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How to Use Instagram for Business in 2023: 6 Pro Tips

How to set up Instagram for business in 4 steps

Using Instagram for business: 6 tips

FAQs about using Instagram for business

Instagram is the top media platform for building relationships with brands, according to a Meta-commissioned Ipsos study. And half of Instagram users say the platform helps them discover new brands. Even better for brands, 44% of users shop weekly on the platform.

If you’re not using Instagram for business purposes, those potential new customers might never find their way to your products or services.

Here’s how to use Instagram for business growth in 2023.

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

How to set up Instagram for business in 4 steps

1.

Switch to a Business account

You need to create an Instagram account first, then convert it to a business account. If you have an existing personal or creator account you want to convert, that works too. It’s free and anyone can do it.

You can have up to five Instagram accounts, so go ahead and keep your personal Instagram account personal if that’s what you prefer.

  1. From your profile, tap the hamburger (three lines) menu icon in the upper-right corner.
  2. Tap Settings. Some accounts may see Switch to professional account on this menu. If you do, tap it. Otherwise, tap Account, then tap Switch to professional account.
  3. Tap Continue (you may need to tap it multiple times as Instagram previews the available features of a professional account).
  4. Select a Category and use the slider to choose whether to show it on your profile, then tap Done.
  5. Choose Business (unless it makes sense for you to choose Creator), and tap Next.
  6. Use the slider to opt in or out of promotional emails from Instagram for professional accounts, then tap Next.
  7. Add or edit relevant contact details, then use the slider to choose whether to show your contact information on your profile, then tap Next (or tap Don’t use my contact info to skip this step).
  8. If you plan to connect your Instagram business account with a Facebook business page, follow the prompts to connect your account to your Facebook Page. This is technically optional, but it’s necessary in order to use Instagram shopping features or run ads on Instagram.
  9. Tap the X in the top left corner to close this window and return to your profile.

Learn more about the difference between Instagram business and creator accounts.

2. Add business information to your bio

In 150 characters or less, your Instagram bio should describe your brand and showcase your brand voice. We’ve got a full guide to creating an effective Instagram bio for business (complete with templates), but here’s a quick video to walk you through the basics:

Also be sure to make the most of the other components of your Instagram business profile:

  • Profile pic: Most brands use their logo. Your profile photo displays as 110 x 110 pixels (cropped to a circle), but it’s stored at 320 x 320, so that’s the size you should upload.
  • Link in bio: Link to your website, your latest blog post, a current campaign or a Link Tree.
  • Contact information: If you didn’t add contact info during your account creation, you can do so at any time by tapping Edit profile. Instagram will then add a Contact button to your profile.
  • Action buttons: If relevant, you can add a button that allows customers to book or reserve appointments or to order food. To use this feature, you need an account with one of Instagram’s partners. Tap Edit Profile, then scroll down to Action Buttons.
  • Story highlights and covers: Instagram Story highlights are another way to maximize your profile real estate by providing more information about your brand or your products. Organize Stories into saved collections, then add some polish with Highlight covers.

3. Connect your product catalog

To tag products in Instagram content, or to run certain kinds of Instagram ads, you need to create a product catalog. You can do this in Meta’s Commerce Manager.

  1. Head to Commerce Manager and click Get Started, then select Create a catalog and click Get started again.
  2. Select Ecommerce, then click Next.
  3. If you have a shop on an ecommerce platform like Shopify or Big Commerce, click Connect a partner platform and follow the prompts to create your catalog. Otherwise, click Upload product info, name your catalog and click Next.
  4. Click View catalog to open your catalog, then Add items to start adding products.

We’ve got a whole post on using Commerce Manager if you’d like more details on how this tool works.

4. Turn on Instagram shopping

Once your catalog is full of products, it’s time to turn on Instagram’s shopping features.

  1. From your profile, tap the hamburger (three lines) menu icon in the upper-right corner.
  2. Tap Settings, then Business, then Set up a Shop.
  3. Tap Get started and follow the prompts to submit your shop for review.
  4. Wait for approval. You can check the status of your shop at any time by going to Settings > Business >Shopping.
  5. Once your shop is approved, go to Settings > Business >Shopping, select your product catalog and tap Done.

We’ve got a full blog post explaining everything you need to know about Instagram Shopping if you want to focus on this particular aspect of using Instagram for business.

Using Instagram for business: 6 tips

1. Research your audience

A good social media strategy starts with a sound understanding of your audience.

Instagram’s audience demographics give you an overall picture of who uses the platform. For example, 18-34-year-olds represent the largest ad audience on the site.

Source: Hootsuite Global State of Digital 2022 (October Update)

However, that doesn’t mean your specific audience on Instagram will be made up of 18-to-34-year-olds. For example, looking at the audience insights for my own Instagram account, I can see that my audience skews older than the Instagram average:

Source: Meta Business Suite

You can find demographic information on your existing audience using Instagram Insights, Meta Business Suite, or Hootsuite Analytics. But if you’re just getting started using Instagram for business, you might not have a large enough following to gain meaningful insights here yet.

In that case, take a look at the demographics of your audience on other social channels and of your existing customer base. While this won’t translate exactly to Instagram, it should give you a sense of who’s interested in your business and what you have to say.

Understanding your audience puts you in a better position to create targeted content and business captions for Instagram that resonate. Since audience research is an important foundation for your content strategy, we’ve got a whole post dedicated to helping you find your target market.

