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In a few short years, online reviews have completely changed how consumers spend money with local businesses. In fact, studies show that \n90%\n of customers say their buying decisions are influenced by online reviews, and just a one-star rating bump can increase business revenue by 39%.\nHaving a high rating on review sites like Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Facebook is essential for success these days, but what should you do if you don’t have very many reviews, or you have too many negative ones? Let’s lay out your options:\nShould you pay for positive reviews?\nIf you didn’t know, there are so-called “reputation management” companies that will help you buy positive reviews. Let’s be clear: this is a terrible idea.\nFirst of all, the FTC has ruled that it’s illegal to buy positive reviews, and they crack down on companies that are caught doing so. On top of that, most review sites have strict policies in place against buying reviews.\nGoogle, for example, has algorithms that detect fake reviews and manipulation, and will remove anything that appears suspicious. Yelp makes the deceit public by clearly notifying consumers when reviews are fake.\nBesides, buying phony reviews is just bad for your company’s brand reputation. Today’s customers are savvy and likely to catch on quickly to any deceitful practices. Once you’re caught, you can’t put that genie back in the bottle. Don’t risk it.  \n \nWhat should you do instead?\nIf buying positive reviews is off limits, how can you ensure your company gets more reviews so customers can find and patronize your business? Here are three easy tips:\n1. \nJust ask\nIf you want more reviews, the first step is to simply remind customers that you value their feedback. Post signage in your physical location (if you have a customer-facing business location) or on your website. \n2. \nEngage with reviewers\nPositive reviews beget more positive reviews, and vice versa. When you do get a good review, you can use the pile-on effect to your advantage. When you get a negative one, showing some genuine empathy can reduce its impact on your business.\nOnce a good review is posted, offer a quick thank you—it goes a long way. Not only will the reviewer feel appreciated, but prospective customers will notice that you took time to respond. The same goes for bad reviews: respond promptly. But this time, listen closely to what was said, offer an apology, and provide a solution.\nPeople will pay attention to how you handle the matter, so don’t overreact. Regardless of what the reviewer said, online reviews give you an opportunity for customer interaction, which builds rapport and trust, and ultimately increases customer loyalty, leading to even more positive reviews. It’s a beautiful cycle.\n3. \nUse their feedback\nDon’t just sit back and watch the reviews roll in, listen to what your customers say and implement their feedback. Use their positive reviews to know what they like, and then do more of it. You can also use their positive comments to tailor your marketing.\nWhen you get negative reviews, use it as an opportunity to improve and grow your business. The more you listen to your customers and implement their feedback, the likelier they are to continue visiting your business and give positive reviews and high star ratings.\nYou can also remove blind spots by paying attention to negative reviews, which reduces the chance of getting more of them.\n


Should you pay for positive online reviews?

In this article:\nWhat is Instagram Stories? \nHow can Instagram Stories help market your hair or nail salon?\nInstagram Story ideas for your or nail or hair salon\nHow to show ads in Instagram Stories\nWith more than 1 billion active monthly users, Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platforms. And more than 500 million people are using the Instagram Stories feature on a daily basis. \nFor hair and nail salons, you can get a lot of traction from Instagram Stories with the visual nature of your service. Catch your customers’ attention by sharing your own stories on a daily basis, and capture more new customers or followers with Instagram Stories advertising. \nWhat is Instagram Stories?\nInstagram Stories is a feature of Instagram where you can highlight specific moments of your day, business highlights, deals, points of interest, etc. within a slideshow that is only available for 24 hours. You can post short video clips and images within this platform. \nThis is a great way to share content that you don’t necessarily want to be posted permanently, but just want to share some extra tidbits about your day with your customers. \nAlso, not everyone wants to be bombarded with posts from you in their Instagram feed all day. Instead of sharing a bunch of Instagram posts (the daily recommendation is 1-2 posts), you can share a bunch of content via the “Stories” feature, so that only those who want to see that extra content will see it. \nGet started by \ncreating an Instagram account for your business\n if you don’t already have one.\nHow can Instagram Stories help you market your hair or nail salon?\nInstagram Stories is a powerful way to keep your customers and followers engaging with your brand. From quizzes and polls to the tagging capabilities within this platform, you can really get your customers involved with your account and business. \nA few ways that your salon can benefit from using Instagram Stories:\nWith location tags, hashtags, and mentioning influencers and other local businesses, you can grow your audience\nGet more customer engagement with polls, quizzes, AMA’s, and sharing visually appealing content\nDrive traffic to your website through deals and teasers for tutorials\nUse Instagram Stories ads to broaden your reach (see below)\nGo deeper: \nWhy Instagram Stories are the most underrated small business marketing tool\nUsing an Instagram Story for marketing your salon\nNow that you’ve got a good idea of how Instagram Stories can help your salon, let’s talk about a few specific ways you can use Instagram Stories to market your hair or nail salon.