Instagram has evolved into a crucial marketing tool for businesses, allowing you to promote visual content and influence trends.
To attract and reach more of the public and better engage their audience, businesses should open up their Instagram account. However, more and more business brands and influencers are now going privately on Instagram.
So, why?
We decided to find out why you may need to consider a private account for your business.
- Public vs. Private: Understanding The Difference
With a public account, you can switch to a creator or business account that gives you unique features like an online shop. It also provides you with access to Instagram Analytics and promotional features. More importantly, having a public account allows you to appear more widely—on feed lists, searches, and the Explore pages.
Meanwhile, a private account means being less open to just anybody. So, the only people who will view and interact with your content will be your followers.
Being private doesn’t necessarily mean you can hide content from the public. Tools like a private Instagram viewer allow you to access a private Instagram account anonymously and its content.
- Why Switch To A Private Account?
- Creating Exclusivity
There’s nothing better than having exclusivity to build up some FOMO. When your Instagram account is private, people will need to follow you to gain access to your content. This creates intrigue and mystery, particularly if you already have a large followers.
It makes people ask, “What’s the hype about?”
FOMO is convenient if you’re launching new products, for instance. You’re rewarding your loyal followers with an exclusive first look while nudging on newbies’ curiosity.
- Gain More Followers
In connection with the previous point, as people get more curious about your content, the more likely they will hit the “Follow” button as the only way how to view private Instagram profiles.
This is why going private has become a trend for meme accounts. These accounts know that their content is highly shareable between friends. By switching to a private account, every time one of your followers shares your content with a non-follower friend, that non-followers friend will be tempted to follow your account to see the content their friend shared with them.
The results? Your account will slowly but surely get more followers every day.
- Following Privacy Trend
There’s a trend towards personalized content and privacy. Switching to private account results from a broader trend of brands moving towards smaller, quality, closed groups.
You suggest that you care more about quality relationships than the public reach by limiting the number of users who can see and engage with your post.
Followers will feel that every content you share is customized just for them as if they are a special member of a private space you set up just for them.
- Retaining Followers
A private account may help improve your follower retention. Before a follower can unfollow you, a pop-up message will ask them if they’re sure about their action. This can make users think twice about unfollowing and consider what they are leaving behind. If your content is incredible, they may decide to stick around.
Another reason why your followers may hesitate to unfollow you is that there is no guarantee that they can follow your account again in the future. After all, it’s up to you to decide whether to accept the following request, the second time around. If they unfollow you, there can be no turning back. And that can make them simply tap the back button.
- Provides More Control And Safety
With increased online activity, a public account can make it difficult to control who sees your content. Switching to a private account can help with that.
A private account gives you more control since it limits who has seen and access to your content, and you can decide who’s watching you. This makes it trickier for content thieves to use or repost your content.
And it’s not just keeping your content safe. You also have more control over your followers and help deal better with online harassment and trolling.
If you get a follow request from a suspicious account, you can simply decline it. And if you’re getting harassed by a follower, you can kick them out of your account.
Take Away
And there you have it!
Going private on Instagram can provide some real benefits, but only for certain types of accounts. So, it’s important to first think about your brand’s goals, size, and the kind of content you produce, before locking your Instagram account in the world.
