You don’t have to be a social media guru to under­stand how pow­er­ful Insta­gram can be. It may serve as an excel­lent plat­form for high­light­ing prod­ucts, show­cas­ing behind-the-scenes footage, and dou­bling as a plat­form for cus­tomer com­plaints and queries. 

With­out a doubt, Insta­gram can offer a lot to a small busi­ness. How­ev­er, there are still a few unan­swered ques­tions when it comes to effec­tive small busi­ness Insta­gram mar­ket­ing and effec­tive Insta­gram usage in general. 

To help busi­ness own­ers get the most out of this plat­form, the expert team at Rosy Strate­gies has com­piled the fol­low­ing guide that breaks down the fun­da­men­tals of the social chan­nel, bring­ing essen­tial small busi­ness Insta­gram tips that will help with social efforts. 

Instagram for Small Businesses: Why Bother? 

Small busi­ness­es on Insta­gram can achieve a lot if they cre­ate an excel­lent social strat­e­gy plan and man­age their social pres­ence well. Apart from being an image- and video-friend­ly social chan­nel, Insta­gram is also incred­i­bly cru­cial as a research tool, as 81% of Insta­gram users have stat­ed that they use the plat­form for research­ing ser­vices and prod­ucts. Using prop­er Insta­gram mar­ket­ing for small busi­ness­es can open a new sales chan­nel for every small com­pa­ny seek­ing to max­i­mize the plat­for­m’s features. 

Best Small Business Instagram Tips

Two Young Business Women Sitting at Table in Front of Laptop

  1. Set­ting up and Opti­miz­ing Your Profile 

This might seem redun­dant, but it’s an inten­tion­al reminder. Even if you’ve already cre­at­ed a pro­file, it’s always smart to comb through your pro­file to see the lat­est changes and set­tings. Leav­ing links, con­tact meth­ods, hours of oper­a­tion, and oth­er nec­es­sary info can go a long way in com­ing off as reli­able and seri­ous right from the start.

Remem­ber, you only have one field where you can link some­thing on your pro­file, so ensure that you’re either refer­ring your vis­i­tors to your most sig­nif­i­cant dig­i­tal asset (web­site, online store) or your hottest trend­ing spe­cials or products. 

If you have sev­er­al impor­tant links, you can use tools that offer a land­ing page repli­cat­ing your grid with click­able links for each post to your most impor­tant prod­ucts or content. 

  1. Use Geotags 

Insta­gram for small busi­ness­es with a brick-and-mor­tar loca­tion should always use geo­t­ags, enabling you to show­case your brand pho­tos in oth­er search­es rel­e­vant to your address or area. This can help you boost brand aware­ness and sig­nif­i­cant­ly help your poten­tial cus­tomers learn about your busi­ness or get a bet­ter idea about it. 

  1. Save Rel­e­vant Posts

Small busi­ness­es on Insta­gram can also save oth­er com­peti­tor posts with great visu­als and cre­ative ideas. Don’t get us wrong; we’re not try­ing to tell you to “steal” oth­er peo­ple’s ideas. Instead, we encour­age you to keep your eyes open for fun and cre­ative influ­ences to help shape your visu­al iden­ti­ty and brand­ing approach on the plat­form. You may come across excel­lent cap­tions, good cus­tomer reviews, and visu­al inspi­ra­tion. You may also find influ­encers will­ing to part­ner with you and, ulti­mate­ly, get a bet­ter idea of what your com­peti­tors are posting. 

  1. High­lights Can Help You With Branding

Sto­ry High­lights offer even more space for small busi­ness­es to help users learn more about their busi­ness. It opens up sev­er­al oppor­tu­ni­ties to raise brand aware­ness and to give more infor­ma­tion about your company: 

  • Tell more about the com­pa­ny: You can high­light a few posts about your brand vision, val­ues, work­ing hours, and more.
  • Cus­tomer posts and reviews: You can repost cus­tomer posts and cre­ate a sto­ry high­light review compilation.
  • Add a FAQs sec­tion: Answer the most promi­nent cus­tomer ques­tions and save time by respond­ing to repet­i­tive inquiries. 
  • Loca­tion high­lights: Use these small busi­ness Insta­gram tips to show­case your loca­tion from the best angles so your cus­tomers can see what you offer. 
  • High­light your prod­ucts and ser­vices: Pin your most pop­u­lar prod­ucts and ser­vices at the top of your feed in the form of a com­pre­hen­sive high­light collection. 
  1. Get Cre­ative With Carousel Posts

Small busi­ness­es on Insta­gram may also help edu­cate their cus­tomers through intel­li­gent carousel post­ing. The carousel option can enable you to post ten pic­tures in a sin­gle post. Here, you can use your cap­tion space to help your users bet­ter under­stand what’s going on in the pic­tures or use text on the images to help get the mes­sage across even better.