2. Figure out your content mix

Now that you know who your audience is, you need to determine what to share with them. Rather than posting random content whenever the mood strikes, you need to develop a content strategy that speaks to your audience and keeps them engaged, all while contributing to real business goals.

While you should certainly post some promotional content to get people excited about your products and drive sales, you also need to provide content that builds community and sparks engagement.

That might mean including user-generated content or other curated resources, sharing insider expertise about your industry, or joining in on a trending meme. (But tread carefully here – only join in on trends that are appropriate for your brand voice. )

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Wendy's 🍔 (@wendys)

 

Look for opportunities to develop themes or regular installments that you can build into a series. “Content buckets” allow you to check certain boxes without having to overthink creation. The more planning you do upfront, the better you’ll be able to produce regular content and respond to last-minute or unplanned events.

3. Schedule your content in advance

From Reels to Stories to posts, there are many options when it comes to Instagram content.

The best way to create a unified strategy is to schedule your content across all Instagram surfaces (and other social platforms) using a content calendar. Or, take it up a level and schedule all your content to publish automatically at the right time using a tool like the Hootsuite Publisher. Yes, you can even schedule Stories and Reels in advance.

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The added advantage here is that you can create your content in dedicated blocks of time and schedule it to post at the best time for your audience. Even if that time is outside business hours, on the weekend, or in the middle of the night.

4. Tag products

When you share content about your products on Instagram, tagging makes it much easier for people to learn more or buy. You can tag up to 20 products in a photo feed post.

To tag products, create your Instagram post or Reel as usual. Then, on the final screen before posting, tap Tag products. You can tag products from your own shop or someone else’s, which creates great opportunities for collaboration and cross-promotion.

Source: @reitmans

In Stories, you can tag products using the Product link sticker.

Source: @allbirds

5. Track your results (and learn from wins and losses)

With an Instagram business profile, you have access to the platform’s built-in analytics tools to help you understand how well different types of content perform.

There are several other analytics tools available, including Hootsuite’s, that can track longer time frames, automate reporting and make it easier to compare Instagram metrics across other social media platforms.

Try for free

No matter which social media marketing tools you use, the important thing is to check in regularly to learn what kind of content resonates best with your target audience. You’ll start to see patterns about what generates the most engagement, as well as what kinds of social media content increase views beyond your existing follower base. (Hint: Try Instagram Reels.)

Use these lessons to hone your content strategy over time.

6. Treat Instagram as a customer service channel

Success on Instagram requires you to engage with your followers rather than just blast content out and hope someone likes it. One important component of this two-way communication is monitoring your DMs for questions, comments, and customer service requests.

Instagram business accounts have access to a couple of DM features that make managing customer service easier on the platform. First, your inbox is divided into Primary and General tabs to make it easier to keep track of your messages. And second, you can create saved replies to commonly asked questions that you can access via keyboard shortcuts.

Hootsuite Inbox makes it even easier to manage your DMs by allowing you to assign messages to the appropriate team members. If you really want to take customer service on Instagram seriously, a tool like Sparkcentral allows you to integrate Instagram with your CRM.

FAQs about using Instagram for business

Is Instagram free for business?

It’s free to set up an Instagram business account, promote your business, and even set up an Instagram shop.

The only fees for Instagram business accounts are ad costs if you choose to run Instagram ads, and selling fees if you use Commerce Manager to allow your customers to check out and complete their purchase within the Meta platform.

So, there is no fee to use Instagram Shopping to tag products and direct users to your website to buy them. However, if you use Meta’s native checkout through Commerce Manager, you will pay the following selling fees:

  • $0.40 for shipments up to $8.00
  • 5% for shipments of $8.01 or more

Instagram is waiving these fees until 11:59 PST June 30, 2023.

How does Instagram work for business?

As you’ve seen in the Instagram for business tips throughout this post, Instagram offers many useful features for businesses. Some of the most important features only available for professional accounts are:

  • Instagram Insights for audience demographics and details about how your content performs
  • Instagram Shopping to tag products in your content
  • Instagram Direct features to better manage DM communications

But on the whole, Instagram for businesses works just like it works for creators or personal accounts. Create great content that inspires, informs, or entertains your audience to grow your following and build community around your account.

What are the disadvantages of using Instagram for business?

For most businesses, the benefits of using Instagram for business far outweigh the disadvantages. That said, there is one important disadvantage that’s especially important when using Instagram for small business development.

For micro businesses, it can be tempting to use Instagram as your entire business presence. But this puts you at risk if you ever have an issue with your account, like being hacked, locked out, or blocked. It’s a good idea to also have a website you control where you can continue to make sales and grow your audience if there’s ever a problem with your Instagram business account.

Save time managing Instagram for business using Hootsuite. From a single dashboard, you can schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance and run all your other social media profiles. Try it free today.

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Complete Guide + 18 Strategies

With over 2 billion monthly active users as of Q4 2021 (up 200% from 2018) Instagram is both the O.G. and trendsetter of social media marketing. Instagram has shaped the landscape of social commerce, the creator economy, and how brands use social media for over a decade.

So how can you use Instagram marketing to grow your business in 2023?

Do you need Instagram ads (or worse: dancing Reels) to be successful? How can you best use Instagram’s shopping tools?