\nShare behind the scenes footage\nSalons are definitely a more personal business than most, so sharing some behind-the-scenes shots or video of your staff members and facilities can show how welcoming and fun the atmosphere of your salon is. \nShare short clips of your staff members in action with a client, cleaning their supplies, or even just having fun together outside of work. \nPromote deals\nGrab the attention of local Instagram users by offering some sweet deals in your Instagram Stories. \nWhen one of your staff members has a few openings left for the day or week, blast that on your stories and encourage customers to take action by linking it to your online booking on your website or tagging that stylist in your story. \nShare referral deals and other discounts within your story to entice customers during your less busy times. \nGo deeper: \nWhy your salon needs online scheduling\nPost some live tutorials\nPost live tutorials on your Instagram Stories. These will have to be brief tutorials or something that you can tease and share the rest on your website. \nFor nail techs, share a quick how-to for making a flower out of nail polish or the proper way to trim someone’s nails. \nFor hairstylists, share quick guides for a cute messy bun or how to make the perfect wave with a hair straightener. \nIf you have full tutorials on your website, share some short teasers and use the “swipe up” feature to include a link and drive more traffic to your website. \nInvite your customers to ask questions\nInvite your customers to ask you and your staff members questions. Host an “ask me anything” (AMA) session within your Instagram Stories. Share the questions that come in from your customers and record your answers via video. \nAdd this session to your \nInstagram Story Highlights\n so anyone who missed the AMA can view these later, because if one customer had a question about your services, it’s likely that others had that same question. \nShare advice\nInstagram Stories is the perfect place to share advice about what types of products to use, how often to trim your hair, and all other things hair and nail health. \nShare videos of your staff members offering advice or create some compelling visuals that share the message you want to convey. \nYou can even post blogs on your website about hair and nail health and then share little peeks from those in your stories to drive more traffic to your blogs. \nPartner with other brands\nIdentify other local businesses that you can collaborate with to either host events or offer your customers some great deals. \nFor example, you could partner with a bridal shop or wedding venue to offer savings on a bridal package when they purchase through you and your partner. \nWhoever you partner with, take advantage of both of your follower base by sharing on each of your Instagram Stories and promoting the deals like crazy. \nPro tip:\n If you don’t want your Instagram Stories to disappear forever after 24 hours, learn \nhow to use Instagram Stories highlights\n.\nHow to show ads in Instagram Stories\nYour entire target audience is not already following your Instagram account and therefore, won’t necessarily see your Instagram Stories unless you promote them through ads. \nInstagram is highly integrated with Facebook (Facebook owns Instagram), so in order to share an ad via Instagram Stories, simply log in to your Facebook Ads Manager and set up a new ad campaign. \nDon’t have a Facebook Ads Manager account? Set one up with our quick guide:  \nHow to set up Facebook Ads Manager for your small business\nWithin Facebook Ads Manager, you can select the type of placements that you want, and Instagram Stories is among those options. \nSome ideas for types of ads to share on Instagram Stories:\nLocal promotions and discounts\nUpcoming events that you are hosting or involved with\nBrand awareness ads\nSeasonal offerings around prom, winter formal, and homecoming
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How to market your hair or nail salon with Instagram Stories

Small Business Saturday 2022 is more vital than it has ever been for local businesses. Millions of American businesses permanently closed due to the pandemic, and Small Business Saturday is an annual event that intends to bolster support and sales for local retailers, so hopefully they can recover and thrive through this crazy time in history. \nLet’s go over some basics about Small Business Saturday, and then we’ll talk about three ways you can maximize the positive impact of this “Shop Small” holiday this year and throughout the year to come.\nWhat is Small Business Saturday?\nSmall Business Saturday is an annual event on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was \nstarted by American Express in 2010\n, and has continued to grow in popularity and local support ever since.\nThe “Shop Small” movement is growing as local retailers, restaurants, shops, and even online-only businesses feel the pressure from big-box retailers and huge multi-billion-dollar corporations that are intent on carving out a space in local markets.\nAccording to American Express’s \nShop Small survey\n, 80% of consumers surveyed are likely to seek out small businesses rather than huge retailers for their holiday purchases. This is good news for small businesses still struggling to overcome the impacts of the pandemic. \nWhen is Small Business Saturday 2022?