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In this article:\nGet your “online persona” figured out\nCommit to YOU engaging on social media\nDevelop a social media plan and stick to it\nAsk questions and create polls\nAsk for feedback about your business and/or your channels\nTag and re-share RELEVANT influencers, stories, and social media accounts\nIf you’re a small business owner you’ve probably been told, “You need to be on social media.” You may have already tried to set up social media accounts for your business and haven’t seen much interest or engagement.\nDon’t feel bad. Even professional social media consultants don’t always have the success they expect, even when following strategies that have worked for them in the past. \nSocial media is always in a kind of flux, with algorithms and platforms that are constantly changing and being updated. It can feel a bit overwhelming, especially for small business owners.\nIn this article we’ll give you some basic strategies that can help you achieve more engagement, and hopefully some more customers and sales, via your social media channels.\nDetermine what kind of personality your social account will have\nBefore you engage with customers on social media, you need to really think about: 1. what kind of customer you’re attempting to engage/attract, and 2. what kind of business you want to be (or more accurately, what kind of business you want to be \nviewed\n as being, based on your social media presence). \nThis should go without saying, but judging by the slipshod social media posts we’ve seen from some businesses, you never know. \nThis process goes hand-in-hand with knowing how to create and grow an effective brand.  However, you may decide that your “online personality” doesn’t necessarily have to align 100% with your in-store or online storefront experience. It’s probably best that they are somewhat aligned so your customers know what to expect, but you may use more humor, say, in your Instagram or Twitter persona than you might during in-person interactions with customers when conducting business. \nThink about every aspect of your online persona, and make sure you’re consistent. Are you going to be playful? Sarcastic? Humorous? Serious? Informative and practical? Cheerful and bubbly? What’s your position on political posts and commentary? Do you censor/ban content from online trolls or do you ignore them, or even humiliate them to gain props from other readers?\npug dog wearing glasses posting on social media\nIn big business accounts, a playful and even a bit irreverent tone often produces the most widespread likes/shares/engagement. People like to see multi-million-dollar corporations taking snarky, playful pokes at each other via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. But make sure you get the tone right or your customers could view your “playfulness” as “petty.”\nIt’s important to know what kind of responses and content you create, as well as which types of social media posts you like an share, and then stick to it. \nYou can measure the success or failure of your approach as you track your engagement using analytics tools from \nFacebook\n, \nTwitter\n, \nInstagram\n, etc.\nYOU need to actually engage on social media\nIf you want engagement/likes/followers/hashtags/whatever on social media, \nyou\n must be willing to engage. This will not be something you can do sporadically or infrequently. Today’s customers are online at least several hours every day, and when they reach out to ask you questions or respond to your requests, they expect near-instant feedback.\nIt’s a tall order for a business owner to run the business, deal with customers, and also stay on top of social media and online engagement, but unfortunately that’s often the nature of the beast for truly small, local concerns. You’ll just have to do the best you can. \nIdeally, it’s best to have someone dedicated to handling social media if possible—someone who can perform other tasks, particularly when it’s slow or until you have a robust following, but who can then move into a more full-time social media management position when needed.\nIf you still haven’t set up your business’s profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, here are some helpful, step-by-step walkthroughs and tutorials:\nHow to create and claim your business’s Facebook page\nHow to create a business Twitter account\nHow to create an Instagram account for your business\nYou may also like:\n\nThe complete guide to Facebook marketing for small businesses\n\n\nHow to create an Instagram account for your business\n\n \nHow to promote Tweets on Twitter for your small business\nDevelop a social media plan/schedule and stick to it\nYou should be as responsive as possible to all incoming questions and posts, but as far as creating and sharing content, you should develop a social media plan and dedicate time and resources to it.\nPeople will come to expect regular content, and if you keep up with your schedule, it’s more likely that they’ll engage and like/share your content. \nNow, pay attention: Don’t over-post (but post regularly). This means you shouldn’t be annoying, but you should be posting content often enough to stay on the mind of your followers. It’s better to post one bit of content a week, rather than post nothing for a month and then post 4 new bits of content in one day.\nSpace them out and try to maintain at least a weekly schedule if possible, or even several times a week if you can keep up with it and your research determines your followers like and expect you to post that often.\nYou may also find that certain times of the day or certain days of the week perform better as far as engagement. This is where those analytics tools we mentioned earlier come in really handy.\nAsk questions and create polls\nSocial media is changing human culture because it allows people to feel connected and is interactive (and addictive). When people get to “influence” the outcome of something they feel is important, they derive satisfaction from it.\nFor this reason, asking questions and creating polls is one good way to get more people to interact with your social media channels. This can be as simple as a salon posting two types of hairstyle and asking followers to vote on their favorite, or a restaurant creating a poll for this week’s “daily specials” and letting followers rank them in order of preference.\nOr you might ask what your customers would prefer: a 10% off virtual coupon that’s good for 5 visits, or a 50% off on one item coupon that they can use once. Things like that.\nThis has the dual purpose of getting your followers to engage, as well as providing you valuable feedback for your business.