3 Instagram Features Your Small Business Needs to be Using

I'm spilling the tea about some of the most important Instagram features that you should be using. I know IG can be overwhelming. That's why I narrowed it down to only 3 right now. I paired examples with each of them so you can immediately implement these into your IG strategy.

1. IG Stories

Stories are about nurturing your followers. This is where you show the behind the scenes of your business and daily routines. Serve your audience with quick tips and encourage conversations by using stickers like questions and polls. If you're only sharing to your feed, you're missing out on the number one connection point you have with your followers. Keep it laid back. It's like a coffee date with your best friend. The only person judging you is yourself.

Example: Just made a post to your feed? Take 5 minutes after you post it to get on stories and introduce the post–yes, you! Your beautiful face! Then share the actual post to your story as the last slide with a “tap here!” sticker or text. A lot of your followers may never even see your feed post unless your share about it in your stories. You want more eyes on it, right?

2. Location based tags

If your business is based on location and you want more people following you who live near you, listen up! Add your city as the location to every feed post to increase your reach and discoverability.

Example: I usually list either Edwardsville, Illinois (my actual city) or St. Louis, Missouri (closet big city)

Compile a list of local hashtags for your feed posts, as well. Take 10 minutes to search Instagram for local hashtags that align with your business and ideal client. Location hashtags should be used in addition to your other hashtags.

St. Louis examples: #stlbusiness #stlblogger #stlphotographer #stlmade #stlfoodie #stlouisgram #stlouiswedding #stlboutique

3. Educational Carousels

This is the most popular feed post style right now and you're missing out on engagement if you aren't posting them. Carousel posts (multiple slides that you can swipe through) make users stay on your content longer. Someone is more likely to interact with your post if they take a few seconds to swipe through 3 or more slides, versus scrolling right past your single-image feed post.

Example: Create a carousel with one main image that will show on your grid and then 3 slides that follow it. First image should introduce what you're going to teach us/show us. The next three should each be their own tip/how-to/explanation/example for what it is you're talking about.

Industry examples:

Fashion blogger: How to style your summer clothes in the winter.

Photographer: How I capture personality in a couples session.

Health & Wellness: Do these stretches daily to improve your posture.

Food: Fruit & vegetable must-haves for a healthy immune system.

Want 30 free content prompts and organization tips to get you started? Click here to get your guide!

10 Tips for Better Engagement on Instagram

Engagement is the Queen of Instagram. She tells the algorithm that you are sharing interesting content and pushes it out to your current followers and new audiences. So I put together a checklist of my top 10 tips for better engagement to help you.

Engagement isn't about likes and followers. It's about shares, saves, comments, and DMs. These are what you need to focus on if you’re trying to grow your business through Instagram and if you want to have fun. It's not any fun if no one comments on your posts and no one DMs you right?

1. Diversify your content.

Only posting static photos to your feed and your story? Your followers are so bored! Videos, graphics, photos, carousels, lives, reels – your followers (and new ones) want variety!

2. Personalize your brand.

You’re building your brand on Instagram, not just your business. People want real stories and life lessons. They want someone to connect with and someone who’s been in their shoes. You don't need to share every detail of your life, but humanizing your brand goes a long way with your audience.

3. Talk directly to your followers.

Use stories like you’re on Facetime with your best friend. Write your captions like you are speaking directly to a single person – not a crowd.

4. Collaborate.

Have an Instagram BFF that you always find yourself talking to in the DMs? Connecting with other business owners and individuals who compliment your business in some way could make for a great collab! Plan a live together or plan a story takeover. You can get in front of their audience and they can get in front of yours. Think of it like networking!

5. Join the conversation.

Leave meaningful comments on posts and reels that you connect with – especially people that have a larger audience. For example, it can be a person/brand that you admire. They will likely reply to your comment and you may get a few of their followers to check out your page! Bonus points if they end up pinning your comment to the top for everyone to see.