\nSmall Business Saturday 2022 is on November 26. It falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday each year.\n3 ways you can maximize your Small Business Saturday success\n1. Extend your business’s hours\nWhen you have more people visiting your store, it makes sense to extend your regular operating hours to accommodate the additional traffic and maximize sales.\nBe sure to \nupdate your business’s website\n and other online resources like \nGoogle My Business\n and \nYelp\n with your correct holiday hours so people aren’t disappointed. Also remember to email your customer list (if you have one) and let them know, as well as posting on your social media platforms.\n2. Hire more help\nEven if you need to hire temporary workers just to cover this important weekend, it can be worth it. Studies show that Saturdays are the busiest days of the week for local retail anyway, and Small Business Saturday is significantly busier than that. \nHowever, hiring additional workers may be a tall order in today’s shaky retail environment, as nearly half of small businesses have job openings they can’t fill. Offering incentives and bonuses for full-time or temporary workers can pay off big, though, if you can leverage the additional help into exponentially greater sales.\nThe benefits of hiring more help include more effective inventory management, a faster and more satisfying shopping experience, and quicker checkout. These benefits (and more) can delight customers and increase your chances of getting positive reviews, earning repeat business (see below), and \nimproving local SEO\n results for your business.\n3. Focus on earning repeat customers\nOne great thing about Small Business Saturday is the increase in foot traffic for local businesses, which means you’re potentially selling to a lot more new customers. Be sure to gather all the information you can about these new and repeat customers so you can encourage them to return throughout the year for repeat sales.\nFor local businesses, setting up a complicated digital loyalty program may be a stretch, but even something as simple as having a stack of cards set up by the checkout register with a sign saying “provide your email and get 10% off your next purchase” can be effective at gathering customer email addresses.\nBe creative and proactive about asking (nicely) for customers’ contact information, and think of an incentive that can encourage them to provide it. We’ve prepared \n3 creative ways to build a customer loyalty program\n so you can market to your current customers, you can turn many of them into repeat customers that are worth up to 5X more than a new customer.\nGo deeper: \n6 elements of an effective loyalty program\nAlso, many modern \nsmall business payment solutions\n offer data resources that can gather customer info to help you build a loyal base of repeat customers. \nStay on top of your online reviews to encourage new and repeat business\nBeyond focusing on creating a memorable and satisfying customer experience on Small Business Saturday (and throughout the year), another vital aspect of local business success is getting reviews and recommendations on all your online business pages and review site profiles. This helps provide social proof that other people have used and enjoyed your products or services, and can bring more new customers to your business. \nYou may also like:\n\nStep-by-step small business marketing guide\n\n\n41 small-town business ideas that thrive\n\n

Small Business Saturday 2022: more important than ever

In this article:\nThe big three: Google, Facebook, and Yelp\nOther important review listing sites to focus on\nWhich online review platform is THE most important?\nCustomer review tips\nOnline review sites are crucial for developing a good online reputation for your small business. Research shows that claiming your profiles on 3 or more platforms correlates with a whopping \n78% increase in revenue\n compared to businesses who claim none.\nYou should strive to create as many profiles for your business as you can across several review platforms. \nHowever, there are a few important business profiles that you should spend a little extra time on to make sure you really round out your profile and provide customers with as much information as they need to choose you over your competitors. \nBest online review platforms for your business: the big three \nGoogle My Business, Facebook, and Yelp are the three review sites have the largest impact on consumers. People trust them and spend a lot of time on each of these platforms. They are important even to sole proprietorships, microbusinesses, contractors, freelancers, and more.\nGoogle My Business\nGoogle My Business is how you get your business to show up on Google. Google dominates more than 90% of the search engine market, so it goes without saying that people are definitely searching for new businesses here. \ncell phone with google business for best online review sites\n\nGoogle reviews have a large impact on how well you show up in the Google map packs and influence a customer’s decision to pick your business over a competitor’s. \nQuick guide: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\nFacebook\nFacebook is huge for brand awareness. With more than 2 billion monthly active users, this social media giant reaches far and wide, even within your own community. \nWhile most users on Facebook aren’t shopping for new products or services, they are spending a lot of time on this channel. Take advantage of that by promoting your brand on Facebook with ads from your business page, and