Instagram for Business: 6 Tips to Grow Your Social Footprint

Instagram is home to over two billion monthly users, making it a great place to market your small, medium, or large business. With the platform reaching countries all around the world, it’s possible to make sales, connect with location-based audiences, and create a global footprint for your business.

Instagram, as a highly visual platform, is a powerful marketing tool. Your main page highlights visual content, such as static posts, as well as Reels and Stories where you can share video content and engage with audience members directly.

Whether your industry is food, fashion, HVAC, or the medical spa space, you can find your crowd on Instagram and reap the benefits of posting consistent content. But, to make the most of your new account, you’ll first want to ensure it’s a business account. A business account gives you more tools to use to gain insight and market yourself to your target audience.

How to Make Your Instagram a Business Account

Now that you know why having an Instagram business account is important, you can also look at how to transition from a personal account. Switching over to a business account provides you with extra tools and features that help you promote and sell your products and services.

Here are the steps you can take to do so:

1. Find the Business Conversion Switch

There isn’t a business conversion switch, per se, but there is a simple conversion process you need to follow to convert your personal Instagram account to a business account. To start, you will need to go to your profile. Then:

• On a desktop or laptop computer, find the “more” link on the left-side tab. This link is in the upper right-hand corner on mobile devices.
• Click into “Settings and Privacy.”
• Scroll down until you find “For professionals.”
• Click on “Account type and tools.”
• Under Account type, click “Switch to professional account.”

According to Instagram, when you switch to a free professional account, you’ll gain access to helpful insights, different contact options, and more. A business account can help you learn more about your followers and gain a larger reach through promotions.

As a side note, you will notice that you have to select an industry for your business and decide if you want a business or creator page. You can follow Instagram’s suggestion, but you can also override it. A business page is better if you plan to sell products and services, so keep that in mind as you sign up. You can also get a Blue Check verification to prove you’re a credible business and build better user confidence.

2. Connect Your Facebook Business Page (Optional)

You have the option to connect your new Instagram business page to your Facebook account. One reason to do this is to gain the ability to cross-post without creating unique posts on each platform. To connect Facebook and Instagram:

• Go to your Instagram profile.
• Click “Edit Profile.”
• Under your profile information, you can click on “Connect or create.”
• Click on “Continue.”
• Next, select a Facebook page and connect it. If you don’t have one yet, you can select “Create a new Facebook page.”
• Click “Done,” and you’re all set up for cross-posting content.

3. Dive Into Analytics and Business Features

Once your Instagram business account is set up, it’s time to check out all the different business features you can now access. Some features you’ll want to take advantage of include your new bio section that allows up to 150 characters, a branded profile picture, a link in your bio, contact information, and more.

You also have access to the Commerce Manager, where you can set up an ecommerce business, and Instagram shopping, which lets you put your catalog online so people can purchase from you directly. Keep in mind that Facebook and Instagram work together in Meta’s control center, so many of the informational articles and customer service options will be on Facebook for you to browse and use when needed.

Beyond the basics, you’ll gain access to analytics, too. Through your account insights, you can see insights on post performance, including Live videos, Reels, and Stories. Additional information on paid activity, views, and follower count is also available.

6 Instagram Tips for Businesses

Instagram can help you reach your business goals, but you do need to know how to use it.

1. Define Clear Goals

You have to know what your goals are for Instagram before you get started on your Instagram marketing campaigns through your business account. Decide if you want to sell through Instagram Shop, are interested in boosting brand awareness, or want to build a community of new followers for example.

Once you know your goals, you can start posting content that will appeal to the appropriate audience. And, with your goals in mind, you can track how your interactions are going when you post on Instagram, ensuring your content stays on brand and delivers the right messaging for your goals.

2. Know Your Audience

No matter where you post online, knowing your audience and the Instagram users you want to reach will help your business make the most of it. For instance, if you sell MedSpa services, you might want to use Instagram hashtags such as #Botox or #MedSpa[location] to reach your preferred target audience with your Instagram marketing campaign. Leveraging Instagram hashtags is a great way to do so.

Keep in mind that the audience you want to reach may not always be the one you do reach. So, you’ll need to keep an eye on your followers and interactions. Ask questions and use polls to get insight through Instagram Story. If you find that the audience isn’t quite right for your business, consider using paid ads to find the right audience.

