How are small businesses flourishing on Instagram?

What's the new big gig in the market? Oh well yes, small businesses! Let's discover how the future of small business is Instagram and some hacks too.

The first word that comes to your mind when I say small business is probably INSTAGRAM!!! Since the pandemic hit the world social media has been everyone’s go-to pass time and well, an escape into something that feels remotely close to normal. The buzz around Instagram and small businesses has recently reached new heights. From cooking videos and challenges, yoga poses to brands following trends Instagram saw a major transformation.

The photo-sharing platform also brings communities together, taking advantage of the unforeseen situations and offering ways to shop online instead of the traditional in-store way of doing business.

Also, providing a place to educate and entertain their target audience with interactive and creative experiences. Instagram shares moments and experiences, so small business owners very strategically took advantage of this situation and started to promote their products/services in the form of aesthetically curated experiences.

Let’s see how small businesses have used this to their benefit.

Instagram is essentially popular with the Gen Z and the coveted millennial. In just over 7 years Instagram has significantly grown from a photo-sharing platform to a buzzing hub of small business activities.

How Instagram is helping small businesses to grow?

Small businesses are flourishing and growing on Instagram because the platform drives business outcomes by reaching new audiences and thereby measuring the impact.

Instagram helps small business owners to cater to the right audience.

Lately, I have discovered many new pages on Instagram myself be it thrift stores, skin care products, gifting pages or even packed food start-ups which have picked up in the past few years. Their aesthetically pleasing feeds were the first step in convincing me to visit their website and eventually make a purchase for the experience showcased.

Why should you use Instagram for your small business?

When your presence properly planned and managed, Instagram offers a wide set of advantages to small businesses. With a planned Instagram marketing strategy ( link) Instagram can be used as a great marketing outlet and help small business owners to promote their products/services without overtly advertising the same. Instagram helps small business owners research about their products and services and keep a check on what trends their competitors are following in the market.

In today’s virtual world you don’t want to lose out on a bunch of potential consumers because of your lack of visibility on social media platforms and particularly Instagram as it is the new marketing frontier for small businesses and has the potential to bring in more customers for the business.

Instagram users love its strong visual presentation.

Here are some hacks to maximize small business accounts on Instagram:

1. Set up a business profile

A very basic yet a step of utmost importance is to set up a business Instagram profile.

Start with setting a goal for your business account and strategically work on it.

It is always advisable to check out the new trends and try and incorporate it in your profile to increase your reach and track the engagement rate.

Instagram Shops are a newest edition from Instagram, only business or creator accounts have access to this feature. With these shops, you can upload a product catalogue. This gives an advantage to the small business owners as they can tag their products with the cost mentioned and sometimes even process the sales directly on the page.

Another tip: Make sure that your profile elements, such as your bio and profile picture, align with your overall social media marketing.

2. Geotag on the posts

Another hidden hack for small business owners is to post from your small business with physical location.

Add the location name to your post. This helps in increasing the reach and target a niche.

This element of Instagram is called Geotagging. This feature specifically is used to create brand awareness and indeed helps the customers to discover your profile and therefore, research on the same.

3. Use the save post feature

Don’t we all have our favourite movie dialogues that feel like a cup of chai on a rainy day saved on Instagram? Well, who knew this feature can not only make you feel better but can also be strategically used to boost small businesses on Instagram content strategy.

Here are a few ways to use this Instagram feature in order benefit your small business profile:

• Inspiration for reels and post in order to boost engagement

• Ideation for future posts on the account

• Competitors reviews your brand can incorporate and work upon

• Posts of potential influencers and content creators

So next time you find yourself thinking, “wow, that is an amazing post,” hit that save button right away!

4. Add stories as highlights.

Instagram’s Story Highlights feature offers you an opportunity to share more about your small business.

The highlights feature prolong the time of your Stories by featuring them on your business profile even after 24 hours, and can help you curate a collection and can be stored as an easy source of content.

Here are a few ideas to post as highlights:

• About: A few posts on emphasising more about the company, its values, what the company stands for and its goals.

• Customer reviews: Repost customer reviews thus helping the consumers researching about your products/services.

• FAQs: Mention the information that customers often request.

• Features of the Product / service: this enables the business to know more about the products and services it has to offer to its customers.