Now you understand the power of Instagram marketing. From customer complaints to a viral product, the platform offers a variety of features for small businesses, leveling the proverbial digital playing field between small and large companies. But because it's been around for a while, there's a lot of information about how brands can use it.

In this guide, we'll explain how to use Instagram for your small business, from taking advantage of the platform's features to concrete ideas to increase your Instagram followers.

Why is using Instagram for your small business beneficial?

When your presence is properly planned and managed, Instagram offers numerous benefits for small businesses. If you're using the platform as a marketing channel, you'll need a documented Instagram marketing strategy. Yes, even if you are the only one managing the account. According to a survey by Instagram, 81% of users say Instagram helps them research products and services.

You don't want to lose a lot of customers just because you're not active online. Read on to learn how to maximize the effectiveness of small business accounts on Instagram.

1. Basics: Set up your profile

You may roll your eyes, but it's a necessary reminder. After you've set up your business account, take a moment to review your Instagram profile. Old features and complex settings are regularly changing, sometimes even without notice. It doesn't hurt to see if you want to try out new features. Other standard and essential business profile elements to consider include updating your business category, hours, location, contact method, and links to service or product catalogs.

During your visit, review your profile elements and make sure they are consistent with your overall social media branding, such as B. Your bio and your profile photo.

2. Add company information to your bio

Your Instagram bio can be up to 150 characters long and should describe your brand and highlight its voice. We have a comprehensive guide to creating an effective business bio on Instagram (with templates), but here's a short video to walk you through the basics:

Don't forget to make the most of the rest of your Instagram business profile:

• Profile photo: most brands use their logo. Your profile photo is 110 x 110 pixels (cropped into a circle) but is saved at 320 x 320, so that's the size you need to upload.
• Link in bio: link to your website, latest blog post, current campaign, or link tree.
• Contact Information: If you did not add contact information when you created your account, you can do so at any time by tapping Edit Profile. Instagram then adds a contact button to your profile.
• Action buttons: If necessary, you can add a button that allows customers to make an appointment or order food. To utilize this feature, you must have an account with one of Instagram's partner companies. Click on Edit Profile, then scroll down and find action buttons.
• Highlight Stories and Covers: Instagram Stories Highlights are another way to maximize the potential of your profile by providing more information about your brand or products. Organize your stories into saved collections and add extra flair with featured covers.

3. Use Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories is the best and most engaging feature for your accounts as well as business profiles. Instagram Stories include photos, videos, and other content that disappear 24 hours after publication.

With Instagram Stories, you can create a vibrant montage that captures viewers' attention and presents more information than a traditional post. You can use recorded videos, photos, live videos, boomerangs (videos that scroll back and forth), text, music and focus photos.

Add different types of stickers according to your location, temperature, user tags, and hashtags.

4. Geotage your publications

If you are posting from a small business's physical location, please include the location name in your message. If you haven't already done so when posting, you can browse and edit previous posts.

What is geolocation used for? Instagram collects all posts tagged in this location and sorts them by priority and date. Your brand photos live among customer photos. “Show information” at the top leads to information about the highlighted task. All of this increases brand awareness and helps customers learn more about your company.

5. Label your products

When you share content about your products on Instagram, tags make it much easier for people to learn more or make a purchase. You can tag up to 20 products in a post with a photo.

To tag products, create an Instagram or Reel post as usual. Then click 'Tag Products' on the last screen before publishing. You can tag products from your store or someone else's, creating great opportunities for collaboration and cross-promotion.

6. Live video streaming

In addition to Instagram Stories, users can record and stream disappearing live videos, a sort of cross between Facebook Live and Snapchat. Give your customers a live behind-the-scenes look at exciting aspects of your business, showcase your products, or answer questions live via commentary.

Once a video is finished, it will remain on your Instagram Story for 24 hours. If you want the video to remain on your Instagram account, upload the video you shot or recorded and publish it directly to the app. If you decide to record or upload a video, you can add filters and change the cover at any time.

7. Create a policy

Like Instagram Highlights, Guides lets you group your favorite posts into featured content. However, there are some important differences. It creates a more editorial feel, almost like reading an article. You can add photos and posts from your feeds and other people's feeds that you've saved.

With each embed, you can add a caption where you can write even more about the featured product or location. In addition to the ideas already mentioned in the Highlights section, travel guides are great for creating a list of recommended places. This could be any local location or company you recommend.

You can expand the topic with an introduction to your city, a walking tour of the area you are in, or recommendations from influential people. What if you don't want to use this feature? Carefree Guides can be saved as drafts until you are ready to publish them.