6. Quality photos, graphics, and videos.

I’m not saying your IG will fail if you don't hire a professional photographer. I’m just saying you need to be mindful of how you’re portraying your brand through your imagery. There are so many free tools and tutorials out there for you to take better photos on your iPhone and plenty of apps for video editing and quick graphics. If you want people to take your business seriously, you have to dedicate the time to having aesthetically pleasing visuals.

7. Experiment and ask questions.

The beauty of Instagram is that there are so many features. Play around with content and see what sticks. Stories is the perfect place for this. Use the poll and question stickers to learn more about what your audience wants to see. If something goes over well in stories, plan a reel or an IGTV training to expand on the topic.

8. Consistency.

Your business is open right? You have to show up consistently online or else people might forget about you. If people see that you consistently share valuable and entertaining content, they will engage with you more and more. That’s how you build relationships. Social media is like dating. You can’t ask someone to marry you on the first date. You need to gain their trust and keep their interest.

9. Create interest.

Do you think your business is super boring? If you do, then I can’t help you. Maybe it is boring. I once had to write social media content for an answering service and let me tell you, THAT was boring. No way is your business that boring. If you absolutely love your business and you want to help more people with whatever it is you sell or offer, then you can create interesting content that draws people to your brand.

10. Ask for the saves and shares.

It sounds simple because it is. Start training your audience to save your content and share it to their stories if they found it helpful, funny, whatever it may be. “SAVE this post to reference again when you need it!.” Asking a question in a story? Tell your followers to DM you if them have a thought to share.

What is Doomscrolling and How Can We Learn From It

PSA: Scrolling endlessly as you’re lying in bed at midnight won’t make your world any less scary and you’re not going to solve all the problems* in our country.

*You know the problems, I won’t waste your time listing them all here.

The answer that you’re hoping to come across as you scroll into the AM hours isn’t there. You’re not going to stumble upon a magical solution to everything. You’re just straining your eyes, setting yourself up for disappointment and a terrible night’s sleep. Maybe a headache in the morning, too. 

You know the feeling. That little glimmer of hope in the back of your mind that somehow you’re going to find an explanation if you keep on scrolling. The explanation you’re so desperately searching for as you filter through headlines.

One horrific image after another. White supremacists sitting in the Senate chamber for their photo-op, the eerie evening photo of the Capitol building clouded with tear gas smoke, and mobs of rioters in the rotunda. A space that I remember being so quiet and immaculate when I visited D.C. a couple years ago with my sister. We entered the building through security – not by scaling the walls. We took selfies as tourists – not as rioters. We wore backpacks full of snacks, extra memory cards for my camera, and our Metro passes. Not a backpack full of zip ties. My arms were so tired because my camera was heavy after walking an average of 8 miles everyday, not because I marched into the Capitol with a Trump 2020 flag on my shoulder and body amour.

News has a way of ruining social media for all of us. It’s like the car wreck scene. You wish you wouldn’t look, but you can’t help yourself. A major occurrence happens in our country and my first instinct is to check Twitter. It’s really the only time I use it. I binge the constant updates from news sources, political figures, and people on the scene seeing things unfold. I can’t put my phone down. I can’t turn the news off. Have you felt this way, too?

---

It’s called Doomscrolling {or Doomsurfing} and it’s a serious problem.

It really started to take shape in the spring of 2020 when the stay-at-home orders began. I love the way Kevin Roose of The New York Times put it:

“I’ve been doing a lot of this kind of doomsurfing recently — falling into deep, morbid rabbit holes filled with coronavirus content, agitating myself to the point of physical discomfort, erasing any hope of a good night’s sleep. Maybe you have, too.”

Yep. Nailed it.

I also came across this point made by Mesfin Bekalu, a research scientist at the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health. He notes that while a lot of the news is bad, “as humans we have a ‘natural’ tendency to pay more attention to negative news.” This, along with social media algorithms pushing out trending topics, makes doomscrolling and its impacts on our mental health almost inevitable.

