13 ways to use Instagram for small business
Written by Jenn Chen
Published on August 25, 2021
•Reading time 9 minutes
By now, you’ve seen the power of Instagram. From customer complaints to a product going viral, the platform offers many features for small businesses, leveling the proverbial digital playing field between small and large businesses. But because it’s been around for a while, there’s loads of information available to you on how brands can use it. In this guide, we break down how to use Instagram for your small business from taking advantage of the platform’s features to specific ideas on how to increase your digital footprint.
Why should you use Instagram for your small business?
When your presence properly planned and managed, Instagram offers a wide set of advantages to small businesses. If you’re using the platform as a marketing outlet, then you need a documented Instagram marketing strategy. Yes, even if it’s only you running the account. According to Instagram’s own study, 81% of users said that Instagram helps them research products and services. You don’t want to miss out on a whole set of customers just because you’re not active on the network. Read on for tips to maximize small business accounts on Instagram.
1. Basics: Set up your profile
You might roll your eyes at this but it’s a necessary reminder. Once you’re set up as a business account, take a moment to comb through your Instagram profile. New features and settings are changed all the time, sometimes without notice. It doesn’t hurt to check if you’ve got some new features to try out. Other standard essential business profile items to consider include updating the business categories, hours, location(s), a contact method and linking any service or product catalogs. While you’re over here, check and make sure your profile elements, such as your bio and profile picture, are in line with your general social media branding.
2. Optimize your link in bio
Social media managers have gotten creative on how to take full advantage of the single link field that Instagram offers. It’s become common to refer to your “link in bio” in posts, and use this link to serve up a landing page with a mix of recent content and evergreen links to your most important product and service pages. If your business is one that shares links, has multiple links you want to provide to customers, has multiple offerings or all of the above, then the landing page approach is for you. There are several tools that let you create a link in bio landing page. Sprout Social’s SproutLink makes setting one up easy by offering a landing page that replicates your grid and provides clickable links for each post to highlight and drive traffic to your most important content. Plus, you can stay within Sprout’s Instagram publishing workflow to optimize and schedule the rest of your content. Just like you want to set up your profile with essential business information, small businesses should share the most important information with customers via link in bio.
3. Geotag your posts
When you post from your small business physical location, add the location name to the post. If you didn’t do this when posting before, you can scroll into past posts and edit them. What does geotagging do? Instagram compiles all of the posts tagged at that location, sorting them into top and recent. Your brand photos live among customer photos. The “View Information” towards the top links to information about the tagged business. All of this adds up to brand awareness and helps customers research your business. Don’t know what to order at a restaurant? Just browse the most recent photos and see what people recommend.
4. Use the save post feature
This strategy is not public-facing but could be useful for boosting your small business’s Instagram content strategy. Instagram offers the ability to “save” a post and sort them into a collection for you to view later. While it is not necessary to create collections, it’s advisable. There are many ways to use this feature for research and inspiration. Some collection ideas include:
- What your competitors are posting about
- Visual inspiration for photos
- Great captions you’ve come across
- Ideas for future posts
- Customer reviews
- Both happy and unhappy customer posts
- Potential influencers
As you can see, there are quite a few options for you. If you find yourself thinking, “Oh, this is a great post,” hit that save button.
5. Use Highlights to showcase what your business is all about
Instagram’s Stories Highlights feature offers you a chance to share even more about your company. Highlights prolong the life of your Stories by featuring them on your profile after they would normally disappear, and can help you collect those Stories into an easy source of evergreen content. Since they display above your grid, start with the basics, such as:
- About: Just a few posts on your values, hours and brand
- Locations or highlights per location: If you have multiple locations, talk about each one and share photos from them
- Customer reviews or posts: Repost from customer feed posts or create a graphic that highlights reviews from elsewhere
- FAQs: Share information that customers often request. This also saves you time when responding to customers because you can then redirect them to this Highlight
- Product/service features: Do an overall one or a Highlight per product or service. Some things you just can’t fit into one post. This is where you can go deep into the details.
In our Sprout Social Index™: Social Media Trends for 2022 & Beyond, private or direct messaging accounts for 38% of brands’ social media strategy. Add that to the nearly three-quarters of consumers who expect a response on social media within 24 hours. Increasing your DM usage doesn’t mean only responding. You should also actively engage with the customer on their own feed and stories. As your Instagram DM usage builds, you’ll find yourself needing a way to manage all the messages. This is where Sprout’s Smart Inbox feature comes into play. Manage your Instagram DMs using a workflow so you can spend more time responding to customers.
13. Track your analytics
It’s worth repeating this advice that’s found in other guides: track those Instagram analytics. Without data to back up your gut feeling of success, your strategies don’t hold up. If you’re just starting out, you can wade into your native insights through either the Instagram app or Facebook. You also want to be sure that you understand the differences between impressions, reach and other network-specific metrics. Sprout’s Instagram Business Profiles Report tracks engagement, hashtag performance and top post performance. You can compare your Instagram performance to your other networks with the Profile Performance Report in Sprout, too. Examine your Instagram data for more insights on what’s working or where you can improve your strategy.
Taking your Instagram for small business strategy further
This list is a great place to start with Instagram marketing tactics that small businesses can use to improve their presence on the network. Beefing up your Instagram strategy with tips like using Stories Highlights and using Instagram Live regularly will help you establish a connection with your customers. Are you starting your Instagram brand strategy completely from scratch? Create a personalized Instagram marketing strategy with our in-depth resources. Learn how to set goals, create a content plan and more.
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