Find out how to use Instagram to grow your business online, no matter your industry or goals.

What is Instagram marketing?

How to set up Instagram for marketing

18 tips for a winning Instagram marketing strategy

Why use Instagram for marketing?

3 Instagram marketing tools

Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.

What is Instagram marketing?

Instagram marketing is the practice of using Instagram to grow your brand awareness, audience, leads, and sales. As the favorite social media platform of people ages 16-34, Instagram is a highly effective marketing platform for brands, entrepreneurs, and creators.

Instagram marketing strategies include:

  • Organic content: Photo, video, or carousel posts, Reels, Stories
  • Paid content: Instagram ads, including Stories ads, Shopping ads, and more
  • Influencer marketing
  • Shopping tools: Shop tab, Product tags and catalog, Live shopping, Instagram Checkout, Shopping ads

How to set up Instagram for marketing

If you’re just starting out, here’s what you need to do to set your company’s Instagram account up for success.

Set up an Instagram Business profile

To use most of the marketing tips featured here, you need an Instagram Business account. It’s free, and you can create a new one or convert your existing Personal account.

If you have an existing Personal account, skip to Step 3.

Step 1: Download Instagram

You can only create an account using a mobile device.

  • Get it for iOS
  • Get it for Android
Step 2: Create a Personal account

Tap Create new account. Follow the prompts to enter your email and phone number and choose a username and password. You don’t need to fill out the rest of your profile right now (more on how to optimize it later).

Step 3: Switch your new account to a Business one

Go to your profile and open the menu. Go to Settings and choose Switch to professional account near the bottom. Select Business as the account type and follow the prompts to convert your account.

Get verified

Most companies aren’t verified. Research shows 73.4% of creators or brands with over a million followers are verified, but only 0.87% of those with 1,000-5,000 followers are.

You don’t need that little blue checkmark to be successful on Instagram, but having it can help you earn trust and stand out.

To apply for Instagram verification:

1. In the app, open the menu. Click Settings, then Account, then Request Verification.

Source

2. Fill out the form.

After submitting the form, you’ll receive the answer as a notification within Instagram in about a week. Instagram will never email you, ask for payment, or contact you any other way.

If your verification request is unsuccessful, you can try again in 30 days. If it’s approved, hooray and welcome to the super-elite Insta club.

The tricky part of getting verified is having enough third-party content to prove you’re well-known enough to warrant needing verification. We cover tips for getting that supporting content in our complete guide to getting verified on Instagram.

Try Instagram ads

Expanding your marketing strategy with ads can have a big impact. Even simple ads can earn results, like coffee retailer Country Bean’s 3 week campaign which resulted in a 16% sales increase.

There are two ways to get started with Instagram ads:

The easy way: Boost a post

You can turn any existing Instagram post into an ad by clicking the Boost Post button. You need to have either a Business or Creator account, though.

As you probably guessed, this is exactly like Facebook’s “boost” feature. Now that Meta owns both companies, you’ll also need to connect your Instagram account to Meta Business Suite.

After clicking Boost Post, follow the quick prompts to set your budget, narrow your target audience, set a duration, and boom—you now have an Instagram ad.

You can customize the targeting options or have Instagram automatically target your ads. Boosted posts are a good way to dip your toe in the advertising pool, so if this is all new to you, stick to auto mode.

Go big: Launch a full Instagram ad campaign

Step 1: Log in to Meta Business Suite

Click on Ads in the left menu, then Create ad at the top right.

Step 2: Choose a goal

Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? It’s like that, but for marketing.

For a first campaign, Automated Ads are a good option. Instagram will try to get you the most results with the least budget possible, and they auto-adjust your targeting and bidding strategy as they learn more from your audience’s reactions. It’s like having a 24/7 robot assistant.

If you want to experiment with ad targeting yourself, or have a specific goal, try out one of the other options, like focusing on leads or traffic.

Step 3: Create your ads

The prompts to complete your ad vary depending on which goal you pick, but generally the next step is to create the ad creative. For example, this is what the next step is for the “Build your business” goal.

For a well-rounded campaign, you should have at least 2-3 ad groups, each containing 3 or more ads.

Most ad formats have an option to allow Instagram to switch out your creative assets automatically to optimize ad performance. It’s like having a real-time, built-in A/B testing process. Add multiple creative assets for each ad to take advantage of this.

Try to include a mix of photo, video, Stories ads, Reels ads, and Catalog and Shopping ads if you sell products online. Test out different ad copy and calls to action.

And, ensure you have ads for each stage of your buyer’s journey, from consideration all the way to conversion.

Step 4: Define your audience

Take a shot every time you read “define your audience” in a marketing blog.

Targeting is critical to your ad’s success. Meta Business Suite gives you five options:

You can target:

  • An Advantage Audience (Recommended for newbies!): This is Meta’s AI-optimized audience based on your existing account audience, and updates itself automatically as your audience grows or changes. It analyzes what interests and demographics your followers share.
  • People you choose: Create your own audience from scratch, including location, demographics, interests, and more.
  • People who’ve previously engaged with posts or ads: Create a retargeting campaign to remind people who already know you about your offer.
  • Page Likes: Targets your existing Facebook Page and Instagram followers.
  • Page Likes and similar: In addition to your existing audience, this will also expand to target people the algorithm thinks are similar to them to bring in new leads.

