What’s the difference between an Instagram Username and Account name?
You've probably not thought about your Instagram Username or Account Name since setting up your account so let's do a deep dive.
After all, a small mistake in either of these could have a big impact upon the growth and success of your Insta account.
Instagram Username Key Facts
A Username is unique to each account and no Usernames can be the same.
The Username is what a user types after @ to tag you on Instagram.
A Username can contain letters, numbers, full stops and underscores only.
Each Username is limited to 30 characters.
It is searchable, but only as a whole. E.g. if you search for ‘itscandid’ then my account (@itscandidsocial) might appear but if you searched just ‘candid’ then it might not.
Instagram Account Name Key Facts
The Instagram Account Name does not need to be unique.
It can use spaces, emojis and other punctuation, so feel free to be creative!
The Account Name has a 64 character limit.
Each word is searchable, so think carefully about the keywords that you prioritise for your account.
Your Instagram Username
👉 This is unique to your account alone and is displayed on every post, story and comment you make
👉 Ideally a keyword in it will aid context while you do proactive engagement (see the comment section example below).
Your Instagram Account Name
👉 This isn't unique and can be much longer than your Username
👉 Think carefully about which keywords you include here
👉 It's nice to put a name to an account. I'm pro putting your first name at the start of the Account Name, but only if it's applicable. I'm not expecting Coca Cola to put their Social Media Manager's name at the start of the Account Name 😅
👉 The Account Name is only really used on your profile, so anyone seeing it is already interested enough to have clicked on your profile.
This image demonstrates the importance of picking a strong Username, and ideally one with a keyword included in it.
Looking through this comment section, it’s easy to understand what three of the accounts are about.
However one account is just a person’s name, so might be a personal account.
If this account is being used for business purposes, they would be better served by having included a keyword in their username.
What is an Instagram Account Category?
If you display an account category on your account (e.g. Photographer) it is not searchable, unlike the Account Name and Username, so you'll need to repeat that keyword in your Account Name and Bio.
