Now you understand the power of Instagram marketing. Since it's been around for a while, there's a lot of information out there about how brands can use it. In this guide, we'll walk you through how to use Instagram for your small business, from leveraging the platform's features to concrete ideas for increasing your active Instagram following.

What is the actual reason to use Instagram for your small business?

If your presence is planned and managed properly, Instagram offers several benefits for small businesses. If you are using the platform as a marketing channel, you will need a documented Instagram marketing strategy.

According to an Instagram survey, 81% of users say Instagram helps them research products and services. You don't want to lose an entire customer base just because you aren't active online.

Read on for tips on how to maximize the effectiveness of your small business Instagram accounts.

1. Basics: Set up your profile

You may forget about this at some point, but it's an essential reminder for you. After setting up your business account, take a moment to review your Instagram profile. New features and settings change constantly, sometimes 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 of operation, location, contact method, and links to service or product catalogs.

2. Optimize your bio-links

Social media managers wanted to make the most of Instagram’s five-link boxes. It's now common practice to reference a "link in bio" in posts and use those links to display a landing page with a mix of the latest content and always-updated links to key product and service pages.

If your business shares links, has more than five links to share with customers, has multiple offers, or all of the above, then the landing page approach is right for you. There are several tools you can use to create a link to your bio on your landing page.

3. Geo-locate your publications

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

What is geo-location used for? Instagram collects all the posts tagged in this location and sorts them by best and newest. Your brand photos are among your customers’ 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. Like if you don't know what you can order at a restaurant? Just search about it go through the latest results and check what people recommend.

4. Use the Save Later feature.

This strategy is not publicly available, but it can help improve your small business's Instagram content strategy. Instagram offers the ability to “save” posts and sort them into a collection that you can view later. Although it is not necessary to create a collection, it is recommended that you do so. Here are some ideas for the collection:

• What your competitors post
• Visual photographic inspirations
• Excellent subtitles you found
• Ideas for future articles
• Managing customer returns
• The two messages from satisfied and dissatisfied customers
• Potential influencers

5. Use your biggest moments to show what your company stands for

Stories Highlights on Instagram allow you to share even more about your business. Highlights extend the life of your stories by displaying them on your profile after they normally disappear, and can help you consolidate those stories into one easy source of always-fresh content. Since they appear at the top of the grid, start with the basics, such as:

• About us: some articles about your values, your working hours, and your brand
• Recommended locations or locations: If you have multiple locations, talk about each location and share photos.
• Customer reviews or posts: Republish posts from your customer feed or create a chart that highlights reviews from other sources.
• Frequently Asked Questions: Provide information that customers frequently request. You'll also save time answering customer questions because you can forward them to that point of sale
• Product/Service Features: Make it general or emphasize each product or service. Some things don't fit into just one post.

Now that you know the basics, it's time to get even more creative. A good place to start is by identifying the content topics you're already creating on your channel. Are you doing a series about each employee? Write all of this in your highlight. Maybe you are an event planner. Look behind the scenes of your process to show what you do for the customer. Have fun with your highlights.

6. Create policies

Like Instagram Highlights, Guides allows you to group your favorite posts into a featured piece of content. However, there are some important differences. It creates a more editorial impression, almost as if you were reading an article. You can add photos and posts from your feeds and other people's feeds that you have saved.

This can be any local location or business 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? Guides can be saved as drafts until you are ready to publish them.

7. Pay attention to the subtitles

The first line of your caption grabs people's attention and determines whether they visit your page for more information. Don't just pay attention to the first line, but also check the rest of the signature. Thanks to Instagram's recently launched keyword search feature, what you write in your Instagram caption is more important than ever. Previously you could use cute or stylized words. While that doesn't mean you still can't do this, make sure you do it

Words that people want to associate you with. Similar to basic keyword research, this can include brand and product names or general terms related to your business category.