If you’re new to ads, use the Advantage audience option. Want to learn more about perfecting your ad targeting? The info in our Facebook ad targeting guide works for your Instagram ads, too.

Step 5: Set your budget

Whichever targeting option you pick, you’ll need to set a budget and duration. You’ll see the predicted results of your choices on the right side in estimated reach and clicks.

Step 6: Launch

Lastly, choose if you want your ad to appear only on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger, or across all three platforms. We recommend running it across all.

Click Promote Now to save and launch your Instagram ad campaign. Woo!

Running a successful ad campaign is a huge undertaking. Check our in-depth Instagram ads guide for tips on creating great ads in 2023.

Add an Instagram Shop to your account

Instagram Shopping tools are a must-have for ecommerce businesses. 44% of Instagram users shop weekly on the platform, and 1 in 2 use Instagram to find new brands.

Tips on using Instagram Shopping are in the next section, but you need to add the Shop tab to your Instagram profile first.

This allows you to create a fully shoppable product catalog directly on Instagram, as well as tag and link to products in your posts and Stories, and more.

Source

Step 1: Ensure you meet Instagram Shopping requirements

Brands using Shopping features must adhere to Meta’s merchant policies. You’re probably doing all these things correctly anyway, but it’s a good idea to review Meta’s commerce policies first before applying.

Step 2: Sign up for Commerce Manager

To create your Instagram Shop, you need to have a Meta Commerce Manager account. You need a Business or Creator Instagram account first, then you can sign up one of two ways:

Through your ecommerce platform

If your website runs on Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, or other major platforms, you may only have to click a button to set up your Instagram Shop.

The process is different for each, so check out Meta’s list of supported platforms to find instructions for yours.

Manually through Commerce Manager

Don’t use one of those? It’s easy to sign up from scratch.

Log in to Meta Business Suite and click on Commerce in the left navigation.

Click Add Account. Click Next on the following page to start the manual set up process.

First, choose a checkout method:

  1. Checkout on your website.
  2. Checkout directly inside Facebook and/or Instagram. (Recommended, but currently only available for U.S.-based companies.)
  3. Checkout via direct message on WhatsApp or Messenger.

Select the Facebook and Instagram profiles you want to create your Shop on, then click Next. Create a new product catalog, and click Next again.

It will prompt you to enter your website URL and the countries you ship to. The final page is a summary of all your information. Ensure it’s accurate, then click Finish Setup.

Step 3: Wait for approval

Instagram reviews new Commerce Manager applications manually, though you should hear back within a few business days.

Eager to learn while you wait? Learn how to tag products in your scheduled Hootsuite posts, and the next steps to optimize your Instagram Shop.

18 tips for a winning Instagram marketing strategy

1. Set S.M.A.R.T. social media goals

You know, the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound yada yada yada type goals. What do you want your Instagram account to do for your business?

A few common examples are:

  • Lead generation
  • Brand awareness
  • Recruitment

But, your goals are as unique as your company. The important point? Have some.

Learn how to set effective social media goals that directly connect to your marketing strategy.

2. Optimize your profile

There’s a lot to cover here, so check out our full step-by-step recommendations to optimize your Instagram profile.

At minimum, ensure yours has:

  • An intriguing Instagram bio that sums up your brand.
  • A call to action to click your bio link.
  • A high quality profile photo (a headshot or logo).
  • Stories highlights and well-designed covers.

The great thing about digital marketing is nothing is set in stone. Don’t sweat about making the perfect Instagram profile. You can always tweak it later.

Remember: it’s what’s inside that counts (most). As in, your actual Instagram post content.

3. Up your graphics game

Instagram is a visual platform. While no one’s expecting a small business to have the same resources as a megacorp, you still need to create eye-catching posts that attract your audience.

Besides hiring a professional photographer to take your product shots—which you really should—try:

  • Sourcing inclusive stock photography, like Vice’s Gender Spectrum Collection and others who showcase the full range of the human experience. (Here are more stock photo sites.)
  • Popular Instagram Reels ideas. Not sure where to start? Try a Reels template.
  • Use graphic templates to up your style without spending a lot. Hire a designer to make them, or use an app like Adobe Express.

4. Champion user-generated content

The best way to boost your Instagram for free? User-generated content.

Encourage your followers to share photos or video of your products. Not every shot will be an Ansel Adams-worthy one, but you can’t beat the authenticity of real customer photos and stories.

Instagram makes this easy with the Tagged tab, which shows all the posts other users tag you in. There’s a hack to make it so only the crème de la crème are visible: Enabling manual approval for tagged photos.

So instead of a jumbled mess, you can curate user-generated content that fits your aesthetic.

Source

5. Develop a brand aesthetic

Speaking of style… have one. While your audience isn’t going to hand over their wallets solely due to good looks, make an effort to create a cohesive-looking profile.

Why? Because people will see one of your posts in their Instagram feed and instantly know it’s from you before even seeing the account name. They’ll recognize your style. That’s branding at work.

6. …But don’t be too concerned with aesthetic

Yes, having a recognizable look helps you attract the audience you want, but style without substance isn’t a strategy. 58% of Instagram users say they like it more when brands share candid, unpolished content.

Don’t let the fear of your content not looking “pretty” enough stop you. Post it anyway.

7. Have a distinctive brand voice

One thing that always needs to be on point, raw or not, is your brand voice.

