A Beginner’s Guide to Instagram for Small Businesses
June 21, 2022
If you’re a small business owner who wants to use Instagram to grow your business, you’re in the right place.
There are many benefits of promoting your small business on Instagram. Improving your Instagram profile can bring you more leads, help you build your online community and increase your brand awareness.
We’ve created this beginner’s guide with small business owners in mind. Read on to learn more about using Instagram as a small business and tips that can help you make the most of your business’s Instagram profile.
#1. Optimize your profile
First and foremost, you need to create your company’s Instagram profile. People come to your profile to learn more about who you are and what you do. It’s important to make the right first impression and create a social media profile that stands out and gets you noticed. Here’s how:
Username
Choose your username wisely. For most companies, we recommend simply using your business name as your Instagram username. People will search for your profile by typing in your business name, so it’s important that your username matches those searches. If, for some reason, your username isn’t available, try to keep your username as close to your business name as possible.
Profile photo
We recommend using your logo as your profile photo. Instagram uses circular profile photos, so if your logo is too large and won’t fit into a circle, create a condensed version using a piece of your original logo. Creating an Instagram-optimized version of your logo will let you keep brand consistency while keeping your logo visually appealing.
Bio
Your Instagram bio should summarize your company and services using on-brand language. It’s also important to link off to your website within your Instagram bio. You can do this by directly copying your URL, or using a tool, like Tap Bio, that lets you use one link to send people to different pages (they’ll choose what page they want to visit).
Instagram doesn’t let you add links on individual posts, so it’s important to have a link within the bio section.
For example, check out the Marketing 360® Instagram:
#2. Create social content
If you’re a small business owner with no dedicated social media team, chances are, you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to creating social content. If that’s the case, use strategic batch photography to your advantage. Using this approach, you can create up to six months of social content in just a day!
Types of Instagram posts
It’s important to create content that engages your audience while keeping Instagram user behavior in mind. Instagram users don’t just check the app to see what their favorite brands are up to — they’re also checking in on their family and friends. Your company’s post will be among lots of personal posts and other branded posts, so make sure your post is eye-catching.
From behind-the-scenes shots of your business to professional product photos, there are a variety of ways to showcase your business in your Instagram posts. You can get creative and quirky, or keep things professional, depending on your desired audience and brand image. Some post ideas include:
- Tutorials: For example, if you’re a local bike shop, you can take users behind the scenes with a how-to video for a simple bike repair. Not only is this engaging, but it can also build authority and show your audience that you know your stuff!
- Q&As: Get to know your followers! Post a question, and encourage followers to answer in the comments. Make sure you go through and respond to comments. Not only does this engage your audience, but you may learn valuable insights about your customers.
- Specials and promotions: Are you running a daily meal special, or offering a weekend promotion? Share the info on social media to get the word out.
- Contests: Instagram contests can be a great way of attracting new customers. Create a giveaway offer, like a gift card or a sample basket, and have users enter to win by commenting on your post and tagging a friend. This can increase brand awareness among your followers’ friends while giving your loyal followers a chance to win.
- Influencer posts: Influencer marketing provides social proof, which is an important psychological aspect of online marketing. By using influencer posts, new potential customers will see your brand as trustworthy and will be more willing to try you out. See how influencer marketing can provide instant success in this case study.
- User-generated content: If people post images of themselves using your product or service, visiting your restaurant, or working out at your gym, share it on your profile as well. This can help provide social proof similar to influencer marketing, and it shows that you are engaged with your valuable customers.
#3. Try out Instagram advertising
A promoted post through Instagram advertising can be a great way to quickly grow your followers and engage with potential new customers.
Instagram advertising can be set up through Facebook’s ad manager, allowing you to take advantage of all the user information and data within Facebook’s advertising tools. You can target people based on location, demographics, interests, and behaviors, You can even make custom audiences using your existing customer information and lookalike audiences to find new people who are similar to your existing customers.
There are also a handful of Instagram ad placements to choose from. You can use a video ad, place an ad in the stories section, or create a simple photo ad that can appear in your audience’s feeds.
No matter your ad setup, it’s critical to be able to measure results from your Instagram advertisement. You’ll be able to see an overview of your ad performance in Facebook’s ad manager or the native Instagram app.
Think about the goal of your ads, and create a measurement plan to see if your ad is performing well. Do you want to increase awareness? Send people to your website? Bring in more sales? Determine the goal of your campaign, and make sure you’re aligning your Instagram strategy with that goal.
Learn more about Instagram for small businesses
For more information on how to grow your business through Instagram, check out our blog on How to Make the Most of Lead Generation on Instagram.
Originally published on 4/30/20
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