\nIf you have decided that your business’s social media presence is the type to discuss things outside of work subjects, you might ask about local policies, favorite new albums, classic movies, Star Wars characters, TV series, celebs, cars, or whatever else you’re interested in (or think your customers might be interested in). People love to talk about their hobbies and share their opinions about all sorts of things.\nMake it interactive and fun for your current and potential customers, and you may see your engagement on social media increase.\nAsk for feedback about your business and/or your channels\nEveryone likes to feel heard, and everyone thinks their opinion matters. When you ask for it, people will share it (and they may share it regardless!). So get specific and ask for feedback about what your store is doing well, and maybe not so well.\nYou can ask followers to “upvote” or “like” their favorite suggestion or piece of feedback, and make sure you follow up and post about the changes you decide to make based on that feedback.\nEven if you’re asking for feedback about how you run your social media channel, this can be very helpful and increase engagement.\nTag and share RELEVANT influencers, stories, and social media accounts\nIf you have determined that it’s appropriate for your social media channel, you can encourage likes and hashtags that mention your business/social account. You can offer discounts or other perks when people “like” or “follow” you on a certain platform, or when they use hashtags like #[yourbusinessname] and #[yourproducts]. Social media tracking tools like \nHootsuite\n can help you set up notifications for all your online mentions, even misspelled ones.\nThink about the types of social media YOU like to consume, and examine what they do and see if you can emulate some of their strategies. If you can get a mention or “shout out” from a popular influencer, it can have big results. \nThis works best when it’s “organic,” meaning, it happens naturally and the influencer or popular social media user actually does use your products, eat your food, or like your social channel. People can usually tell when people are paid for endorsements, so go into those agreements very carefully.\nAnother note: make sure these cross-posted or re-shared stories or posts are actually relevant to your business, and/or it makes sense for your business’s online persona. A record shop might be perfectly fine tagging a post celebrating the release of a Danish death metal album, but it might not be right for your tax preparation business’s social media account.\nStay on top of your online reputation as well as your social media accounts\nThe first place most potential customers look when considering spending money at your business is your business’s profile on the popular review sites like Yelp and Google My Business. \nWhat they find—or don’t find—there can determine whether they actually visit your business, so it’s important to keep up on your review site profiles as well as your social media accounts.

6 tips for better social media engagement for your business

In this 7-minute read:\n21 free listing sites for your retail business\nManage your listings with reputation management software\nOne of the most important things you can do for your retail business is to increase its online visibility. This allows you to get reviews online, helps your business to get found by more customers, and increases cash flow.  \nA great way to help improve that visibility is to claim all of your free online directory listings, commonly referred to as citations. Research shows that when businesses claim multiple free listings, they earn 78% more money than businesses that don’t claim any. \nLet us help you get started with these free listing sites for your retail business. \n1. Google My Business is essential for retailers\nGoogle My Business is always the first place that you want to start. This is how you get into the Google maps and show up on the first online source people use when looking for a new store. \nList your retail business on Google with our guide: \nHow to claim your Google Business listing\n2. \nFacebook is a must for your retail shop\nFacebook is another huge one that consumers are using more and more to contact businesses. When someone has a question about your store and they can’t find the answer on your website, they’ll often ask a question through Facebook’s messenger app before coming into the store. \nThis is also one that tends to show up on the first page of Google when someone searches for your business (if you have a business page, of course). \n3. Don’t forget Bing Places \nBing is a popular search engine as the default for Microsoft's web browser. Don’t miss out on valuable opportunities by missing this one. The best part is, if you have your Google listing claimed, you can just sign in to your Google account on \nBing Places\n and import your store’s listing. \n4. Retail on Yelp? Yes!\nMillions of people are on Yelp every day searching for new places to shop and take their business to. As the third most popular review platform, this is definitely a place you want your store to be. \nCheck out our guide: \nHow to claim your Yelp business listing\n5. \nTripAdvisor is good for retail also\nMany people use TripAdvisor when they are traveling, and whether you have a souvenir shop or simply a grocery store that someone will need during their travels, it’s a good idea to list your retail business here. \nCheck out our guide: \nHow to claim your listing on TripAdvisor\n6. \nFoursquare is helpful\nWith 55 million users every month, Foursquare is a pretty popular listing site. On their platform, your store visitors can “check-in” to your store and leave helpful tips for other visitors. Get more feedback for your retail business by listing it on this site. \n7. \nBetter Business Bureau (BBB): a no-brainer\nHaving your store listed on and rated by the Better Business Bureau sends huge trust signals to customers and potential employees. This is important for any business. So get your store listed on BBB.org today with \nthis form\n. \n8. \nYellowbook: specialized local digital marketing \nYellowbook is another “yellow pages” directory site. They are run by a digital marketing company called Hibu. Hibu specializes in local digital marketing and they know what it takes to help retail businesses like yours show up better on Google and other search engines. \nList your store on Yellowbook with its simple-to-use \nform\n. \n9. YP.com (remember the Yellow Pages?)