Top Instagram Tips for Small Biz Owners

Let’s face it, growing on Instagram in 2022 is not easy! But did you know there are some simple tips that you can start implementing in your instagram/social media strategy today to grow your business? Social media has created an abundance of opportunities for businesses to grow like never before. While social media and instagram algorithms might feel intimidating and frustrating, Instagram has made it more possible than ever to grow a successful business. Here are some of my best tips for using instagram to help grow your small biz!

Humanize Your Brand by Showing Your Face

Consumers want to interact with people, not companies. The problem with not showing our face on our Instagram is that nobody knows who the man or woman is behind the brand. If people can’t see you, they don’t feel like they know you. Some of the most successful influencers on Instagram are the ones that make you feel like you KNOW them, even if you’ve never met them. Do your followers know you? So get comfortable in front of the camera and get ready to build a connection with your audience. You want people to KNOW you so that they’ll be more invested in you, what you’re selling, and your continued success.

If you want to learn the basics of humanizing your brand, check out my blog post here!

Write a Killer Instagram Bio

Your Instagram bio is your first impression. You only have so many characters to work with, but if your Instagram bio doesn’t immediately let me know who you are and why I should follow you, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. This isn’t the place to share that you’re a coffee lover or a dog mom. Your bio should include who you are/what your biz is, what you’re an expert in/what you have to offer, and a strong call to action. I recommend filling in the blanks of this statement when considering what to write in your IG bio:

I/we help/provide ______ by doing ______.

See if you can fill that statement in and use this as your basis for your bio! Don’t forget contact info! Depending on your business, it can be helpful to include an email address, but obviously there’s lots of things you might want to link to such as a website, shop page, blog etc. I recommend using linktree for your bio! It’s a simple way to direct people to multiple different links while saving character space in your instagram bio.

Add a Geotag on all your posts!

Whether you’re a brick and mortar store or a freelance graphic designer, make it easy for people to find you! Tag a location in your posts and make it easier for you to connect with locals in your area. 

Use Highlights on your profile to display important information.

This is a great way for people to get an idea of who you are and what your business is as soon as they come to your profile. Highlights are a great place to display “about” information, fun facts, and FAQs. Do a Q&A with your audience and save your answers to a highlight for people to refer back to later!

Do Your Research!

Check out how your competitors are using Instagram. Take note of what they’re doing consistently and what people are responding to. Of course the goal should never be to copy, but it’s a great way to see what works and what doesn’t. Competitor research is just part of business!

Do a Social Media Audit (and download my free social media audit template here!)

This might feel intimidating, but bear with me. If you haven’t converted your IG account to a business account already, you’ll want to go ahead and do that so you can have access to your analytics. You also might consider converting to a creator account, which will give you access to analytics and other monetization tools. If you’re not sure how to convert your profile, here is a great tutorial. Take a look at your analytics for the past month and see what posts have performed the best. Observe multiple metrics, not just the number of likes. What posts were shared the most? What posts had the most comments? Are there any similarities between your top highest performing posts? Use that to inform your content strategy moving forward.

I recommend doing a social media audit once a month! If you’re looking for some guided structure for your social media audit, click here to download my FREE social media audit worksheet!

One other thing to take into consideration is your engagement rate. I use a free engagement rate calculator to check on this metric. You can find out your engagement rate by clicking here and typing in your IG handle!

Lean Into Content Pillars

In order to figure out a solid content strategy for Instagram, you’ll need to develop content pillars for your small business. I recommend sticking to around 5-6, and these content pillars should all be related. It’ll help you stick to content within your niche and will ultimately help you grow a more engaged audience on Instagram!

Be An Active Participant!

I know it probably feels like you’re too busy to add anything else to your plate, but even just spending 15 minutes a day on instagram engaging with other accounts can bring massive value for your instagram account. If you’re not being SOCIAL on a social media platform, you’re doing it wrong. Respond to comments on your posts and go to other accounts to comment on their posts. Spend time doing this consistently so you can begin to build real connections with other people and businesses. Make sure to use Instagram as a networking tool to connect with other business owners in your niche! We’re all in this together!

Encourage Engagement on Your Posts

Captions are a great place to include a call to action. Encourage interaction with your audience by asking them questions, prompting them to share something, or even to head over to your stories to view more information on the current topic, to take a fun quiz, or participate in a poll, because you value their opinions! Those are just a few examples. Captions are not just for random catchy sentences, use captions to keep people engaged on your account and encourage them to continue scrolling for more fresh content from your account.

Interact with Your Audience on Stories

There are allll kinds of engagement stickers available for Instagram stories, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned about social media, it’s that people LOVE to give their opinion. Ask your audience to participate in some polls, ask for their opinion about a new idea or product. Whether or not you take their advice is up to you, but it’s fun when your audience feels like they can have a say in something! You can also ask questions, do Q&As or share quizzes! I love the quiz feature because it’s a great way to let people play guessing games to get to know you and your business better. You could try a round of True and False questions or play a game of two truths and a lie with your audience. The point is, stories are a great place to encourage close interaction with your followers!

Post High Quality Images (and get my free guide for taking biz photos like a pro by clicking HERE!)

I cannot emphasize this enough, post high quality images! We can do a lot with iPhone cameras nowadays, so this doesn’t mean you have to invest in a professional camera, but you should be posting high quality images. A good filter and little image editing can go a long way for this. I use the Tezza app for all my photos on Instagram! Avoid posting images that are grainy, blurry or in poor lighting. The look and aesthetic of your feed matters! If you want more tips on how to take photos of yourself for your biz like a pro click here to download my free guide to taking photos like a pro!

Share Updates Often

Keep your audience in the loop on what’s going on in your world! Don’t let them be the very last to know that something exciting is happening for your or your business! If you’re working on new products or preparing for a big event, bring them along for the ride with you and share frequent updates. 

Be Consistent!

Perhaps the most important tip of them all is simply to be consistent with your posting schedule. It’s extremely hard to grow on instagram and build an engaged audience if you aren’t staying consistent on instagram. It’s hard work, but it does pay off! Stay active on stories and continue to post on your feed. Show people that you have a lot of great content and more on the way! Encourage your audience to turn on post notifications for your feed posts and instagram stories. Engage in conversation with your followers often, share what’s going on in your world throughout the week, and keep up with a consistent schedule that works for you. If it’s unrealistic for you to be posting every day, start with something more simple like a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday posting cadence while sharing frequently on stories each day. You can build up your posting frequency overtime, but it’s important to set a realistic goal for yourself in terms of how much content you can churn out each week. Choose a schedule that works for you, and then stick to it! 

What questions do you have? What do you want to learn next? Let me know in the comments!