make sure to get good reviews from your customers on Facebook. \nThen, when people are in research mode, they’ve already seen your business in ads while scrolling through their feed. \nQuick guide: \nHow to create and claim your Facebook business page\nYelp\nYelp averages 37 million people on its mobile app alone each month, with a total of 100.5 million monthly unique web visitors. \nYelp started out intending to be used by consumers for finding the best local restaurants, but today multiple other industries get plenty of Yelp traffic as well. \nEvery small business should have a Yelp listing and encourage their customers to leave reviews there. Just be careful about how you get your reviews on Yelp because they do have strict policies about soliciting reviews. The best way is to follow Yelp’s guidelines and encourage customers by posting official “We’re on Yelp” signage throughout your business and on your website. \nQuick guide: \nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\nGo deeper: \nWhy bad yelp reviews might be a good thing\n\ncell phone with yelp for best online review platforms\n\nOther top review platforms you should add your business to\nWhile Google, Facebook, and Yelp are by far the largest online review platforms to focus on, there are several others that still pose valuable opportunities for your business. \nBing\nBing is the default search engine for Microsoft Edge, which is the default browser for Windows operating systems. What that means is that a lot of people are still using Bing when they do their online searching. \nBe sure that your business is available to those customers by claiming your business profile on Bing and keeping it updated and accurate. Keep current on your holiday hours, photos, and information like you would for your Google listing. \nQuick guide: \nHow to create and claim your Bing business listing\nOpenTable\nOpenTable is an absolute must if you run a restaurant, cafe, coffee shop, bar, lounge, sandwich shop, or anywhere else that serves food or drink. Follow our step-by-step guide to \nlist your business on OpenTable\n. \nBBB (Better Business Bureau)\nGetting your business listed with the BBB is important for your online reputation. When customers are getting serious about doing business with you, they’ll often research your company to make sure that they can trust you. \nThe BBB is one such site that consumers look to when trying to determine how well a business can be trusted, whether they have questionable business practices, or if they’re well-liked by customers. \nQuick guide: \nHow to get your business listed with the BBB\nTripAdvisor\nWhen people are traveling and looking for the best hotels, entertainment, and food options, they often look to TripAdvisor. So, if you fit into any of those categories (and more), this directory should definitely be on your list. Or more correctly, your business should definitely be on \ntheir\n list.\nQuick guide: \nHow to claim your business listing on TripAdvisor\nreview us on tripadvisor sign for online review sites\n\nManta\nManta is an important directory website to get your business listed on for two reasons:\nIt gets a lot of traffic from users who trust it\nManta provides a powerful and free tool to help you check the consistency of your citations across the web\nList your small business on Manta to take advantage of these features and improve your online presence even further. \nQuick guide: \nHow to create and claim your free business listing on Manta\nFoursquare\nFoursquare is a popular online directory where consumers share the things they love about their favorite businesses. Users provide tips about business they’ve been to and can get badges for engaging with businesses on this platform. \nFoursquare attempts to make the online review process a fun and interactive game for its users, which entices them to come back and rate other businesses—like yours!\nQuick guide: \nHow to list or claim your business profile on Foursquare\nSo which online review platform is \nthe\n most important?\nWhile you should definitely claim and optimize your business profiles on all of these sites (if relevant to your industry), starting with “the big three,” data shows that reviews on \nGoogle\n impact revenue far more than other review sites. If you had to pick only one review platform to focus on, it should be Google My Business.\nImportant customer review tips to remember\nBe sure to really round out each of the profiles that we’ve mentioned by including high-quality photos of your business and products (if applicable), updating your hours regularly, and engaging with your customers on these review platforms.\nOnce you have claimed each of your online business review profiles and start implementing your review strategy, here are a few important tips to keep in mind:\nDon’t stop reminding your customers that you appreciate online feedback/reviews. You can’t just ask a few customers one time to leave you a review online. You need some kind of system to continually grow your review count and build a steady supply of fresh reviews on your business profiles. \nRespond to every customer review. Engagement with your customer reviews is important. It shows them that you saw what they said and acknowledged it, whether the review was good or bad. This also shows potential customers that you are involved and want to provide a great experience. \nMake it easy for your customers to leave you a review. Asking a customer to leave you an online review is an awesome first step, but if you leave it at that, you won’t get many new reviews. You should find a way to guide your customers directly to your review platform so they don’t need to try to find it on their own. 
