For small business there are two apps that you supposed to be always using, one is Pinterest, and the other is Instagram, and this last one we are going to talk about it how to use it for your small business, from the basic until more advanced.
Instagram is an incredible tech resource for new information, for marketing, coach and sell services and products to different kinds of audiences you’re directing to it.
With all the features that Instagram provides your business can engage with different people in different ways, creating value visual content, with a good caption, and using the right hashtags and keywords, your Instagram will grow organic perfectly.
To work with Instagram for your business you have to understand what type of account you prefer or stay with the one you already have.
Instagram has three types of account, personal, business and creator, this is how it works:
☆Personal: Just for personal use, connect and interact with family and friends, or have fun with others on the platform. You can go private or public (possibly the one you are using right now).
☆Business: For local businesses, organizations, brands, service providers, and retailers. You can plan your marketing strategies using Instagram Insights, where you will see the information from your post, story, live, and more on the profile business account.
☆Creators: For public figures such as influencers, artists, athletes, and content producers, offer the same features as a business account, also analytics, replies to messages and, the option to include paid collaborations.
In my opinion for your small business, create a new account business, this means that you can change your personal account into a business if you prefer but creating a new one just for business and keep the personal account just for your friends and family, it’s better to separate life and business, so you just can concentrate in each one for what it is.
Immediately you create a new account you have to settle down doing everything Instagram will ask to do it, start following important accounts relate to your business and niche, so when people are following these types of accounts yours can be shown as suggested one, also can be suggested as a new account on the app to people around those you’re following.
And like that you are going to start having your first ten followers, the next followers will come from your personal profile because of two reasons.
The first one, because they are following you in your personal account, and you start following your business with the personal, the business account will show as suggested when they are scrolling down on their feed.
And the second one, if you tell everyone who is following you in the personal, with a post or story, some of them will support you just following the business account.
First the Profile
In a Business Account, the Profile is more than just that, is like the cover of a book to get readers into it and get them more attention than expect it.
That means you have to create an outstanding Bio so people can understand who you are or your business, what do you do, and what you’re teaching or selling.
The first thing is your username, which is the same name as your business, you just have to make sure it’s available to use it before you start it, you can do this by typing on the search tab of Instagram.
Second the profile picture, here you can just put a photo of yourself if you’re the only one running the business, but if there is a whole team is better to show the logo as a profile picture, and someday present the whole team.
Below the profile picture, you have to add the full name and add to it what your business is, for example, mine is first my name and I’m a content creator, this is important to do when people are searching for a content creator my profile is going to be seen in the search results.
Then choose a business tag, if you’re creating a business account you have to choose a tag that represents your business, for example, mine is an entrepreneur because I just have set up a business to have income with my services and shop.
This part in my opinion is one of the most important things creating the business account, bio description, in a sentence you have to describe your business so people can know what you’re offering, selling and how can be helpful, also you can put a CTA (Call to Action), telling them to click on the link of your website, that is the last thing you will have to do, add a link of your website.
And add your location so people know where you are from or your business.
Highlights are small icon below the whole profile description, every business have to do highlights for those that didn’t see the story of a new product release or your services you can add it here, is like fast access for important information always available, you can find a lot of inspiration to make your own highlight in Pinterest.
It’s time to upload your first post that you just have made it to add to your feed and you want everyone to find it, with hashtags and a good caption this can be very helpful to keep them busy reading.
To help you with hashtags I will share my hashtags strategy for my business:
Instagram gives you the limit of publishing 30 hashtags in your caption to enter the exploration section or for people who follow specific hashtags to see it, this can be very useful to get more engagement in your account. Also, using some apps connected to Instagram, you can post hashtags in the first comment, first, you have to pay the app for this, and secondly, the difference this makes with the caption is just to look more aesthetic, it doesn't mean something like more followers.
The hashtags strategy is very simple, and you don't get the attention really for the hashtags, it's because of your post using these so others can see it. This means that you have to work more on the post, video, or another tool, than to work with the hashtags.
You just have to make sure that hashtags are in your niche, be already identified by you, and are related to the post, the content on it, and the caption.
So, you have to use all the 30 hashtags to get more attention as possible, so for this, you have to look at which hashtag are you going to use, there many ways to do it, here are some of them:
☆ You can look for hashtags in the explore section, just taping on the search tab, you will see some of them relate to a word just write by you and how many posts are using that hashtag.
