Today in our Blog we will be discussing about how you can Disable for a limited time period or Permanently Delete your Instagram Account.
Instagram Account
Instagram is the most famous Social Media as of now with Snap chat trailing right behind it. One of the most engaging features of Instagram is its “Stories” which are live only for 24 hours though now Instagram gives the users an opportunity to save the stories on their highlights.
Source – Instagram-brand.com
With 1 Billion Active users on Instagram as per Statista you can’t ignore Instagram for both SMB s & Huge brands but let’s be Honest here for a moment. If you are a Small & Medium Business Owner you just have to do everything yourself & sometimes its overwhelming to manage social media accounts on your own.
Social Media channels like Instagram though are going to get you Brand Awareness & Increase Engagement with current customers its HARD to maintain a consistent posting on them. Sometimes you might just need a break from them to come back stronger!
Disabling Instagram Account
Before you decide to completely Delete your Instagram Account due to various reasons like:
1. Distraction
2. Being Busy
3. Not finding value
You can just Disable the Account for a while so you can concentrate on the more important tasks at hand.
Deletion is an irreversible process so we don’t suggest you do it until you are 100% sure you wont be getting back on the platform in the near future & Honestly who knows the future right???
You might grow so BIG that you might have a team who will be handling your social media accounts in the near future in that case getting back onto the platform from scratch makes no sense so we advice that you go with the option of Disabling the account rather than Delete it permanently at least not yet!
Steps to Disable your Instagram Account
1. You can not Disable your Instagram Account from your iPhone or Android phone as the Instagram app does not have that feature on the phone.
2. Login to instagram.com from a browser on your computer. Guess you still need a laptop sometimes. This is how the screen looks like:
3. Now Login to your Instagram Account by clicking on “Log in” option at the bottom
4. You will be logged in & directed to your home page where to the top left you will find your Instagram Profile icon.
5. Click on the person icon at the top left to get onto your Personal Profile page.
6. It will take you to your Personal Profile page with your feed
7. Now click on the “Edit Profile” button at the top to take you to your Account settings
8. At the Bottom Left you will find the option: Temporarily disable my account
9. When you click on this option you will be redirected to another page with the options where in Instagram asks you to select a reason & reconfirm your option to disable your account
10. Select a reason, reenter your password & click on the “Temporarily Disable Account” button which will now be enabled.
Thats it you have successfully disabled your account.
Important Points to Note:
1. Disabling your Account means that your account will be still active on the platform but it would be hidden. New people can not find it. Its just a break that you are taking.
2. It will be only activated once you log back into your account so this action is voluntary.
3. You can commit this action once a week, let’s say you want to be active on the platform Monday through Friday but want a break Saturday through Sunday you can opt for this.
4. Your data will be safe with the platform, your followers will not be able to see your feed anymore as your account as per the platform is not active anymore.
Deleting Your Instagram Account:
1. Deleting your Instagram Account on the other hand is a little tricky as this option is not available from your Account on Instagram.
2. You need to enter a separate URL to Access deleting your instagram account.
3. Just like Disabling your Account, Deleting your Account can not be accessed through the iPhone or Android Phone app but you need a laptop & login into a browser.
4. Enter the URL: https://www.instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/permanent/
5. You need to first logged into your Instagram Account from your browser to be able to access this link. If you are not logged in the browser will reroute you to the login option.
6. Once you are logged in the link will be able to identify your User name:
7. Deleting your Account is pretty simple, just select the reason why you would want to delete your account.
8. As soon as you select a reason there are additional options available for you:
9. You re enter your password & click on “Permanently delete my account”, thats it you are out of Instagram.
Important Points to Note
1. Once you delete your account you will not have access to your Photos, your Feed or your Followers information.
2. You can not re-login using the same user name & credentials to Instagram once you have deleted your account.
3. If you want to restart using the platform you will be treated as a new user so you would have to create a separate user name from the last one & create a new account.
4. That simply means that you would have to build Followers, Create News Feed, Upload Photos all from scratch.
Disabling v/s Deleting
You have read the process step by step but the question still remains what cases are best for Disabling the Account versus completing Deleting the Account?
1. You should look for Disabling the account if you want to take a break from the platform or May be you are going away on a Backpacking trip across the world & wont have access to the internet.
2. Sometimes when there is a lot of Bad PR out there due to probably a wrong post that you did not want to post but mistakenly done then its better to take a break rather than just soak in all the negativity out there.
3. Deleting an Account though is an irreversible process & remember as a Brand you have built the Followers & the Feed with a lot of valuable time, sweat & blood invested in it if you Delete the Account all of that along with the username is lost. So use Disable instead.
4. You can think about permanently Deleting your Account if you are going out of a niche & want to start over with a new niche but if both the niches are related then you don’t need to delete the existing profile create a new user name for the new niche but if you are starting out in a niche which is completely different from the previous one & you don’t want your existing followers to know that you are abandoning them altogether then may be you can look at Deleting your account. Though we would still suggest that you try to create a new user name for the new niche & try to cross sell or educate your existing followers about the new niche that you launched.
Well I hope you enjoyed our Blog & will take the right decision.
Have a great week ahead.
Reach out to us for a discussion on “Creating a Social Media Strategy for Your Brand” by emailing us at sirisha@brandingbypixels.com
Happy Marketing,
Sirisha Varma,
Founder, Chief Strategist,
sirisha@brandingbypixels.com
brandingbypixels.com