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Top 10 most important online review platforms for your small business

In this article:\nWhat makes Instagram Stories more effective than other social media\nWhy your small business needs to be on Instagram\nInstagram owns the youth market\nTips for using Instagram Stories for your small business\nAny marketing guru worth their salt will tell you that in today’s market, social media engagement is one of the best ways to build trust from potential and current customers. Even for super-small, local businesses. Here’s why you should consider using Instagram Stories as a highly effective small business marketing tool.\nWhat makes Instagram Stories more effective than other social media for businesses?\nFacebook has been the traditional “go-to” for a business looking to get into social media, but Instagram shows far better engagement and conversion figures. According to Neil Patel, 68% of Instagram users regularly engage with brands, compared to only 32% on Facebook.\nInstagram Stories in particular boasts crazy-good engagement figures among its 400 million daily users. An incredible 1 in 5 Instagram Stories shared by a brand receives a direct reply. This alone can provide invaluable insights into your current and potential customers’ thoughts about your products and services.\nHere’s another biggie: 80% of Instagram users follow at least one business. That would probably seem strange to marketers a couple of decades ago, but today, businesses have become personalities, like any other social media content creator.\nNeed more evidence? 75% of Instagrammers take action (such as visiting your website after viewing your Instagram post or Story). This all adds up to a 2.2% “interaction rate” for Instagram. That may sound like small potatoes, until you learn that Facebook has a 0.22% rate. That means that Instagram is \nNINE HUNDRED PERCENT more effective than Facebook\n in generating action from your potential customers.\nIf your business wants to target the youth market, you \nmust\n be on Instagram \nInstagram is now the top platform for teenagers, largely because the “Instagram Story” feature is a not-so-subtle ripoff of Snapchat (which has fallen to second place). 72% of U.S. teens use Instagram, and the number grows daily.\nInstagram’s mobile-friendly tap-to-navigate platform, fun face-filter tools, and image- and video-based content is the epitome of youthful social media success.\nHow to use Instagram Stories to grow your business\nSmall business marketing’s entire \nraison d’être\n is engagement, and Stories is the king of Instagram engagement, which is in turn the undisputed king of social media engagement.\nInstagram Stories make your business feel more fun, human, and personal\nWhile your main Instagram page should be super-clean and bright, with professional-looking, well-composed photography, Stories is a way to make your business’s “personality” more casual, fun, human, maybe even a little bit fallible. \nIf you use Stories effectively, people can start to identify with your company and start to think of you as a friend rather than just someone who provides goods and services they like.\nSince Stories default to a 24-hour life cycle (before they disappear forever—but more on this later) they can convey less formal, “throwaway” content that can feel at once more immediate and more personal and valuable to some consumers than the “put on your best face” aspect of your main Instagram page. \nIronically, this lowering of expectations from consumers can make your business seem more authentic and personable, more “real.”\nUse Instagram Stories to highlight products, offers, sales, and special events\nNaturally, products and services can be the subject of a Story. With the “swipe up” feature, you can direct your followers to any link, page, sale, website, or other social media account you wish.\nStories is a great way to try out new content, test an offer, etc. If you get a good response, you can consider making them a more permanent feature via your regular Instagram posts and/or your website.\nTake the opportunity to show owners and/or employees using your products and services. Maybe show them struggling with issues in a human way. (Do you run a gym? Consider profiling an employee or customer—with permission—struggling to lose weight or reach a fitness goal. Salons and pet businesses can show stylists or technicians doing interesting hairstyles or nails or treatments. Restaurants can show a “behind the scenes” look at how a popular dish is made. The possibilities are endless.)\nStories can show how your products and services fit into everyday life. You can share tips, how-tos, product demonstrations, unboxings, reviews, rants, raves, whatever you want. \nYou might feature a Story about recent positive customer testimonials and recommendations, or highlight recent reviews from Yelp, Google, or TripAdvisor.