The Risks and Benefits of Having a Public or Private Instagram Account

Social media and Instagram, in particular, are important and effective instruments for business and personal growth. There are many questions that a beginner has to solve. For example, should one make their profile private or leave it public?

Some say that it is not important. But social media experts today agree that every detail counts, especially since the competition is huge in most industries. Being accurate in every aspect of growth on Instagram, you can create a decent strategy that will bring you to success quickly. And choosing if your account will be private or public can change a lot.

Control - More Or Less?

In the question of privacy of your account on Instagram, users mostly have to decide how much control over the quality and quantity of their audience they want. Making an open account means that the flow of new users will be bigger, but there is a chance that your profile will be overwhelmed with many people, but not all of them are members of your target group. Thus, they can leave you anytime soon, annihilating your progress. Besides, some promotion sites for IG provide the opportunity which only takes to buy 30 Instagram likes, e.g., often requiring your account to be public, so the purchase of Insta likes can reach you in short terms.

On the other hand, a private account on Instagram:

• gives you greater power over the quality level of your audience,
• keep your friends base within the limits of your targeting.

With a closed account on IG, you can monitor your audience’s activity more precisely.

Exclusiveness

Making your Instagram profile private has one benefit that nothing else probably can have - it makes your content look exclusive, so it becomes more interesting to potential fans for likes. A private account gives you the opportunity to present your blog as something truly unique and somewhat mysterious, triggering human curiosity and wish to be a part of something exclusive and kept from the wide audience.

However, this strategy is not completely relevant to all niches that are popular on Instagram. Sometimes, if you have a private account yet, the information and products you have there are quite basic - you’ll be known as a snob, and people do not like that much. Public accounts are considered to be more inviting - simplicity attracts. Sometimes people just don’t want to waste time waiting while you consider if you should add them to your follower list.

They want to leave the initiative to themselves, and with public accounts, users feel their grip on it better, and they become more confident in their decision to follow you.

The short conclusion to this point is - one of the key factors that define if you must make your profile private is the uniqueness and exclusiveness of the information that you provide there.

Visibility

By default, Instagram creates your profile publicly. Basically, it means that anyone who also has a profile on this social network can look through your posts and interact with them - like, repost or save. They can also follow you freely. You will only receive the notification that someone likes your content. Private account, on the contrary, restricts access to your posts unless the person is following you. So to get to your content, people will have to sign up for your profile, and you can check who wants to follow you, accepting or declining the query.

If you decide to leave your account public, your visibility and likes number will increase, as all people who are possibly interested in your content may spread it further, as well as bring more activity to your stats. This is great, but here are a few aspects to be aware of::

• With an open account, your content may be stolen from you, as the competitors can also see what you post
• Your privacy may be compromised because it is recommended to use geotagging for better reach, and someone can simply know the place that they see on the photo
• Trolls and haters have free access to your content and commenting, so you will have to deal with unpleasant and hurting notions
• You can lose control over the quality of your audience and end up with a big number of users who do nothing with your content. Hence the activity drops, and ratings lower as well.

These flaws can be turned away by making your Instagram profile closed. But in this case, you will lose the speed of growth on social media, which is often vital for beating the competition in your niche.

So What Is The Best Strategy For Effective Growth?

For now, it is recommended to keep your IG profile open as you begin your journey as a blogger or if you are at the start of your brand campaign on social networks. This way you can gain more fans, hence more likes and views, faster. Also, your visibility is increased with public access to your content - people will spread it with their reposting and recommendations in a much more effective manner.

After you have gained weight in your industry, you can close your account and begin working on the quality of your audience. As you will by that time be popular enough, you will trigger the curiosity of new people and provide high-quality growth for your campaigns.

Sometimes brands make different accounts, making one private while the other one remains public. This tactic helps to create the feeling of exclusiveness, which increases activity on both these accounts and helps to define real buyers, who can be treated individually in the private account. Such practice assists in improving your client service and spending your time productively.

Individual Case

Instagram has a restriction for people under 13 years to access and use the platform. However, many kids use this network actively, even being underage. The progress is unstoppable and if you and your child have agreed that they can use this app, make sure their account is set to private at once, but not public for likes on Insta. Along with 2-factor authentication, this is a required measure for improved security.

With a private profile, your child can monitor everyone who tries to follow them and tell you if something is wrong. And if you have agreed to check their Instagram activity together, with privacy turned on, you can detect suspicious accounts and save your family from fraud and other unwanted activity.

Conclusion

The decision to make your account private or public is up to you and depends on the goals that you set (gain likes, increase sales) and the type of account that you want to develop on Instagram. For casual users, most brands, and popular topic bloggers - it is better to keep it open for new people to subscribe and interact with the content freely. Private accounts are strictly required for children, even the ones that are already popular on other platforms like YouTube or Tik Tok.

Some brands can separate private profiles for better client service and communication. But in general, it is not necessary if you are targeted for rapid and effective growth of likes and other engagement.

Nevertheless, you must keep in mind that IG public accounts can compromise your life's privacy, so make sure that you have secured all the aspects of it that you don’t want to be revealed to a wide audience.

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