3. Create a Visually Appealing Profile

A visually appealing profile can make a big difference in how many people stay on your page, follow you, and interact with future content.

Instagram is a highly visual platform, but that doesn’t mean that what works for someone else will work for you. Instead, you should think about your brand’s visual identity. Consider creating your own branding guidelines to keep all posts on brand, as well.

Part of this process includes creating a color palette for your Instagram business account. Large brands usually have an idea of what works for them, but for small businesses, it may take some time to settle on a logo, color palette, and overall vibe for your brand. Make yourself distinct, whether it’s through the use of a singular, monotone color palette or a bright, rainbow-themed Instagram page.

4. Use Hashtags Strategically

Hashtags are one way people find your content, whether you have a personal profile or a business page. Think of them as links to categories that your target audience might be browsing through. You want to position your business’s posts within the appropriate categories to help them get seen.

How many hashtags do you need? It has been found that using more than 11 hashtags on a post will help your post get more engagement, so add plenty to describe your post every time.

5. Offer Exclusive Content

When users come to your Instagram account profile, you want them to continue coming back. Having exclusive content on your page will help you do so. Whether it’s a hot drop of the latest clothing for your brand hitting your page a few days earlier than other social media platforms or you only post video content on Instagram, exclusive content will encourage users to follow you (and check in with you) on Instagram. Keep your Instagram stories and Instagram posts exclusive when possible.

6. Knowing When to Post

While it might seem like it wouldn’t matter when you post content because it stays online perpetually, the reality is that you can help your business grow faster on Instagram by posting at the right time of day. The best time to post on Instagram depends on what you’re posting and who you want to reach.

For example, if you’re trying to reach adults on the East Coast who usually work until 5:00 p.m., it makes the most sense to post on Instagram in the evening when they’re available to browse your content and are more likely to see your post in their feeds.

Why use Instagram professionally?

There are more reasons to use Instagram professionally than just getting your business online and onto another social media platform for marketing purposes. Of course, for maximum engagement across the net, having accounts on all the major social media platforms can be key, but using Instagram professionally is helpful for three primary reasons, including:

Genuine Engagement

Statistics have shown that approximately 90% of people on Instagram follow at least one business account. With approximately 2 billion monthly active Instagram users in the world, that’s a massive number of Instagram followers your business can use to its advantage.

With Instagram, you can engage with your audience directly. Followers can leave comments, save your posts, and more, giving you an opportunity to deliver content they want to see, respond to questions, comments, or concerns, and interact on a more personal level.

Follower Insights

Instagram is a unique platform because you have more ways to directly interact with your followers than just likes, direct messages, and comments. Instagram also has the Story feature that lets you post polls and quizzes. You can ask questions, use link stickers, and add slide-polls to help gain insight into what your followers want to see.

As far as gathering insight on what followers want and staying connected goes, Instagram is a great tool for gathering user preferences and quickly creating content your niche audience actually wants to see.

Organic and Paid Growth

Instagram offers paid advertising, but you can also try growing your business organically. With both features in place, even small businesses with tight budgets have an opportunity to grow without spending thousands on marketing.

To reach new audiences through organic marketing efforts, Instagram has location tags, paid partnership labels, audio, and hashtags you can use to get your content seen. For example, if you choose to use trending audio with a Reel, that audio may bring you new viewers and followers.

Paid advertising is also an option. The Instagram Ad feature lets you choose your target audience, how much you want to pay (based on the number of views you want), and create an ad that blasts out to potential leads. As an added benefit, you can make an ad in Facebook’s Ads Manager or in your Instagram Business Account, depending on your preference.

Ready to grow your business on Instagram?

It’s time to get more Instagram insights and take the way you use Instagram to the next level. Podium integrates with Instagram and your Instagram business account to give you additional support as you connect with followers on Instagram. With Podium’s Instagram integration, you’ll see all your Direct Messages, story mentions, and story replies in your consolidated Podium Inbox. And, with Podium’s AI Employee, you can respond to inbound messages immediately, helping you provide better customer service and convert Instagram leads faster.

Ready to see how Podium can help you manage Instagram? Watch a demo.