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With over 1 billion active users and the highest engagement rates in the realm of social media, Instagram has become a very powerful tool for brands big and small to connect with their audience. 

Instagram reports that 90% of its users follow a brand account on the platform, which means that if your business caters to customers between the ages of 18-34, it’s a great idea to look into developing a presence on this platform.

In recent years, Instagram has introduced new features that give businesses more opportunities to engage with users and promote their products and services in new ways.

• Features in Stories: Although this has been on the platform for some time, there are features within Instagram stories that can help you interact with your customer base in new ways, like polls, questions, and more. Brands with a larger following can also link directly to products or other webpages in their stories as well. You can also build your social proof by re-sharing stories from other accounts that tag your business page.

• Shoppable Posts: Another feature that brands can enjoy is the ability to upload links to products to create “shoppable posts”. This allows businesses to link to products in their posts that users can access by simply tapping the post. Users can even purchase the product and check out without leaving the app. This makes for a seamless shopping experience for your customers.

• Video Posts on IGTV: Before the launch of IGTV, video posts on Instagram were limited to 60 seconds or less. Now, brands can upload longer-form videos to Instagram using this feature. These appear on the profile grid as a regular post where users can watch the beginning and tap to view the full video on IGTV if they want to watch the full segment.

Setting Up an Account

To get your business set up on Instagram, you will first need to make sure you have an active Facebook Business page. 

1. Download the Instagram app on your phone and create an account.

2. Next, you will need to convert this personal account to a business account. You can do this by tapping the menu icon in the top right corner, selecting “Settings”, “Account”, and “Switch to Business Account”.

3. You’ll then be asked to connect your Facebook page to your Instagram Business Account.

4. Then, you’ll just need to answer some questions about your business, like your contact info and what type of business you have. Click “Done”, and you’re ready to roll!

5. Once you have switched to a business account, make sure to customize your profile with your branding, a description, and your website!

Building Your Strategy

Now, it’s time to figure out your small business’ Instagram marketing strategy. First, here are some things to think about that will guide you in the right direction.

• Audience: Go back to your target customer profile. What are their interests? What other types of accounts do they follow? What are those accounts doing on Instagram? This will help you better understand how to reach this target audience with engaging content that they will love.

• Competition: Are your competitors on Instagram? Visit their profiles and see what kind of content they’re posting, and if it’s getting any engagement from your target customers. If not, look for other small businesses that have similar offerings but are outside of your market. Give them a follow and see what kind of success they might be seeing from the platform. 

• Hashtags: Using relevant hashtags in your posts will help your account become more discoverable by new audiences. Think of hashtags as search terms that your target customer might type in Google. For example, broad terms like #flowers will return millions of posts that users will need to sort through, but more specific phrases like #grandrapidsflorist or #uniqueweddingflowers will help you reach the people searching for your services or products. There are plenty of theories on hashtag usage, but my best advice is to make sure your hashtags are actually related to the content of your posts. Also, try to use 7 hashtags or less per post. Mix it up and see which ones lead to more followers (and ultimately, more customers).

• Timing & Consistency: It’s a good idea to plan how often you will post, and when. Whether you decide to post twice a week or multiple times a day, it’s important to keep it consistent because of the way the feed works. For example, if you don’t post for a month and then decide to post multiple pictures in one day, your followers will suddenly see a bunch of posts from you in their feed, which doesn’t create a positive experience. This is how brands might lose followers. Additionally, make sure you choose the right time of day to post for maximum engagement. Recent studies show that the best times to post on Instagram are Wednesdays and Fridays at 11am. However, you will be able to view when your followers are most active on the platform by visiting your account’s Instagram Insights. 

• Engagement: In order to boost engagement on your small business’ account, it’s important to spend some time engaging with your followers or other related accounts with likes, comments, and replies to comments (especially comments on your own posts). This shows that there is a real human behind your brand, which people find a lot of value in (...more on that below).

If you’re new to Instagram marketing, understand that there will be some trial and error. Don’t feel like you need to have every single thing figured out before you start posting. After some time, you’ll soon find out what works best for your business.

Posting Great (and Authentic) Content

Once you have your initial goals and strategy nailed down, it’s time to start posting some awesome content! Here are my best tips and trends for small businesses.

• Focus on the visuals, but don’t obsess over them. We know that Instagram is a very visual platform, but there has been a recent shift to more authenticity. Earlier this year, Instagram started hiding the number of “likes” on posts for some accounts and regions. One result of this is that people are starting to post more, and their posts are less edited and more organic. This is great news for small businesses, as it means that the days of obsessing over choosing the correct filter are over. Things like overly-filtered images or stock photos won’t perform well on the platform.

• Look for micro-influencers or even nano-influencers to partner with. Influencer marketing is HUGE on Instagram, but it can also be expensive for small businesses. Look for micro-influencers (10-100k followers) and—a new term here—nano-influencers (less than 20k followers) that post content related to your industry that you could create a partnership with.

• Partner with other local businesses. During times like this, it’s important for small businesses within your community to stick together and support each other. Look for other businesses in your area that you may not be in direct competition with, but that target the same audience as you, to do a giveaway or “Instagram takeover” with. This allows both of your businesses to introduce your followers to each other and promote your products or services to a new audience.

• Again, be authentic. Another trend of brands looking to show more authenticity on the platform is writing longer captions. This gives you an opportunity to talk more about your small business’s story, share your mission, and connect with your followers on a deeper level. It will also have your followers spending more time viewing your posts, which helps boost your posts within the algorithm that Instagram uses.

There are hundreds of other things that you can share on your Instagram account—these are just a few ideas to inspire you. 

If you’re looking for more inspiration for posts on Instagram, check out the example content calendar below with 30 days of Instagram posts ideas for small businesses.