Whether you’re struggling to promote your small business or digital agency or you’re eager to grow its audience even wider, social media is an incredible tool to do so. In fact, no matter if you’re new to the market or you’re a thriving business, social media should be used as a primary means of promotion and brand awareness.
While several social media platforms are available for your deployment, Instagram remains the superior platform for all things business, promotion, brand awareness, and otherwise.
Though you shouldn’t limit yourself to any one platform, and while your choice of platform depends greatly on where your target demographic primarily resides, Instagram is, for all intents and purposes, essential.
With that said, in what follows, we’ll be diving into the world of Instagram and how you as a small business can take advantage of its more than sizeable user base and functionality. More specifically, we’ll detail Instagram’s best practices for successfully promoting your business in 2023.
How to Promote on Instagram
Boasting nearly 1.5 billion active monthly users and hundreds of millions of daily users, Instagram continues to grow at an unprecedented speed, providing businesses, brands, and individual content creators alike the opportunity to boost engagement and brand awareness like never before.
Withstanding its undeniable user base, Instagram also offers several streamlined and effective tools, functions, and features that make it even easier to promote your business, both organic and paid strategies proving equally effective in their own right.
Sure, Instagram has and will continue to change as the digital landscape continues to change with it. Whether due to new needs and demands of the user or innovative implementations on behalf of the platform itself, it’s important to stay on top of the latest trends and feature launches so that you can be sure you’re getting the most out of your promotional efforts.
That begs the question, then, of how to use Instagram in 2023 to promote your business and garner greater brand awareness than you’ve previously thought possible…
While you might be a small business and not a fortune 500 organization, you can still enjoy the many benefits of social media, particularly Instagram. Let’s get into it, shall we?!
Instagram Best Practices
Look, it’s 2023 and social media is nothing new (who knew I was a poet!)… As such, it’s likely that whether you’re a social media guru or not, you understand the importance of social media for business. More specifically, you likely understand the importance of posting frequently, sharing high-quality content, and providing high value to the audience that follows you.
If not, well, you’ve just learned something new! Because this information is widely understood, however, we’re not going to be focusing on said best practices. Instead, we’re going to be diving a little deeper into the latest in how you can use Instagram in 2023; from new features to newly proven strategies.
Below are 3 Instagram best practices that you as a small business can implement to immediately experience greater brand awareness:
Have You Heard of Instagram Reels?
Implemented as a means of competing with the ever-powerful TikTok algorithm, Instagram Reels is a short-form video feature that allows users to get creative and grow their audience through engagement and entertainment.
As a small business, this creative outlet couldn’t be more relevant!
As a new feature, Instagram rewards accounts that use it frequently. Further, with users spending over 20% of their time-consuming Instagram Reel content, it makes sense to place focus on such a feature.
The best part? Instagram Reels not only live on their own but can also be shared both on your Instagram Feed and Instagram Stories; just another way to get your promotional material in front of your target audience.
Engage With Accounts in Your Niche
Because Instagram is a platform centrally focused on its algorithm, it’s important to abide by such and do what you can to appear in the algorithm effectively. While it’s not as simple as it sounds, you’ll know when you have…
One strategy for doing so is engaging with relevant accounts within your niche. In other words, seek out other relevant accounts and begin engaging with them.
Whether by following, commenting, and/or sharing the contents from said accounts, you tell the algorithm that you’re an integral part of this niche so they will begin to promote you and place you in front of relevant eyes.
Not to mention, those who follow these accounts are also more likely to begin following you! The best part? It’s 100% organic and doesn’t cost you a dime…
Don’t Be Afraid to Invest in Your Business
Yes, this is in reference to paid advertisements, most notably via Instagram ads! While it can be a daunting task to, in essence, throw your money into the ether and hope for the best, social media ads are undeniably the most effective way to promote your business to your target consumer.
Here’s how to do it…
Simply put, upon setting up your Instagram business ad account, you begin by launching what’s referred to as a “story boost” or “feed boost”. In short, a boost results in more impressions on the content you decide to boost.
Now, while it’s not as simple as clicking the boost button, it is quite straightforward. Though we won’t go into too much detail here, these are a few things to keep in mind when creating your first paid media ad…
First, be sure you’re targeting the right audience. As a small business, you’ll likely want to target those who show relevant interests and, more specifically, those who are in your local area! Second, submit an appropriate budget; not too much, not too little. Finally, be sure to measure and analyze ad performance via Business Manager.
It’s that simple!
A Final Word
The job of a small business founder is never complete. In other words, whether it’s the implementation and abidance of the aforementioned social media best practices or otherwise, there’s always room to learn and improve.
Not to mention, best practices, particularly as it pertains to social media, is ever-changing, so it’s important to remain vigilant and stay up to date on the latest changes and implementations that said platforms introduce.