Even though Instagram recently made it easier to manage multiple accounts, the technicalities of managing two or more accounts are only a small portion of the effort. When done successfully, using multiple Instagram accounts can help you strengthen your relationship with specific audiences, grow your following in new markets and create multiple narratives for your brand that all help you meet your goals. From the technical management of multiple accounts to creating an Instagram strategy for each profile, let’s go over strategic ways to manage multiple Instagram accounts for one brand.
Reasons your brand should consider creating multiple Instagram accounts
Separate your employer brand efforts from your marketing efforts
The benefit of having multiple Instagram accounts for the same brand is to customize your marketing messaging to different audience segments. If you’re going to create multiple accounts, make sure there is a need for it. The accounts should be different enough that you can create unique content that appeals to the interests of each particular audience. Starbucks Jobs highlights employment opportunities, education support and Veteran employment transition, and employee testimonials.
Build the brand of different product lines or interests
In addition to having audiences in different countries, some brands create accounts that cater to audiences that share specific interests. Nike has mastered the art of creating specific content for every group of people who enjoy their products. They have profiles dedicated to Nike Women, Nike Basketball, Nike Running and dozens of other subaccounts. When your account is specific to a niche within your audience, it’s important to create content that caters to them. It’s not enough to syndicate the content from the main brand page. You need to create original content that speaks directly to this interest group.
Customize your presence for different regional audiences
One reason big brands create multiple Instagram accounts is to cater to different geographic locations. Audiences in different locations may have different demographics or content preferences. It’s also helpful to be able to communicate to different areas in their language to achieve the right nuance with the messaging. Airbnb has Instagram accounts for different countries and uses marketing strategies that speak directly to their audience in that country.
Set goals for each profile
The most common goal among social media marketers is to increase brand awareness. Along with managing multiple Instagram accounts, you have to set goals for each profile. Nike Running appeals to runners specifically. So they use that profile to promote new running shoes while speaking in terms that runners relate to. Profiles that are more product driven may have goals related to sales or clicks to the website or landing page. Brand accounts that are more for entertaining or community building might have goals related to engagement or brand awareness. Nike Los Angeles is another Nike subaccount, but you won’t find many promotional posts on that page. Instead, they post content related to their community in Los Angeles and share stories rather than push to sell products. These two profiles, while supporting the same brand, probably have very different goals by which to measure success. And with Sprout’s Instagram Profiles Report, your brand can dig deeper into your Instagram analytics for each profile. Sprout’s reporting tools can help you monitor your progress toward your social media goals by tracking your results over time.
Create a content strategy for each account
Maintaining multiple Instagram business accounts also means maintaining an individual content strategy for each profile. This includes figuring out the best types of posts that work for each audience and the times of day that your posts will get the most visibility. Sephora uses different accounts to create content for its audiences all over the world. If you look at their various accounts, they heavily cater to customers in that region by emphasizing the local style. To create a unique strategy for each account, you need to understand your audience to a high degree. The 2019 Sprout Social Index found that the second biggest challenge social marketers face is understanding their target audience. Luckily, you can use social listening tools to try to get to know your audience on a deeper level. With Sprout’s social listening tool, you can get even more insight into what an audience wants to see by tracking conversations around relevant topics. You can also use our Instagram Profiles Report to find your top performing posts, a content breakdown by type, hashtag performance and more. This will also help you track consumer behavior related to the topic of your Instagram page. You can use Sprout’s social listening solutions to get up to date information on your audience’s demographics, geographic location, device usage, and more. All of this information can be used to create a tailored experience for your audience. Although, if a post is gaining a lot of reach on one profile, it’s okay to repost it on another one of your brands accounts. Yes, you should be creating original content for each specific audience. But if something appeals to a lot of people and is relevant, there’s no harm in sharing it across accounts.
Know how to switch between Instagram accounts
Managing multiple Instagram business accounts is a lot easier now that the platform lets you manage all accounts from a single device. You can easily switch back and forth between accounts by clicking on the settings icon in the top right of your app. Then, scroll to the bottom of this area and click “add an account.” Repeat this process for each account you want to be able to manage on the device. Once all of your accounts are logged in, you can switch back and forth directly from your profile. If you’re using a platform like Sprout Social, you can manage each account directly from the platform instead of switching back and forth between each. Keep in mind, though, that most social media management software require you to have an Instagram Business account before it can post on your behalf. Once you have an Instagram Business account, you can use Sprout to manage all of your Instagram feeds from one place. With Sprout, you can easily manage multiple Instagram accounts with your team through the Smart Inbox. You can collaborate on creating or assigning tasks, marking messages as complete and alerting other users with real-time notifications when someone else is viewing or replying to a message. This feature can be extremely helpful for brands that have different people managing different brand profiles.
Manage multiple Instagram accounts with purpose
Brands with multiple Instagram accounts are using those platforms to tell niche stories through visual content. With multiple accounts targeting different audiences, you have the opportunity to tell stories that resonate with more people. Managing multiple accounts doesn’t have to be complicated. When you use the right tools you can create a strategy that helps you use these accounts to meet your overall business goals. Loews Hotels & Co uses Sprout to manage individual accounts, including different Instagram profiles, for many of its properties throughout the US and Canada. With 24 properties and counting, this might seem like a daunting task, but using a tool like Sprout to organize and manage these accounts helps them get the maximum strategic and storytelling benefit out of these separate profiles. Having multiple Instagram accounts lets brands like this pinpoint unique variations between the target audience of each profile, whether that’s based on niche interests, location or other trains that can help a brand communicate more precisely and directly with that audience. Try managing your brand’s multiple Instagram and other social accounts with a free trial of Sprout.
