Owning a business can be hard. Growing a business can be even harder. Large businesses may have significant media budgets. But what small businesses lack in size, they can more than make up with customer loyalty, which can be nurtured with a social media presence.
Here are 7 ways your small business can make a big impression on Instagram.
1. Engage with the community
Businesses that acknowledge their followers build trust and authenticity within the social space. Be sure to answer your customer’s questions, “like” the photos they tag your business in, repost user-generated content and follow your customers back.
2. Highlight customer appreciation
There’s no better way to acknowledge your followers than to feature frequent visitors. After all your followers have influence too. Give them a shout out and highlight your frequent visitors.
3. Honor your team
Your team is the drive behind your work. Without them, your brand would suffer. Honoring your team in a post gives a face to your business and humanizes your brand.
4. Shout out to other small businesses
Affiliated with other small businesses? Give them a shout out. They just may reciprocate the favor, and your name may infiltrate their follower’s feeds and increase your exposure.
5. Increase the hype around promotions
New menu? New product? New storefront? Post your news to stir the buzz and generate hype around your promotions.
6. Tag your location
Instagram has recently updated their search functionality, allowing users to search by location, hashtags and people all at once. Users can also see photos tagged at your location, so be sure to tag your branded content.
7. Utilize mixed formats
A mixed medium of video, graphics, products and customers will surely diversify your feed and keep followers entertained with different formats.
What small businesses are you following on Instagram? Let us know in the comments below. You can also catch up on the latest post in the series – 6 ways nonprofits can be successful on Instagram.
For more information on how to market your business on Instagram, stay tuned to this blog series. In upcoming posts, we’ll cover industry specific best practices, share a few examples, define different types of posts, and provide steps to launch your brand on Instagram. Meanwhile, take a peek at Brogan’s Instagram account for inspiration.