You may also use the Guides fea­ture to com­pile your posts into pre­cious pieces of fea­tured con­tent. It works sim­i­lar­ly to High­lights but uses a more edi­to­r­i­al for­mat that enables you to include posts and pho­tos from your feed and saved con­tent from oth­er feeds. 

Guides can be an excel­lent way to show­case loca­tion rec­om­men­da­tions and can allow you to help users explore your neigh­bor­hood and more. 

  1. Refine Your Captions

When it comes to Insta­gram for small busi­ness­es, you should ensure that your cap­tions are all gram­mat­i­cal­ly cor­rect, with­out any errors. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, ever since you can search on Insta­gram using key­words, writ­ing pre­cise and opti­mized cap­tions has become more crit­i­cal than ever. We’re not say­ing that you can’t get cutesy and cre­ative any­more, but you will need to include the right key­words in your cap­tions to max­i­mize their potential. 

Don’t go over­board; just con­duct basic key­word research rel­e­vant to your indus­try, brand, prod­ucts, loca­tion, and ser­vices, and go from there. 

  1. Use Insta­gram Live and Encour­age Peo­ple to Reach Out

Woman Blogger Sitting on Sofa and Talking With Followers in Live Streaming With Smartphone.

Insta­gram mar­ket­ing for small busi­ness­es great­ly encour­ages own­ers to go live and engage with their fol­low­ers. First of all, every­one who fol­lows you will receive a noti­fi­ca­tion that you went live; sec­ond, there are mas­sive oppor­tu­ni­ties in going live, such as:

  • A chance to go behind the scenes: A mini tour of your loca­tion and pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties, test­ing rooms, etc., is a great way to famil­iar­ize your cus­tomers with your prod­ucts even more.
  • Q&As and Inter­views: Fol­low­ers can ask about you, your com­pa­ny, and your prod­ucts. Or, you can inter­view some­one from your team or a respectable per­son in your industry. 
  • Show­case your ser­vices and prod­ucts: Offer your fol­low­ers an in-depth look at your lat­est goods or most pur­chased products. 

Also, encour­age your fol­low­ers to inter­act with you even if you’re not live. Encour­age them to mes­sage you about what­ev­er they have to ask relat­ed to your prod­ucts, busi­ness, or ser­vices. It’s a great way to build your online com­mu­ni­ty and strength­en brand loyalty. 

  1. Pro­mote and Keep Track of the Numbers

Insta­gram mar­ket­ing for small busi­ness­es should also incor­po­rate a few good sales every now and then. As such, you can opt for exclu­sive, fol­low­ers-only pro­mo­tions for lim­it­ed peri­ods. For starters, this gives your fol­low­ers a rea­son to stay engaged with you, and sec­ond, it also cre­ates one for new prospects to start fol­low­ing you. 

Host­ing give­aways is also a great way to grow your account organ­i­cal­ly. Peo­ple love free stuff even more than good deals, so encour­age them to fol­low your account, and if they get lucky, they can receive a free gift. 

Last­ly, track your ana­lyt­ics to see whether your efforts are pay­ing off or if you need to change your strat­e­gy. Always hav­ing the data to help you make sub­tle changes to your social plan is bet­ter than watch­ing it fail and die slow­ly, just to start over again.

Taking Social Management to a New Level

Insta­gram has a lot to offer to small busi­ness­es, but with­out the prop­er knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence, every effort can eas­i­ly fall through the cracks and yield lit­tle to no benefits. 

That said, if you are look­ing for a skilled social media agency in Mia­mi and Fort Laud­erdale, FL, we can help you ensure that your social chan­nels dri­ve the traf­fic and sales your busi­ness deserves. Reach out to us today!