\nUse your Story to link to your blog, website, youtube channel, or any other interesting content to build interest and improve conversions. Make it special and engaging.\nBonus: Instagram Stories are given front-page priority on both Instagram AND Facebook. Take advantage!\nUse fun Story features like polls, geotagging, and hashtags to increase engagement\nThe “polls” tool encourages enormous engagement on Stories. A simple, binary “this” or “that” option gets people to express their preference with a simple tap, and you can direct them to related products that build on that choice. \nYou can also ask a couple of fun questions on your main Story page, and then “swipe up” to finish the quiz, complete the form, visit the website, or get a coupon for an in-store offer.\nUse “geotagging” (built-in location link) in your Story to let people know where your store is, where you’ve visited, where a special event is going on, etc.\nInstagram Stories also lets you use #hashtags and people tags, face filters, and all the other fun tools Instagram has to offer. By tagging other Instagrammers, businesses, or people you like, or whom you think your customers would like, you create valuable connections and keep people coming back for more.\nBe sure to respond when people engage with your Instagram Story\nAs noted above, the response rate for Stories can be very high compared to other media. So make sure you are actually available to respond to DMs (direct messages) while your Story is up. Instagrammers can contact you directly with a quick tap of their fingers, so if you plan to use Instagram Stories to build your brand or attract new customers, make sure you actually engage those customers when they respond to your story or ask questions about your products and services. Otherwise you may convey that your business is unresponsive.\nBut… my Instagram Stories will disappear after 24 hours!\nNot so fast, bub. Although the default setting for Stories is to disappear forever after 24 hours, you can select “save to archive” when creating your Story and it will be saved in your main Instagram account.\nEven better, use Instagram Stories Highlights to feature any Stories you want to share with your followers indefinitely.  \nRemember, your “Highlights” should be the absolute best of your Stories, displaying the most popular or highest-quality content that features your business.\nConsider Instagram ads\nIf you want to maximize your results on Instagram, consider augmenting your audience with targeted Instagram ads. Facebook owns Instagram, and Facebook’s demographic segmentation and targeting are second to none. If you pay for advertising on Instagram, you exploit those powerful Facebook resources, and your ads may be displayed on both platforms, depending on which options you select.\nInstagram Stories help you engage with your customers and portray your business in a fun, human light. \nSources:\n
\nhttps://neilpatel.com/blog/marketers-guide-to-instagram-stories/\n
\nhttps://neilpatel.com/blog/b2b-leads-from-instagram-stories/\n
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/how-to-use-instagram-stories\n

Why Instagram Stories are the most underrated small business marketing tool

In this article:\nHow can Instagram Story Highlights help me market my business?\nHow to create Instagram Story Highlights\nBest practices for Instagram Story Highlights for businesses\nInstagram Stories is a powerful resource for posting frequent updates on your business’s Instagram account without bombarding your followers with tons of posts. But sometimes, those stories have super helpful content that you want to keep for longer than 24 hours. Smart business owners are turning Instagram Stories into a robust marketing tool! \nInstagram Stories has a highlights feature that allows you to save your best stories on your profile indefinitely. Learn how to use Instagram Story Highlights for your business with our quick tips and guide. \nHow can Instagram Story Highlights benefit my business?