Your voice comes through everything you communicate, such as:

  • Post captions
  • How you come across on video
  • Key terms you use
  • How people speak on camera when representing your company
  • Your bio copy
  • Text in videos or Reels

Besides what you say, it’s how you say it. Are you casual and fun, or serious and scientific? Keep things light with jokes, or stick to the facts? There isn’t a wrong way, but you need to stay consistent.

Your brand voice and tone is a key part of your social media brand guidelines.

8. Use Reels

It seems like all you see when you open Instagram now are Reels, and there’s a reason for it: They get engagement. We conducted an experiment that found a significant correlation between posting a Reel and an immediate boost in overall engagement rate.

Some may not get many views and that’s okay, because when one of yours does go a lil’ bit viral? It’s all worth it.

Anyone can be successful with Reels, it just takes practice. We’ve got tons of resources to makes yours reel-y (ugh) good:

  • Instagram Reels in 2023: A Simple Guide for Businesses
  • Instagram Reels Algorithm: Everything You Need to Know
  • Instagram Reels Tutorial: 10 Editing Tips You Should Know
  • 15 Unique Instagram Reels Ideas for Your Business

9. Use Stories

Reels may be newer, but Instagram Stories aren’t going anywhere. Popular for more informal content, Stories allow you to develop relationships with your audience in a unique way.

It doesn’t take a ton more work to see a big effect, either. A year-long study found that when companies shared one Story per day, it resulted in a 100% retention rate.

Not only that, but 500 million people use Stories every day. I’m not great at math but having 100% of your audience remember your content, with a potential reach of 500 million people? That’s a no brainer.

If you need tips on what to share in your Stories, check out our Instagram Stories guide for businesses and how to create effective Instagram Stories ads.

10. Create useful Stories highlights

Stories only last 24 hours, but your Stories highlights can live on forever.

Highlights are great for communicating lots of information quickly in the format most people prefer these days: Short video. 61% of Gen Zers and Millennials prefer videos under 1 minute long.

Plus, adding Stories highlights is a way to repurpose your Story content and keep it working for you.

Try adding a temporary highlight for a new product launch or event. Leave up always-relevant ones like FAQ or ordering information.

For effective Stories highlights, ensure you have:

  • Short, clear titles
  • Cover designs that fit your brand
  • Only your best content featured in them

Source

11. Use Stories tools

Instagram makes it easy to link to your products or services (whether you have Commerce Manager set up or not) and engage with your audience.

Access the ever-expanding Stories toolbox by tapping the smiley sticker-thing:

Be sure to try out:

  • Product tags: If you have an Instagram Shop, you can easily tag your products in Stories. Users can tap the product name and checkout in-app.
  • Links: Useful for directing people to any URL, but especially so if you don’t have an Instagram Shop. You can still link out to your products on external sites.
  • Questions: Get quick and valuable feedback.
  • Gift cards and more: Depending on your account type, users can purchase gift cards or order food delivery directly from a Story.

Hootsuite makes it easy to schedule Instagram Stories in advance, including all the special tools and features you need.

12.

Stay up to date on hashtags

To hashtag or not to hashtag? Is it nobler to suffer the highs and lows of the algorithm, or take arms against a sea of content?

You can add up to 30 hashtags per Instagram post. But a 2021 experiment we did showed that using more doesn’t get more views. Last year, Instagram’s official @creators account recommended no more than 3-5 per post.

What about in 2023?

A casual experiment I ran on my account this week showed an opposite effect. I loaded up on hashtags, using between 15-20 per post, and most of my (albeit small) reach came from those hashtags.

So what does this tell us?

TL;DR: Science is hard, no one knows how many Instagram hashtags are “the perfect amount,” and you should regularly experiment with this.

Check out our Instagram hashtag guide for tips on what’s working right now.

13. Reply to comments and DMs

Engage with your audience! Reply to their comments, messages, carrier pigeons, etc.

Because a higher engagement rate looks good on your analytics reports, right? No! Reply to your followers because it’s the right thing to do.

Yes, it also boosts your engagement rate. But more importantly, it encourages your potential customers to start conversations with you. Over time, those conversations become the foundation of their perception of your brand and greatly influence purchase decisions.

Hootsuite Inbox allows you to stay on top of all comments and DMs across all your platforms in one place. Assign conversations to team members, track responses, and ensure no one falls through the cracks. See how efficient it is to foster genuine engagement with Inbox:

14. Try Instagram Live video

Live video doesn’t need to be scary. It’s a powerful tool for Instagram growth and deepening your relationship with your audience.

Try:

  • Hosting a workshop or class.
  • A Q&A session.
  • Product demos.

Source

Our complete guide to going live on Instagram covers how to do it and ideas you can try today.

15. Partner with influencers

Influencer marketing is still going strong in 2023 and projected to grow more every year. In 2021 alone, influencer marketing accounted for $13.8 billion USD in value.

Don’t forget your most valuable influencers: your employees. Starting an employee advocacy program can boost your profits 23% and internal team morale. Win-win.

Learn how to maximize your ROI with our free Influencer Marketing 101 guide for businesses of all sizes.

16. Run contests and giveaways

What do people like? Free stuff!

When do they want it? All the time!

Sometimes the best strategies for Instagram are the oldest. Contests can boost your organic reach and give you tons of user-generated content.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Colorbar Cosmetics (@lovecolorbar)

Contests don’t need to be expensive. Give away free products in a simple raffle by having users like and comment on your post, or partner with someone else in your industry to split the cost of a larger prize package.

