It’s the age-old question, “Should I combine my business account with my personal account or keep them separate”? SO MANY entrepreneurs struggle with this. Today, we’re breaking it down and answering the question once and for all: Should you have ONE Instagram account that encompasses personal AND business…. Or should you separate them?

There’s not just one way to do it! We’ve seen people have success with boys ways. This isn’t an episode about HOW to turn a personal account into a business account, this is an answer to SHOULD I? And WHY?

 

Our Method:

This is what WE love and what we’ve seen work for us and hundreds of others around us.

Create one Instagram account. Infuse your personal life and your personality into your business. The reality is, your goal should not be to just build a business. You want to infuse a personality and a human connection into your business that creates longevity. In the future, you may want to pivot. Your interests, passion, skills, audience base, and customers may shift and you may want to pivot with that. If you just set up a corporate and stoic storefront, people arent going to want to pivot with you because they don’t have a personal connection to what you are offering.

Whereas, if you build a customer base and a loyal brand enthusiast base under the umbrella of a “personal brand” you have the opportunity and ability to add more income streams and diversity in the future. You can scale, pivot, and continue to stretch out your brand because it is connected to you. 

Build a brand where people are following you for you, not just the content you create, the service you offer, or the product you provide. You want to create a connection with your people as well as a business. Focus on both. 

This means not just posting photos of your service or product. Post photos of your self and get on stories! Give people the opportunity to connect and fall in love with you as a human being, not your work. Your work or product is the cherry on top.

Making your account more personal builds a brand that creates future clients. You want people to come to the community that you are building. The goal is to build a community of people that connect, relate, and engage before, during, in spite of, or after ever needing your product or service. You want to create a space where people are invited and drawn in before you are ever trying to sell to them and before they are ever interested in buying.  

You have to realize that you are being invited into somebody’s life in one capacity or another, especially if you are a service based business owner. People are opening their lives to you and are usually more hesitant to invite in a stranger. You want them to feel like they are inviting a friend into their life.

People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Cultivate that on your social media. 

It’s all about creating brand enthusiasts who are going to promote and scream your work from the rooftops to everyone they know whether or not they need or purchase your service or product because they are so in love with the mission, heart, and humanity behind your brand. 

We’re not talking about personal branding in today’s episode. That’s a WHOLE other topic. (Go listen to episode #4!!)

Branding is the meat and potatoes of HOW to cultivate personal relationships and connections. The core principle of all of these things: connection is KEY. People are DRIVEN by connection today. Harnessing that in your social media presence is GAME CHANGING!

When you let your personality shine in your business it’s not unprofessional, it’s connection

Being professional is showing up when you say you’re going to show up, doing what you say you’re going to do, being a good servant, and being a good leader. Professional doesn’t have to be boring and stale. 

Show up and be professional in how you go about business, but show up and be you in what you say and how you say it. That is where your personality shines and people will create the most connection. 

We need to get rid of the term “professional”. Professionalism, as a business, needs to be redefined as excellence. You need to do excellent work and do things with purpose. Desire to strive for excellence rather than “professionalism”. 

 

Why 2 separate accounts typically doesn’t work

When you have separate accounts, you tend to segregate your personality and interests to your personal account and you keep your business account solely for promoting your service or product.

When you’re JUST selling on your business account, there is typically no value or connection. You aren’t thinking about marketing a personal brand because you already have your personal page. Nobody wants to be sold to all day long so they’re unlikely to follow.

All the fun aspects of life are typically kept to personal and not included in the business account. It can be confusing and make your job much more difficult. It can create a dilemma and time suck if you are constantly wondering what to post where. 

 

When separate accounts works 

Abbi Hearne (who was on episode 9) is a great example for someone who has both accounts and does it well! On her wedding account, @thehearnes, she just shows wedding photos, and they’re SO GOOD! On her personal account, @abbihearne, she shares her life and adventures. She first built up her personal and had quite a bit of a following before she even started @thehearnes. She shared her adventurous lifestyle and focused on both the personal aspect as well as the imagery. Even though she has it separate, she does a phenomenal job showing up on stories and creating incredible captions on both accounts. She’s still creating connection with each audience. Most of the audiences cross over to both accounts because SHE is the glue holding both together.

If you do have separate accounts, make sure you are still showing up and sharing your personality on your business account. 

If you are looking to scale and diversify your products, services, and/or companies you may want to have separate accounts. 

Amber Fillerup is a great example. Her personal account/brand is @amberfillerup, her hair extension account is @bfbhair, and her hair care line is @daehair. Her hair extensions account started when she took her wildly successful personal blog (Barefoot Blonde) and created products out of it. She is still the center of each of the accounts. All the different companies and accounts are all still very personal and connection based. 

She’s continued to scale and diversify her companies, products, and services, but they still ALL revolve around her. Her personality, touch, and expertise are all infused in each account and company. Her product lines are focused even more on the consumer. 

If you plan to create new products and services as your business grows, we really encourage creating new Instagram accounts, but ALWAYS focus on connection with your customers. That’s the bottom line.

 

Advice 

Treat your business account as if it’s personal. Infuse your personality through posts and stories. If you want both, have both, but make sure you infuse your personality! Work smarter not harder. Having more accounts means more work! 

 

Episode Links

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