☆ Another way is using an app, Tailwind is a good option for this, because it gives you some similar hashtags according to your caption on the post, and also can tell which one of the hashtags you are using works better to drag more engagement.
☆ And third, you can look for some on the Internet, you will find some bloggers sharing their hashtags strategy, that is a good thing because you can learn more from them, everyone experiences its difference so don't just get stuck in one opinion but no for too long, put in into action immediately.
Another tip using hashtags, as I say above, you can see how many posts are using a specific one, you have to be careful in this part because you want your post to be seen, so my advice is to use hashtags with the low post, it can be between 50,000k-200,000k or 50,000k-600,000k, but never get yourself closer to million and even more of them, because the possibilities to your post to be seen is too low.
When Instagram start it the only feature available were posts and videos, to simplicity, they add stories, highlights, carousels, IGTV, Instagram Live, and the last one Reels.
And you can share all of this on your feed posts and your stories, also Instagram divides into sections for every type of feature, explain that later, more features will be explained below.
In your feed post, you can post a single one, carrousels, the limits of carrousels are 10 posts, you can add Reels and IGTV, the secret about all of this is creative, a great visual content in your feed help to attract followers/Customers to stay on your profile and probably start following.
If you probably have to create visual content, for me the best place to be inspired is Pinterest, if you don’t have a Pinterest account make sure to have one and more importantly a business Pinterest accounts, for your small business.
But if you are struggling to create visual content or don’t have too much time to create visual content, photos, and more, I’m offering in my memberships services template already made it to use, photos and marketing tools to help grow your business, resources, and more, you can know more about it visiting the membership page.
So, if you want to go further to drag more customers, you can try ads to lead new customers into your account, promoting your posts, make sure to choose the post with the best results, you can know this looking into the Insights of your account.
So, I mention above that Instagram also divides into sections every type of feature on your feed profile, it’s a way so everything can be more organize and more accessible.
These sections are:
☆The feed posts: here will be seen it every post made it like photos, visual graphics posts, reels, and IGTV.
☆IGTV: every long video made with this feature will be seen here and not just on the feed posts.
☆Reels: short videos made with this feature will be seen here, not only on the feed post.
☆Guide: you can create three different types of guides, these are Places, Products, and Posts.
☆Shop: if you have a shop and decide to sell on Instagram, it will have a specific section apart that has been shared on the feed post. This is very helpful to keep track of the products you are selling and also for the customers find it very easily.
☆Filters: if you’re very creative, you can create your own filters and add them to Instagram so others can use to, it will be in this section so followers can know where to find them.
☆Tags: if another account tags yours in a post, it will be shared here and the public to anyone see it, this is great for business that is working with brands, so they followers and customers can know more about your business and who you work with.
Instagram Stories settings
When you decide to make a story for Instagram and upload it so anyone who is following your business can see it, can be made in two ways.
You can create your own story using templates or from scratch using Canva, or you use the settings that Instagram is offering. So, what we’re going to find here on these settings, to make sure before start explain it, some settings have everything that Instagram is offering probably because of the type of cell phone brand.
I will just explain what Instagram is offering in a Samsung Galaxy A10s, can be different in every model, if you have a different brand cellphone make sure you have every setting that I’m going to mention, and probably you will have other updates that are not showing in my model, just to let you know.
The graphics below are showing every setting I have available:
☆Create
☆Layouts
☆Boomerang
☆Multi-Capture
☆Level
☆Photobooth
☆Superzoom
For a small business I suggested using Create and Boomerang, not only because are the most useful, but also easy to use and to work with it.
Also, you have filters on the circles showing below, some of them are suggested by Instagram, others are from accounts you’re following, and others are saved ones that other users were using, and you decide to save for yourself.
In the sticker icon when you decide to upload your photo to edit before sharing it, you can find that you can add location, hashtags, and gifs. All of this option you have to use it in different ways you understand to interact with your followers and drag more engagement in your account.
Last and not less important, Instagram Live, great to interact at the moment with followers and discuss any issues related to the business, so they can have more information and interact with you at the moment.
So, here are everything that Instagram offers that is very helpful for small business to grow in social media and made income through it.
If you want to know more business tips, make sure to follow my social media, so you can find and learn at any moment and see how I work with all these features to grow my small business.
Pinterest: SP Atelier Design
Instagram: @spatelierdesign
