Many artists we follow on Instagram have created a side hustle outside of the salon partnering with brands. Whether it's in exchange for products or cash, brand partnerships offer stylists a way to flex their creative muscles with looks they might not be able to create day-to-day in the salon.

In most cases, too, brand partnerships give stylist's work another page to be featured on, be it a brand, manufacturer, distributor or magazine/website--which means more eyes on the stylists' work, more changes for their work to get noticed, and more potential opportunities. 

The influencer marketing business increases year after year. According to Wired, brands in various industrious spend more and more on influencer marketing each year, making it a multi-billion dollar industry in of itself--it's a business way too large to ignore.

Instagram, arguably credited for the influencer-marketing boom, recently rolled out an account option tailor-made for influencers called a Creator Account. Unless still using a traditional profile, most influencers in the pro-beauty space use a Business Profile, introduced on Instagram in 2016, because of the tools it offers to simplify their brand partnership requirements such as access to analytics and easy-to-use contact buttons in their bio. 

"I use a business profile to be able to use insights to curate my content effectively," says stylist Alison Valsamis (@braidedandblonde). "It also allows many more call to action buttons and plug-ins like call, text, directions, buy tickets to my classes, etc."

"I love that with my business profile I can view my insights, have a direct link to my website and articles, and that future clients have any easy way to connect with me," says stylist Erin Mills (@erin.mills). 

The Creator Account takes everything artists loved about Business Profiles and fine tunes it to better fit the needs of these "creators." According to Instagram, "You can convert your personal or Business Profile into a Creator Account to access features that make it easier to control your online presence, understand your growth and manage your messages."

Updates to the Creator Account include:

• Simplified inbox: A new tab allows users to swipe messages between your Primary Inbox and General Inbox. Flag and filter messages in either inbox by read, unread or flagged. Rank pending requests by time or prominence of the account sending a message request.

• Growth insights: Understand what content helps grow user's audience by mapping new and existing posts to net follower changes.

• Contact information and category labels: Contact information and category labels (such as athlete, author or blogger) are optional and can be turned on or off.

Ashley Yuki, an Instagram product manager who oversees media solutions and IGTV among other products, said in an article published by The Hollywood Reporter: "We want to make sure that Instagram is the best place, and the easiest place, to build fan communities and also build [creators'] personal brands." 

Have you made the switch to a Creator Account? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.