Instagram for small business should be used for creating and distributing valuable, educational, and relevant content to the audience.

Content that provides a solution to their problems so that you build a relationship through trust and authority – with the ultimate objective of driving profitable customer action.

Once upon a time, only big budget businesses could afford to share their news and content through a limited number of mass media channels. Today they can create their own, and with social media sites such as Instagram boasting more than 1.2 billion users, businesses now have endless scope to capitalise on this and thus far, many have done it well.

But the game is changing. It takes a lot more than an aesthetically pleasing Instagram feed with high impact images to inspire audiences and generate sales – the market is more sophisticated than ever and we know when we’re being marketed to. Businesses that just shout about their products or services may get likes – but do these translate into sales?

Websites are relatively static and limited in what they can showcase – but Instagram is where businesses can create amazing content that not only creates awareness, interest, and desire – but action.

Here are some of our top tips for using Instagram for small business:

Have a good biography

Make sure visitors to your Instagram profile know what your business is about by using the right words in the bio at the top. Use a clear logo or picture of your product as the profile picture, and most importantly, make that sure you use the link space to connect your business website.

Utilise the carousel feature

Each post on Instagram can be up to 10 pictures / videos, graphics, or a combination of all. That’s essentially the size of a brochure – yet how many businesses just put one or a couple of pictures and videos and leave it at that?

Use Instagram Reels

Reels are a fantastic way to put content out into the stratosphere and if done correctly (there are so many ways of doing it), it can clock up thousands of views and draw in hundreds of new and potential customers to the profile.

Go live

This must be quite well thought out in some business environments – but setting up a tripod and setting nstagram to Live in a busy open kitchen, a shop or workshop floor could rack up lots of views.

Showcase the experiences in detail

If you sell a service or experience, use Instagram to take your potential customers right into the heart of the action. Also try to encourage existing customers to share their experience – it is modern day word-of-mouth after all

Go behind the scenes

Instagram can serve as a unique window into the heart of your business operations. Take your followers behind the scenes and show them the real people behind your enterprise.

Do you have any tips or success stories when using Instagram for your business? Share your updates on the homepage.

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