Get inspired with creative Instagram contest ideas, and a step-by-step process for running giveaways.

17. Measure your ROI

You see the positive comments customers leave, the sales coming in, and your follower count going up. But how do you put a number on it? What are the real results of your efforts?

Measuring your ROI, or return on investment, is important for reporting to your boss, but it can also help you justify establishing or increasing your paid advertising budget.

It’s also the only way to know if your marketing strategy needs a tweak, or if you should double down on what you’re doing.

Rather than sifting through each platform’s analytics dashboard and attempting to assemble the full picture yourself, lean on Hootsuite Impact instead. Impact pulls together data for all your organic and paid content across every platform in one place, giving you powerful insights whenever you need them.

18. Experiment!

Last but not least, don’t wildly follow every Instagram marketing tip you read on marketing blogs. 🙃

Seriously: You need to experiment. Every audience is different. Maybe your peeps hate live video. Maybe they’re only online at 3pm on Wednesdays. Maybe they will give you their first-born child for a free sweatshirt.

Evaluate your performance often and set aside time to run experiments to see which tactics work best for you. Don’t worry, we have a free social media audit template to help out.

Why use Instagram for marketing?

Need a bit more convincing? Here’s how Instagram marketing can help you grow your business.

Instagram Shopping tools can boost sales by 300%

44% of Instagrammers shop weekly on the platform. Since launching basic shopping tools in 2018, like linking to products from Stories, Instagram is now a complete social commerce solution.

Brands can achieve up to 300% more sales with a combination of Shopping tools and ads.

People spend 30 minutes per day on Instagram

Instagrammers spend 30 minutes per day on the app, which is fairly average among major social platforms, but it’s the session length that really stands out.

People spend about 18 minutes per session, which beats out the average Amazon shopping trip (13 minutes), Twitter scroll (14 minutes), and YouTube session (7 minutes). Surprisingly, also the average session on Pornhub (14 minutes).

Now that’s real engagement.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends 2022 Report

Instagram ads reach almost 1/3rd of all internet users

Instagram ads can reach up to 1.48 billion people. That’s 29.9% of all internet users and 23.9% of everyone over age 13 worldwide.

Instagram ads also significantly impact brand sentiment: 50% of people say they find businesses more interesting after seeing their ads on the platform.

Source: Hootsuite Digital Trends 2022 Report

3 Instagram marketing tools

1. Hootsuite

Lil’ biased here, but Hootsuite really is a great choice to manage all your social media marketing. We have all the basic tools you need, like scheduling, planning, and analytics, as well as advanced capabilities to take you even further.

With Hootsuite, you can schedule posts for Instagram (Posts, Stories, and Reels), Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest. from one intuitive dashboard. Think of all the time you can save not switching between 7 apps to post content!

Hootsuite also offers detailed analytics comprehensive reporting, as well as a calendar view and content creation tools that allow you to publish the best content possible.

That’s not it. Every Hootsuite user gets access to custom, fully personalized recommendations for the best times to post content for maximum reach, impressions, or engagement.

Try Hootsuite for free

Check out everything Hootsuite can do for you:

2. Notion

Notion is like if a notebook and a spreadsheet had a baby. A Gen Z baby ‘cause it’s digital-first.

You can add anything to a Notion page that you add to a document, like text, images, etc. But its real power is databases, allowing you to filter and sort your info in multiple ways, including on a calendar, in tables, or with Kanban boards, to name a few.

It’s what I use to plan my social media content (before I put it into Hootsuite, of course) and I love how easy it is to edit on mobile. Plus, if I had friends a team, everyone could collaborate in the same Notion workspace, too.

Check out Notion’s template gallery, or make your own content board from scratch.

3. Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a free online tool to create great-looking social graphics and more. You get additional features if you already have an Adobe subscription, including Adobe Stock access and more.

With Hootsuite’s Creative Cloud integration, you can view all your Adobe libraries directly inside Hootsuite, and edit photos in Hootsuite Composer. It’s a perfect pair, especially if you already use other Adobe apps like Photoshop or Illustrator.

Manage all your Instagram marketing alongside your other social platforms with Hootsuite’s time-saving tools. From a single dashboard, you can schedule posts, Stories, and Reels, engage with your audience, and measure your social ROI. Try it free today.

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How to make a business account on Instagram: creating and setting up

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Instagram* has a special type of page for entrepreneurs, brands and companies — business account. I will tell you what an Instagram business account is, why you need it and how to create one.

You can skip the equipment and go directly to the instructions.

What is an Instagram* account for business

A business account is a professional account designed for users who want to promote their products or services. A profile for business differs from a regular account in an expanded set of tools for working with content and additional functionality for registering an account.

There are currently two types of business accounts on Instagram*:

  • Author. This option is for bloggers.
  • Company. The account is suitable for companies and entrepreneurs.

At the time of launch, "Author" differed in functionality and statistics. Now the functions of "Author" and "Company" are almost the same.

In addition, during the process of creating a business account, the user will be prompted to select a category. At the moment there are about 1000 different categories. Example:

  • Artist.
  • Fitness trainer.
  • Athlete.
  • Author.
  • Musician/group.
  • Blogger.
  • Designer.
  • Tutor/teacher.
  • Politician.
  • Digital publisher.
  • Editor.
  • Director.
  • Entrepreneur.
  • Model.
  • Public figure.

