Want your local business to be more visible on Instagram? Check out our top local business tips to ace your Instagram account!
Every local business or small business owner wants to find a cost-effective way of promoting your products or services. Just by utilising Instagram’s geo-targeting, local hashtag search and focusing on accessibility, your account could reach more eyes sooner than you think.
Tip 1: Optimise your Instagram account
It’s not just a matter of creating an Instagram account for people to find you. You need to optimise your account as well. Use these three simple tips to start optimising your account:
- Create a location tag for your business on Instagram
- Use your location tag in your post location and story location. Make sure to ask your customers or friends to do the same as well.
- Create niche-specific hashtags so that you can occupy the top hashtag positions—Eg. #footscraylocksmith. Promote six posts that use the hashtag so that your content will appear at the top of hashtag search results.
Tip 2: Strategise how you locally engage
To get anywhere on Instagram, you have to have organic traffic – which means engaging meaningfully and don’t use bots! This same logic applies to doing anything local as well.
Try these tips:
- Follow local social influencers.
- Post meaningful comments on high traffic local accounts.
- Feature local businesses in your stories and posts.
- Think about running crossover collabs with local businesses.
- Repost popular local content.
Tip 3: Share your local pride
One of the best ways to boost your Instagram business locally is to share your local pride and stand out in your local authority! You can do this by:
- Share events you host or events you attend in the area
- Create local discounts and share local sales
- Share information about local causes you support
- Highlight user-generated content from your local fans
See it as a PR opportunity, but don’t go over the top. Your Instagram account should firstly be about education.
Tip 4: Ride the trend
Do you know what is trending in your local area? Not every location is following the broader general trends, so it is best to keep on top of your local feed.
How can you do this?
- Follow local hashtags, e.g. your suburb’s name and also surroundings
- Follow local top accounts
- Follow local competitors to see what they’re doing
- Turn on notifications for accounts or hashtags, that way you can keep an eye on what’s happening right now in your area.
Tip 5: Leverage your surroundings
Content creation can be easy for local businesses. Increase your brand’s visibility in your local area by taking advantage of your surroundings.
Post pictures of places around your local business and geotag your images to make them more discoverable.
EXTRA TIP: Geotags don’t only make them more discoverable in Instagram but also through the search engines as social proof that you are a local business.
Tip 6: Dominate local hastags
Dominate local hashtags to help your business grow and gain attention in your community. By investigating what local hashtags are used and geotagging your photos, you will gain an advantage over your competitors and land yourself on the explore page for other local accounts. Every little bit helps!!
Tip 7: Instagram SEO
Yes…there is such a thing as Instagram SEO! Similar to traditional SEO, the more your post ranks, the more organic reach you will achieve. So, how can you use it to your advantage?
- Optimise your hashtags – Use all 30 hashtags to gain full benefit. Include ones from your niche, brand and generalised
- Optimise your profile utilising keywords – Make sure to include keywords that you’d like to be found with. Think like Google here – relevant keywords that are specific to your niche or location.
- Remember about Engagement – How can you get people to engage? Ask questions. Do polls in stories.
- Take advantage of location tags – Both in stories, profile and your post
- Use stories- This one is pretty simple, the more stories, the more chance of getting engagement.
- Alt text – If you aren’t adding alt text for your images, you’re behind the eight-ball here. Your competitors are doing it, and it’s a great way to allow the Algorithm to know where your post should show.
- Captions are just as important – Instagram uses this also to identify how and when to show your post. Make sure to use keywords and make them clear and straightforward to read.
Be a local business success story
Local businesses like yours can find success on Instagram from following some simple steps. Always try to find your own unique style and build a community. It’s not just about writing great content but engaging as well with your followers.
Want to know about local business website tips?
Need some help getting started on Instagram or want to grow locally? Get in touch with Design Grid now.