\nBeyond allowing you to keep your Instagram Stories content for longer than 24 hours, this feature has several benefits that your small business should take advantage of. \nEasily categorize your story content\nThe highlights feature allows you to easily categorize any content that you put into your Instagram Stories. You can create multiple categories under which to save different types of content (we’ll show you how to do this below). \ncell phone with Instagram Stories image\n\nKeep relevant and timely content front and center\nRather than creating a post that can get lost in the feed of your Instagram profile, you can save stories as highlights that are pinned to the top of your profile. This keeps timely highlights front and center for your customers and followers to easily access. \nYou can always edit these highlights or remove them when they are no longer relevant. \nRecruit new employees with new job updates\nHighlights are a great strategy for enticing new recruits for your business if you're to the point where you need to hire help. Add some local tags to a recruitment story and save it to a specific highlights category for new job postings. Then your followers can check back whenever you have a new opening. \nIncrease customer trust\nIncrease customer trust by sharing what goes on behind the scenes. Humanize your employees by sharing clips of them helping customers, getting trained, or engaging in team-building activities. \nConnect with your followers on a personal level by allowing them a little peek behind the curtains. \nGo deeper: \nWhy Instagram Stories is the most underrated small business marketing tool\nHow to create Instagram Story Highlights\nLog into your business Instagram account on a mobile device, and let’s get started. \nStep 1: Create an Instagram Story\nWhen you want to create a new Instagram Stories highlight, you’ll first need to create an Instagram Story. You can only save previous stories in the highlights section on your profile. \nTo add a new story, go to your profile and tap the plus icon on your profile picture. \nscreen grab adding instagram stories\n\nTake a new picture or video, or upload one, and tap “Your Story” in the bottom left corner to save it to your story. \nStep 2: Add a new album to your highlights\nOnce you’ve created the Stories that you want to feature on your highlights, go to your profile and tap “New” under the “Story Highlights.” Choose the story that you want to feature as the cover for your new album and click “Next.”\n(Image)\n\nEdit the cover and add a title to your new album. \nClick “Done” and go back to your profile to see your new highlights album. \n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nStep 3: Add stories to your album\nMake your new album interesting by adding more stories to it. \nFirst, tap the album that you just created and then select the three-dot “More” button at the bottom right of your screen. \n(Image)\n\nSelect “Edit Highlight” to add another story under this album. \n(Image)\n\nNext, select “Add” and choose the story that you want to add to that album. Tap “Done.”\n(Image)\n\nStep 4: Remove stories from highlights\nIf you ever want to remove a story from your highlights, simply go to the album that story is in, and then select the three-dot “More” button when that particular story appears. \nSelect “Remove from Highlight” and then tap “Remove photo.”\n(Image)\n\nBest practices: Instagram Story Highlights for businesses\nNow that you know how to add Story Highlights to your Instagram business profile, here are a few best practices to really take your highlights the extra mile. \nCreate cover photos and categorize your highlights\nTake advantage of the organizational capabilities that Story Highlights offers to make a visually compelling highlights section on your profile. \nCreate cover photos and titles to help categorize your highlights and add the stories that you want to save to their relevant category. \n(Image)\n\nThis can also help you generate awareness for specific services or products that you offer, so share away!\nTip: \nCanva\n is a free tool that you can use to create Instagram Story cover photos. They have free and premium templates to choose from to help you get started. \nKeep highlight titles short\nYou have up to 15 characters for your highlight album titles, but Instagram only displays the first 8-10 characters on your profile. We suggest keeping your titles brief so that your followers can see the entire description of that album. \nKeep your highlights timely and relevant\nAdd new promotions or job openings to your highlights when they are coming up. But as these events end, be sure to remove them from your highlights so you don’t have stagnant, irrelevant content upsetting the user experience. \nMaintain consistency\nKeep some visual consistency across your highlights. This will show that you really know what you’re doing and provide a richer user experience that won’t create a disconnect when your followers are switching between highlights. \nFor your album covers especially, keep some consistency for the overall aesthetic flow of your Instagram profile. \nUse tags to get more views\nTag locations and relevant profiles in the stories that you choose to highlight. This will help you get more viewers for those particular highlights and ideally help increase your following and brand awareness. 

149 articles found in “Growing your business”

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