The selected category or subcategory allows you to more accurately reflect the direction of the user's activity. But you can change the category at any time or completely prohibit its display in the profile.

Actually, the type of business account and category does not play a special role. Such segmentation is needed to structure all business pages and select the right audience. For example, for users who are interested in fashion, Instagram is more likely to show content from a stylist rather than a restaurateur in the Recommended tab.

Why you need a business account

Business accounts on Instagram* were created to highlight the pages of brands, companies and entrepreneurs and provide them with conditions for active promotion.

A business account allows users to increase brand or product awareness, increase audience coverage and sales, and attract customers through marketing activities.

Sometimes completely unexpected brands are promoted on Instagram — for example, here is the profile of the Saratov Concrete Mix Plant

The Magnit chain of stores is also active on Instagram

Functions and capabilities of a business account

Extended description. On the profile page, you can specify the line of business, address and contact details, link to the site, description. You can add eternal stories that tell about the product, methods of purchase, terms of cooperation, customer reviews. As a result, the visitor can immediately understand what kind of page it is and why it might be interesting.

Convenient communication with the audience. The owner of a business account can add "Call", "Contact", "How to get" buttons to his page. Thanks to this, users can find out the contact details of the company and contact it to make a purchase or ask questions.

Advertising and promotion. You can run targeted ads with specially crafted creatives or promote your featured posts. Moreover, you can run ads both from the Instagram* mobile application and from the Facebook* advertising account.

Statistics analysis. The study of statistics helps to analyze the effectiveness of content, identify errors and develop the right promotion strategy.

There are other equally interesting features available to business account holders. For example, you can create branded content in collaboration with a brand or author. You can create a store and tag products with the Instagram* Shopping tag. You can set up saved answers to frequently asked questions and reply to messages instantly.

How to create a business account on Instagram*

There are two ways to create a business account on Instagram: register a new account with the "business" status or switch your personal account. Let's consider both methods.

If you already have a personal Instagram account, then go directly to "Edit Profile" - here is the required instruction.

Now to the instructions on how to create an Instagram* business account from scratch.

Open the main page of Instagram. To enter the platform, you can use one of three options: "Login with Facebook *", "Register" or install the application and register on a mobile device. The Instagram* app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, the App Store, or the Windows Phone Store. When logging in via Facebook*, you need to log in with your username and password. The principle of registration on the web page and in the mobile application is similar. Select "Register" and move on.

Enter your details in the registration form: phone number, first name and last name. Create a username and password. Click Next. Now you will be prompted to indicate the date of birth, confirm the phone number. We perform these steps - your personal account is registered.

On the recommendations page that opens, click on the avatar icon. Here you can go to the profile and further to its settings.

On the profile page, go to the Edit Profile section.

In this section, you can change or supplement information: add information about yourself, specify the website address and email, change the username. But since we want to change the type of account, we click on "Switch to a professional account" on the left side of the page.

Immediately after the click, a page with the benefits of a professional account will open. Click "Next" and proceed to choose the category that best describes your activity. If you want the category to be displayed in your account, check the corresponding box.

Now you have to choose the type of account - "Author" or "Company". There is no particular difference in terms of promotion and functionality. Choose the type that best suits your positioning.

Check or complete contact information.

Your business account is almost ready. Read the platform recommendations, click "Finish".

Account registration and transition to a business profile completed.

Your blank business account on your mobile device will look like this:

You can now edit your profile. Add a photo and description of your product or service. Create eternal Stories with a list of assortment and terms of cooperation, make the first publications and more. View statistics on account reach and content engagement.

However, in order to fully access the business account functionality and use the promotional features, you need to connect the Facebook page*.

How to connect a Facebook page* to an Instagram* business account

You can only link a Facebook* business page to an Instagram* business account. So, start by creating a Facebook business page if you don't already have one. Then you can go directly to the connection.

To connect a Facebook* page to an Instagram* business account from a computer:

1.Go to "Settings" of the company's Facebook page*.

2.Select the Instagram* tab from the list on the left.

3. Next, you will be prompted to select the desired account. Log in to your Instagram business account* and refresh the web page. If successful, you will see that the Instagram account is connected.

In the mobile app, you can link your Facebook* business page as soon as you switch to a professional Instagram* account. If there is no business page, you can create it. Since we previously created a business account without being linked to Facebook, we proceed as follows:

1.Click on the "Promotion" section on the Instagram* business account page. Select a Facebook page* and log in.

2. Read the setup conditions and click “Yes, complete the setup”. Now you have access to the section for creating promotions and you can promote publications.

You can also run ads on Instagram* through the Facebook* ad cabinet.

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how to do (4 steps + instructions)

To make selling on Instagram more convenient and efficient, the social network has introduced a special profile format for companies — a business account. The transition to it is available to absolutely all users. I'll walk you through how to connect and set it up step by step - as well as what features it provides and how they help sales.

A business account is a type of Instagram profile created for business promotion and analytics on the social network.

How to connect

If you logged in through a PC, then you need to make just a few clicks to connect a business account. In the settings, find the "Switch to a professional account" item, then select the "Company" sub-item. Follow the prompts: specify the category of your business and set up its display in the profile.