On top of all the news, you’re getting bombarded with discussions happening on your feed. Maybe you know these people, maybe you don’t. Some are friends, relatives, co-workers, but some are just viral posts and you don’t even know anyone involved. No matter what the discussion is, you form an opinion. You might agree or disagree. You might find yourself typing a response and then quickly deleting it. You thought for a moment that sharing your opinion would help the situation, but then you realize you will only make things worse. Problems aren’t solved in a never-ending thread of ugly comments and the constant sharing of false and dangerous information.

At that moment, you finally just put your phone down and take a deep breath, wondering how long you’ve spent scrolling.

Now you’re mad at yourself because you’re in a worse mood than when you started. How is that even possible. You looked for a solution that you couldn’t find. You’re still confused and desperate for someone to just tell you everything’s going to be alright. But you’re angry, sad, and hopeless.

Damn you Facebook, I should have just watched an episode of New Girl or The Great British Baking Show.

---

I may not have a solution for everything that’s happening in our country, but I (and you) can take personal steps to build a healthier mindset with social media and the news. It all starts with one person, right? We hear over and over again that change starts at home and I am 100% behind that belief.

Where it gets a little tricky for me personally is that social media is my job. Starting with my college internship, I’ve worked in social media marketing with every professional role I’ve had. Then I started my own business. I can’t just delete my social media accounts, and I honestly don’t want to anyway. I love social media. It’s the most powerful marketing tool we have. It’s also an incredible way to easily connect with family and friends all over the world. I even planned the majority of my destination wedding through Instagram.

If you’re not using social media for your business and you’re using it for a personal account, you may find another blog I wrote very helpful. I discuss how to have a healthier mindset with social media. Setting tech boundaries with your phone is a huge step you need to take to control impulsive social media usage. Check out that blog for more helpful tips.

---

Now for my fellow social media marketers, business owners, and personal brands who are looking for ways to move forward on Facebook and Instagram…

What should I post? Should I make a statement? Should I share my opinion? Sometimes we question if anything we’re doing on social media even matters. 

Don’t let the negativity of the news cycle put a damper on your content. Remember that the most powerful way you can use social media is to share value with your audience. It’s your job to flood your feed with positivity, education, and relatable content.

Also remember that many things happening today are NOT political. They are just being politicized because of the deep divide in our country. Wearing a mask to protect yourself and those around you isn’t political. Defending black lives isn’t political. Standing up for groups of people who face discrimination and hate crimes daily is not political. These are just the right things to do. Human lives are at stake here. These are human rights topics and you SHOULD care. If you have the energy to post about your latest sale or offer, you should consider re-routing that energy into a meaningful post that tells your audience you aren’t living under a rock in a land of rainbows and butterflies acting like nothing is going on.

Don’t know what to say? That’s fine. No one is expecting you to have the perfectly polished words of an eloquent political or notable figure. There are plenty of educators, experts, and thought leaders out there to learn from. If you come across something that speaks to you and you want to share it, credit them and explain how they broke down a complicated topic in a way that you often struggle to find the right words.

People are scrolling for a solution, remember what I said at the beginning of this blog?  So here’s my solution for you:

What problem can you solve for someone today?

What can you teach someone?

How can you put positivity into the world?

If you have a solution to someone’s problem, you belong in this space.

If you have a secret that can make someone’s life easier, share it. You belong in this space.

If you sell a product or offer a service that people are looking for and that people need, you belong in this space.

If you are an artist, musician, or a writer, you belong in this space. We need you.

It’s also important to remove yourself from 24/7 social media and put effort into other platforms that can compliment your business. For example, I started this blog as a space to share information that I care about and I know it can help you in some way. I also started journaling. Everytime I want to pick up my phone for no reason, I’m training myself to pick up my journal instead.

---

Social media is way more than just the news. It’s an online space to connect.

Social media is more than a marketing channel, it’s where you can build your brand and create relationships.

Everyone wants an answer to their problems.

Be the answer for someone scrolling today.

Share your expertise. Share your value. Share your light. Create something today. You are a part of the change.