A Detailed Examination of Instagram Creator Profiles
Influencer marketing is stronger than it has ever been on Instagram. To appease the influencers on Instagram, the company announced that they are coming up with new profile types called Creator Profiles.
Creator Profiles are similar to business accounts in that they get some exclusive analytics and features. However, there are some major differences between the two.
Today, we are going to talk about what Creator Profiles are, and if you should switch to one if its available.
The Rise of The Creator Profile
Today’s Instagram marketing landscape is almost completely dominated by partnerships between brands and influencers. Traditional advertising forms a small part of the total marketing spend on Instagram.
It was only a matter of time before Instagram capitalized on this trend and offered a suite of features that give more power to the influencers driving business on the platform.
The company has reiterated several times that creators and influencers are a priority for them, and they want to make Instagram the best place possible for these creators to build audiences, communities and personal brands.
Instagram Creator Profiles will be most suited for producers, public figures, influencers and artists.
The launch of Creator Profiles also comes on the back of influencers raising their voices saying that the Instagram algorithm is constantly sabotaging their efforts.
Let us take a look at the different features that will be available as part of Creator Profiles.
· Feature #1 – Additional growth tools
Reach is one of the most important considerations for influencers on Instagram, so it is no surprise that Creator Profiles include a set of tools to solve this problem.
According to Instagram, several influencers were complaining that the traditional business profile makes it difficult to track engagement and growth of followers over a period of time. The traditional business suite isn’t exactly designed with that functionality in mind.
In related news, Facebook is also testing a new Instagram Creator Studio suite, which will be added to the Creator Studio app launched last year. This new suite will be packed with all of the metrics and features influencers are looking for. They will be able to view daily and weekly analytics and work seamlessly between IGTV, Stories and posts on the feed.
Creator Profile users will also be able to see when their followers are online, new discovery metrics and additional growth insights. This is going to help influencers take back a degree of control over their engagement and reach.
One of the new features that has been only available in third-party apps until now is follow/unfollow data, letting creators know exactly what kind of content is working with their audience.
· Feature #2 – A simplified messaging suite
Influencers get lots of DMs every day, ranging from “Where did you get that outfit?” to “How much will you charge to advertise this product?” every day.
As you can probably imagine, this can quickly get overwhelming if you have hundreds of thousands of followers. Part of the Creator Profile suite will be a series of filters that will allow influencers control over which kinds of accounts can message them directly.
The new profiles will also have more options for filtering DMs, allowing influencers to prioritize messages from brands looking to collaborate or fellow creators having a conversation with them. They will be able to rank these messages by relevance, so they don’t end up missing anything important.
While this is a great tool for influencers, it puts the onus back on brands to communicate authentically with influencers and not just spam a bunch of profiles hoping to get one to partner with them.
· Feature #3 – Increased flexibility and control over your profile
Influencers will be able to control not just who is contacting them, but how they are being contacted as well. They will be able to set a preferred contact method on their profile.
By allowing influencers to choose how they are contacted, Creator Profiles will ensure that the incoming communications are high-quality and filter out irrelevant conversations. It will allow them to prioritize brand requests and relationship building.
· Feature #4 – Shoppable posts from Creators
Shoppable posts for creators is a new feature that will allow people to shop directly from a creator’s profile without having to leave Instagram. Creators will be able to tag products in their posts, making it easy for their audience to buy what they like.
Creators will no longer have to encourage users to DM them to complete a purchase. Shoppable posts were up until recently only available to retailers. With this new change, influencers and artists will be able to function as their own retailers.
While Creator Profiles are still in beta, they are going to mark a huge shift in the Instagram landscape once they become widely available. It reinforces Instagram’s continuous push to make Instagram a one-stop platform for content creators and consumers.
It is likely that Creator Profiles will be available for accounts with more than 10k followers or a specific set of metrics.
So, if you’re a budding influencer or a small brand looking to up their Instagram game, now is the time to double down. Go through all of our blog posts to understand how you can quickly get your following numbers up so that when Creator Profiles become available, you’re all set to take advantage!