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How to connect Facebook and Instagram to your business

The setup in the order that actually works, including the linking step everyone misses and the verification details that get people rejected.

Step by step

  1. 1

    Never make a second personal Facebook account

    This is the mistake that gets an entire Meta presence disabled, personal and business together. One personal profile can administer as many Pages as you like. Your profile is the key; the Page is the door it opens. The same is true on LinkedIn.

  2. 2

    Create the Page from your existing account

    Go to facebook.com/pages/create. Name it, pick a category, add your website. Choose the category for how customers look for you, not for what you build: a local business category gives you hours, address and price range, and helps you show up in local search. A category like Software gives you none of those fields.

  3. 3

    Create the Instagram account and switch it to Professional

    Instagram accounts are per brand, so this one really is a new account. Use an email not already tied to another Instagram login, then switch it to Professional, then Business. This is not optional: no tool can publish to a personal Instagram account through the API. If you cannot find the switch, the account is probably already professional, open the profile and look for a Professional dashboard button.

  4. 4

    Link Instagram to the Page

    The step people miss, and the one that matters most. Every tool reaches Instagram through the linked Facebook Page, so an unlinked account is invisible no matter how correct everything else is. Easiest from the Instagram app: Settings, Business, Connect to Facebook, then pick the Page. It shows a confirmation naming the business portfolio and the Page before it commits, and that screen is worth reading.

  5. 5

    Decide your business portfolio structure early

    A portfolio is the container that owns your Pages, Instagram accounts and ad accounts, and Meta Business Suite only works inside one at a time. That explains the usual confusion: you go to add something and only see another business's assets. One portfolio named after your legal entity is usually right, because business verification is granted per portfolio and every Page you add later inherits it. One portfolio per business is also valid, it just costs a verification each.

  6. 6

    Fill in business details before verifying

    Settings, Business info, Business details. The legal name and address must match your formation documents character for character. Martian Industries and Martian Industries LLC are different businesses as far as verification is concerned, and a mismatch is the most common rejection.

  7. 7

    Verify the business

    Settings, Security Center, Business Verification. Meta shows public records it found and asks you to pick one, choose the most specific: full street address including any apartment number, and the entry listing the most identifiers, since an EIN and a state registration number together beats either alone. Your ID photo must be at least 1500 by 1000 pixels, which a screenshot usually is not, so photograph the ID with your phone instead.

Tips

  • ✓Check the document, not your memory. If you formed the company through a service, the address on file with the state may be an old one, and the address on the welcome packet is often the mailing address of whoever ordered the formation rather than the registered office.
  • ✓If you have moved since forming the company, matching the old record now is faster than filing an amendment first. Meta does not care that the address is stale, only that it agrees with your document.
  • ✓Renaming a Facebook Page locks the name for 60 days, so do it before you need it rather than the week you need it.
  • ✓A Page must belong to a portfolio before anything else in that portfolio can reference it. Add the Page first, then the Instagram account.

What you'll actually see

  • Connecting an account is not the same as being allowed to post to it. Facebook Pages and Instagram need the app you are using to hold Advanced Access through Meta App Review, and business verification comes first.
  • LinkedIn company pages need separate approval from LinkedIn.
  • Until those clear, a good tool drafts the post and hands you the caption and image to publish by hand. If a tool claims otherwise, it is describing a step it cannot take.
▸Video scripta 60-120s narration you can record as-is

If you have ever tried to connect Instagram to a scheduling tool and hit a wall, it is almost always one of two things. First, the Instagram account has to be a Professional account, not a personal one. Nothing can publish to a personal account through the API. Second, and this is the one that catches everyone, Instagram has to be linked to a Facebook Page. Every tool reaches Instagram through that Page, so an unlinked account is simply invisible. Do those in order: make the Page from your existing personal profile, never a second account. Create the Instagram account, switch it to Professional and then Business. Then link it to the Page from the Instagram app under Settings, Business, Connect to Facebook. After that, put both in one business portfolio named after your legal entity, fill in your business details exactly as your formation documents read, and verify. Get the legal name right down to the LLC, because that mismatch is the most common rejection there is.