Instagram 103: 8 Proven Strategies for Small Business Growth

By Samantha Brunson, GoSadi Early Access User

Congratulations! By now you’ve read Instagram 101 & 102 and are ready to take the next step to  improve your Instagram account, content, and engagement strategy. 

As always, I want to remind you that Instagram is an ever evolving platform. It’s one of the things I love most about it. That means as a business owner you can’t become complacent on the platform but rather need to be ready to make changes and adjustments to grow. Stay curious! I encourage you to take the techniques that work for YOUR platform and YOUR audience and leave the rest. 

If you haven’t read our previous Instagram posts I recommend you do that first to get caught up and then come back to keep growing! 

Further Reading…

• Instagram 101

• Instagram 102
  

Now let’s get into 8 action steps you can begin taking to grow your Instagram and improve engagement. 

Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram, recently emphasized the importance of shareable content. Shareable content are posts that users send to their friends through DMs or share publicly  in stories; these are now confirmed to rank highly in the algorithm. 

To benefit, think about what your ideal customer would want to share—whether it's a pattern promotion or a a reel featuring tips and tricks. Include simple calls to action like "Share this with your knitting circle!" to encourage engagement. Less gimmick and more shareable content that your audience will connect with.

As I mentioned in the intro, Instagram constantly rolls out new features, engaging with these tools can boost your visibility. Instagram wants to be a platform that its users enjoy using. When new features roll out they monitor the public’s reaction to them. By being an early adopter, you increase your chances of higher reach. 

Stay up-to-date with Instagram's latest updates by subscribing to the GoSadi newsletter, where we share the latest social media trends and strategies.

Your Instagram profile is where a potential follower will land when they are deciding whether or not to click on the follow button. 

This window of decision is typically only a few seconds long. Ensure your visual identity is clear, cohesive, and memorable. A new follower needs to be able to quickly tell who you are and what you are about when they land on your page.

If this seems like a daunting task don’t worry! GoSadi created a style guide tutorial for your brand to help you out.  

Once you are happy with the style decisions you are making, confirm that your links and landing pages are easy to find. Instagram now allows you to list up to five links. This may sound like a lot but if you have a newsletter, website, and more than 3 patterns those five links go rather quickly. 

GoSadi’s Designer Landing Page can help streamline your links, ensuring your brand stands out while also giving you the room to add even more links to your Instagram feed.

Life can be unpredictable, but your social media strategy shouldn’t suffer because of it. Stockpile high-quality images and videos, creating a content bank that you can leverage on busy days and deposit into when you have more time or rich content on your hands. 

Whether it’s behind-the-scenes footage or product shots, this library will ensure you always have something valuable to share even when you don’t feel camera ready.

I will never suggest that you post to your feed every single day. In fact, if you choose to do that you may hurt your overall engagement by giving your followers post fatigue. BUT I will always recommend posting stories every day. 

Stories offer a more casual, behind-the-scenes glimpse of your brand. Leverage this by sharing quick updates, polls, and community content. Stories don’t need to be perfectly polished—what matters is consistency. 

Remember that a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Build narratives within your Stories that keep your audience engaged and coming back for more.

Instagram rewards business accounts that actively engage with their customers. Responding to comments, direct messages, and even liking other accounts’ posts can increase your visibility. 

For business accounts, Instagram tracks engagement response times, so be sure to reply promptly, even if it’s just with an emoji. Tools like Zapier, Hootsuite Inbox, ManyChat (Meta approved), or directly through Instagram DMs can help automate and streamline responses.

Instagram Ads, similar to Facebook ads are a powerful tool to expand your reach when used correctly. One brand who is consistently using Instagram Ads correctly are the Woobles crochet kits. Learn more about their approach and brand story to see how you can apply their strategy to your products. 

Once you’ve created a business account, use targeted ads to promote launches, events, or special offers. You can fine-tune your ads by location, demographics, and interests to reach the right audience. 

For more information about Instagram Business accounts, check out our guide: Instagram Business for Independent Designers for a deeper dive.

Hashtags used to be the main way for a post to get seen by a wide audience. Now that the explore feed, shares, and suggested posts exist, hashtags have lost some of their original weight. BUT hashtags remain a powerful way to categorize your content and reach new audiences because of SEO. 

Think of hashtags as keywords on Etsy. Keep them relevant to your niche, and avoid keyword stuffing and overloading posts with too many broad hashtags. 

Keep hashtags in captions, rather than comments. These perform better for discoverability because Instagram’s SEO doesn't count comment sections. If it did they would be opening themselves up to scanning phrases that your followers are typing too. Focus on optimizing your descriptions and descriptive text for the best results.

By integrating these strategies, you’ll not only grow your audience but build an engaging community around your brand. Instagram offers endless opportunities for creators to connect, inspire, and sell. 

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