3 Powerful Strategies to Help your Small Business be Discovered on Instagram

Can small businesses use Instagram? Will their efforts on Instagram turn into sales and customers? Yes and yes! Small businesses can be discovered on Instagram through a variety of different ways which I'll explain in this article.

Being intentional and creating a strategy for your Instagram account is very important to your success.

Can Small Businesses use Instagram?

While many people think of Instagram for big brands and super models, it's a community filled with all different kinds of accounts.

Gather inspiration from big brands and turn them into ways to market your small business on social media.

Use Instagram for Business

People come to Instagram to be inspired and discover things they care about, and that includes content from brands and businesses.

Tell your story on Instagram

Social media is fantastic for letting people know who you are, what you sell, and what you're passionate about. Instagram is the perfect place to share behind-the-scenes photos and videos.

Look at your social media posts and really dig deep to see if you’re using visuals to tell your story or just posting photos with your posts. They’re two different things.

Visual storytelling is the heart of social media with video and visual social media is taking the lead in the race to reach people.

• Use Adobe Spark to create graphics for Instagram Stories. Create your designs on desktop and they transfer to the mobile app automatically. You can animate them in the mobile app.
• Create Instagram Stories to invite people to your store.
• Plan Instagram Stories in Planoly.

How to Use Planoly’s Instagram Stories Planner

1. When on your GRID VIEW, tap on the STORIES (S) ICON located on the top left corner. You will be taken to your STORIES VIEW.
2. Tap the plus (+) button located on the bottom screen to upload content to your “STORIES” planning view. You can upload any media (images, gifs, boomerangs, videos) from your camera albums, Dropbox or Google Drive; then DRAG and DROP to arrange the order of your stories (top to bottom, first to last).
3. Tap on content to add notes or draft captions.
4. Schedule your story or tap “POST NOW” to post right away.
5. When you get the push notification, the caption will be copied for you to paste into your story. We open IG for you, but you have to open stories manually.
   • Tap on your Stories icon on your IG.
   • Swipe up to add media.
   • Select your media that was just saved on your camera roll for you.
6. If you have a caption, tap on the TEXT (Aa) icon and paste.
   • If you have a “mention” or want to tag someone, make sure to tap on that name, select the correct user options that come up from, and the username will become underlined. Only underlined @username’s are tappable and work as a mention.

• Pro tip: Changed your mind on the actual image/video but have your captions already saved? You can SWAP out your Stories media by tapping into desired media, tap preview image, then tap on SWAP icon (top right corner).

Make it easy for people to Instagram

Creating an Instagram-worthy atmosphere could entice people to share their experience in your store on their Instagram accounts. People are always looking for interesting things to share on their Instagram.

• Put up a cute, branded sign on the counter with your Instagram handle and a hashtag for your store. Let them know that you encourage Instagramming in your store.
• If you see people in your shop taking photos, ask if they're on Instagram and if they'd tag your store and add the location to the photo or Story.
• Create an Instagram wall of fame with great Instagram posts you find on the app. Ask permission to use their image in the comments or via direct message. Regram them to your account and then print. Print out the Instagram posts and make a display behind the counter or near the changing rooms. Artifact Rising has some cool prints or you can send them to a drugstore to print.

You could surprise and delight your customers by sending them a coupon via direct message for a discount off their next shopping trip to reward their social media posts.

Zane Boutique is an adorable shop in Portland, Maine. I had the best time shopping in their store and they were thrilled that I did Instagram stories and took photos in the store. They've built a beautiful website to pair with their Instagram and told me that they sell a lot of products from Instagram and ship all over the country.

Create vignettes in your shop that are easy to Gram and I bet you'll see increased posts and traffic. You could make little signs to put near displays that say “please tag us on Instagram and add the #gramtheshop hashtag to be featured on our Instagram.” Choose a hashtag that makes sense for your business.

Only a few left #summertote #summervibes #summertime #madeinitaly #sardinia #eco #sustainable #totebag #chic #handwoven #curatedforyou #onpoint #styled #easybreezy #dreamy #thatsdarling #shop #boutique #boutiqueshopping #shoplocal #portlandmaine #portland #womanowned #zaneboutique #zane #maine @zaneboutique

A post shared by Zane (@zaneboutique) on Jun 27, 2017 at 6:54am PDT

I hope that this article has answered the question “Can small businesses use Instagram?” and given you ideas that you can implement for your small business on Instagram.

I'd love to know how you use Instagram and if it's helping your small business grow. Please share in the comments.

Made Freshly created this awesome infographic – pin and save for future reference.