Instagram has two main profile types — professional or personal — with three options: Business, Creator, and Personal. Business and Creator profiles are considered professional accounts, and they offer many of the same features. Personal Instagram accounts, on the other hand, have a simplified interface and limited additional features. In order to use RootNote (and any platform that connects directly to Instagram), you must have a Business or Creator profile (i.e. professional account). Additionally, many companies you work with will require you to have a Business or Creator profile, even if you're not using a third party platform or marketplace. Also, if you're interested in using Meta Verified, you need a Business or Creator account.

In many cases, Business and Creator accounts have access to the same features. Especially when it comes to things like analytics. However, creator profiles do have access to a few specific features that may be enticing specifically for content creators, influencers, artists etc. Those include access to monetization tools like subscriptions and badges, seeing trending audio for use in post creation, and controlling what types of ads appear on their profiles when a user is scrolling through. Business accounts, on the other hand, have access to a built-in lead generation form and the ability to include a business address. We recommend most individual content creators, bands, influencers, and athletes etc. go with a Creator account, but as long as you have a Creator or Business account, you're good to go. 

If you have a Personal account, follow these steps to changing it to a Creator or Business account: 

1. Open the Instagram app and go to your profile (the bottom right circle). 
2. Click the three lines in the top right corner to access the "Settings and Activity" menu. 
3. Scroll down until you see the "For professional" section.
4. Click "Account type and tools."
5. Click "Switch to professional account" and hit "next" at the bottom. 
6. Choose which type of creator best suits you.
7.  Click "Switch to professional account."
8. Choose between Creator or Business.
9. Choose to link to Accounts Center or click "not now" — either option is fine!

Alright, so now that you've got your Instagram profile in the right place, here's why you need to also connect it to a Facebook page in order to use just about every important feature: because Meta owns both and they want you to. (Just kidding! Sort of...). There actually is a lot of great value in connecting your Instagram account to a Facebook page. It comes down to how you're able to reach your audience and advertise your content. It also makes you much more valuable to brands looking to do collaborations with you. Here is what Facebook says about the on-platform benefits of connecting a professional Instagram account to a Facebook Page. We know it may seem a little laborious right now, especially if you have zero presence on Facebook, but we promise it's absolutely worth it in the long run to be correctly plugged in to the Meta ecosystem. 

A Facebook profile is something anybody can have. A Facebook Page is something that somebody with a Facebook profile creates and manages. The Page is used for things like businesses, bands, brands, influencers, actors, and more. Facebook does also have a "professional mode" for profiles, but that mode currently doesn't let you connect your Instagram account to it. You have to have a Facebook Page to do that. Here's Facebook's page specifically on the difference if you want to know more.