both you and your podcast brings clarity and gives people one easy place to keep up with your content.
6. Have as Few Accounts as You Can Get Away with
I’ve been a social media strategist for years, and in my opinion, you should have as few accounts as possible. This is mostly a practical concern; I get the best results when I can put all my energy and effort into one, high-quality account that gets my full attention. What you focus on grows.
7. Choose What Works Best for Your Brand
Ultimately, the decision has less to do with marketing and more to do with practicality. Do you have the time and energy to manage two accounts? Are your businesses so different that they have very distinct audiences? If the answer is yes, then go ahead! If not, I recommend keeping them together.
There isn’t a hard and fast rule on this topic, so take a look at these considerations and make the best decision for your business.