Connecting a business account in a PC browser

How to switch to another category? As easy as pie! To do this, go to your Instagram profile page and click "Edit Profile". In the “Profile Information” section, select “Category” and change it to any other that is relevant to you.

Change the category at any time

Switching to a business account from a smartphone is also easy: select "Account" from the settings menu, scroll to the end of the list that opens and click "Change account type". The further algorithm is the same as on a PC: read the tips, find the appropriate category and confirm your choice.

Setting up from a smartphone

You will also be offered to integrate your Facebook. This can be done immediately, or at any other time. The condition is now optional, but the integration will greatly expand your opportunities for positioning your business on social networks. By the way, on Facebook it should also be not just a personal, but a corporate page.

Completing settings

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Related:
Instagram Design (25 Cool Profiles + Examples) Instagram Photo Editing: Top Applications + Examples

Features

So, you have switched to a commercial profile. And you will definitely want to immediately try out all the new features and chips. Then I will give a brief overview of the settings and advantages that distinguish an Instagram business account.

1. Profile category

The instagram business profile allows you to display the subject of your page. In addition to the inscriptions “brand” and “personal blog”, which are now quite common, you can put any other profession or topic, for example: musician, politician, clothing store, cafe, bar, etc. This is important because it attracts the attention of your target audience.

Categories

As advertising

2. Communication buttons

For this setting, please fill in the contact details first. Add them to the fields: email, phone, address. Then the action buttons will become available, and they are implemented through integration with third-party applications for business. You will be able to place, for example, an online registration form or online payment. It will look like "Call", "Register", "Order delivery", etc.

A business account makes it easier for users to contact you. For example, when you click on the "Call" button, the phone number automatically appears on the mobile dialing screen, that is, you do not need to copy it to the phone's memory, open the desired section, paste it - everything is done in one click.

Communication buttons

By the way. In order for Instagram algorithms to work for you, I recommend cleaning your account from garbage through the Instahero service. Use the promo code "INSCALE" to get a 30% discount on a full analysis. Click and test -> Instahero.

3. Statistics

Various statistics can be viewed for a business profile. So you get the opportunity to track the reaction of subscribers to a particular content, analyze the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, contests, etc.

Statistics exist both for the profile in general and for individual publications and stories. This feature is useful not only for selling accounts, but also for personal brands.

Statistics
Profile statistics

On a business account on Instagram, you need to click on the “Menu” section on the profile page. Then select "Statistics". Switching between tabs here you can see:

  1. Number of profile visits, site clicks, reach rates;
  2. Weekly publication information;
  3. Subscriber information: number of subscribers/unsubscribers, subscriber locations, gender, age.
Profile statistics

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Publication statistics

In addition to general statistics, track reactions to individual publications. To do this, on the profile page, select any photo or video and click "View statistics" under the publication.

The window will display the number of likes, comments, shares and saves of the selected publication. In addition, the total number of actions performed with this post and the number of transitions to the profile are calculated here.

Publication statistics

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Stories statistics

You can access the statistics of stories from the already familiar section “Menu” -> “Statistics” -> “Content”. Next, you need to find the “History” section. From here, the coverage of each story is available. Clicking on any post will open more detailed statistics, where you can even find out exactly who viewed your story.

History statistics

Related:
Business on Instagram: from scratch in 13 stepsInstagram engagement: what it is + how to increase

4. Promotion and targeting

Instagram has its own functionality to promote your publications. It works in such a way that it allows you to show your posts to the target audience, advertise your profile or drive traffic from Instagram to some external resource. This is more effective than simple cheats, although you will need cash investments for this tool.

Promotion

Lifehack. When replenishing your account, use a special service that returns up to 20% back to the balance of the promotion amount. For example, you threw in 10,000, and you can run an ad for 12,000. Click and learn more -> GetUniq.

Related:
Advertising in Instagram stories: step by step instructions How to make a mask on Instagram: simple instructions

5.

Shopping Tags

Shopping Tags allow the audience to view your product cards, read the description, find out the price, go directly to the desired section of the online store. This feature has a positive effect on the growth of sales.

Shopping Tags

Interesting. I also recommend using multilink. It will help to create a full-fledged online store, as well as contact you via instant messengers.

6. Physical address

If you sell goods not only online, but also offline, you are probably often asked how to find you in order to buy a service or product. Business accounts allow you to post exact addresses and hours of operation with access to view the address on a map.

Physical address

7. Additional lead magnet

Posting an address may not be relevant to you if, for example, you do not offer your services offline. Then this place can be used to place an additional lead magnet. The address bar allows you to place a fairly large amount of information, which is very useful in cases where a profile description and biography is not enough.

Lead magnet

Briefly about the main thing

A business profile is relevant not only for selling pages or instagram landings: its wide range of features will find its use even if you do not sell anything.

One of the most compelling reasons to switch to a business profile is free access to statistics that will show, for example, which posts turned out to be the most interesting. And finally, I will briefly list the main advantages:

  • Ability to categorize accounts;
  • Access to profile statistics;
  • Convenient communication with users;
  • Ability to run a full-fledged online store;
  • Ability to promote a profile without third-party services.

And one more thing to help you. Do you want to make a bomb out of your account, get hundreds of subscribers a day and a flurry of enthusiastic direct messages? Then watch the courses below:

  1. Involving stories on the phone ;
  2. Promotion on Instagram.

    Learn more