\nThe traditional “Yellow Pages” has digitized its platform to bring us YP.com, a huge online directory service that gets more than 60 million visitors every month. They know the importance of improving your online presence. \nYou can go to \nYP.com\n to claim your free YellowPages business listing. \n10. MerchantCircle for local retailers\nMerchantCircle is all about directing users to the best local merchants—that’s you! They separate merchants by category to help their visitors easily find the service or products that they are looking for. \nGet started in claiming your MerchantCircle listing with \nthis form\n. \n11. People still use \nMapQuest\nAnother popular one for travelers, MapQuest is still a widely used directory site. Their support team is awesome and will help you get your store added to their database quickly. \nJust \nsubmit a support ticket\n to MapQuest and see your store’s listing in days. \n12. Manta for cross-platform listings\nManta is a little different from these other sites in the extra features that it offers you. When you put your business information into Manta, they will scan other business listing sites to make sure your information is consistent across multiple platforms. \nThis consistency is super important to the search engines in order to provide customers the most accurate information for your store. \nManta makes it simple to sign your store up for a free listing \nhere\n. \n13. Citysearch: essential for local retail\nCitysearch wants to provide users with the best experience in finding great businesses in their neighborhoods. Customers shouldn’t have to travel far to find what they are looking for. \nCitysearch prioritizes fun with cool features like voting for your favorite places, special deals, and award badges. \nAdd your store to Citysearch by adding it to the \nCityGrid\n database. \n14. Hotfrog: the “freshest” local business directory\nHotfrog boasts itself as the freshest local business directory in the United States, and for good reason. Its directory is constantly growing with more businesses each day to help users find the best local places to be. \nGet your store listed\n on Hotfrog for free today. \n15. Local.com\nLocal.com wants to help customers find the hottest local happenings in their cities. Make sure your store is one of them!\nLocal.com will provide driving directions, reviews, and contact information for each listing on its site to help give customers the best information available. List your store on local.com by signing up for an account \nhere\n. \n16. Verify your retail shop with ExpressUpdate\nExpressUpdate is a big one that you want to make sure your store is listed on. They are what’s known as an “aggregator,” meaning once your store’s information is verified on their site, they’ll pass it along to other partner sites. So you just got multiple free listings from one site. Pretty neat, right?\nExpressUpdate does require a little more on the verification side of things than some of these listing sites. Once you’ve added all of your store’s information, they’ll do a phone call verification to confirm that your info is accurate. Then, the listing is all yours and ready to go. \nGet started by \nsearching your business\n on ExpressUpdate. \n17. Solo profile\nWith a free Solo profile, even the smallest local retailer or pop-up can have a helpful, functional SEO-friendly online presence for free. Building and maintaining a traditional website is simply too much for many small retailers to deal with. This is one reason a Solo profile can be such an amazing benefit. \nYour customizable Solo profile can list your business’s location, relevant contact information, links to your social pages, and any business details you want included. Sign up at\n \nSolo.co\n.\n18. Brownbook: comprehensive retail listings\nBrownbook.net is a fun one because it allows you to add so much more information than several of these listing sites. You can add tons of images, videos, history, business accommodations, and so much more. \nJust make sure you get your business name spelled correctly the first time, because they don’t allow you to change it (without contacting their support team anyway). \nList your store on Brownbook.net with \nthis form\n. \n19. Instagram is huge for retail\nInstagram is super popular among younger demographics, so if the target audience for your store falls in that category, make sure you are active where they are! \nIf you are going to get into Instagram, just be sure to have lots of awesome photos and “heart-worthy” content that will get you tons of followers. \n20. YouTube? Yes tube!\nYouTube is another great social media channel to take advantage of. Create a channel for your store where you can show off new products, give fun tutorials, and share advice about the different ways your products can be used. \n21. Local chamber of commerce\nYour local chamber of commerce is all about helping its community succeed—and that includes helping small businesses like your store get found. Most chambers have an online directory in their community, as well as free resources to help businesses market themselves better, so take advantage. \nManaging all of these listings sites and then trying to get new reviews to these sites on top of that can seem like a lot of work. But online reviews and engagement is super-important, even for the smallest retail business types, so make sure you develop a plan to stay on top of it.

21 free online listing sites you should add your retail business to

In this article:\nBenefits of using general forums to spread awareness of your small business\nThe do’s of participating in general internet forums\nThe don’ts of using general forums for your business\nOnline forums can be a great way to improve brand awareness and help set yourself up as a thought leader in your business category. Find the forums that have discussions you can contribute value to and get involved in the conversation. \nEven general internet forums like Quora, Reddit, and NextDoor offer some unique opportunities for your business to contribute to industry-related discussions. \nLet’s go through some best practices of using these general forums as a way to improve online visibility and attract customers to your business. \nBenefits of using general internet forums\nThere are tons of ways small businesses can benefit from participation in \nindustry-specific forums\n, but you can find some great benefits from using general forums for your business too. \nGeneral forums typically have more total traffic and a greater number of active users than industry-specific forums\nPeople may trust general forums more because they are more widely known and recognized across industries\nThrough relevant “sub-forums” on larger sites, you can set yourself up as a thought-leader and/or stand out in your industry\nIf you’re not sure where to get started, try looking to Quora, Reddit, or NextDoor and see what discussions already exist around your area of expertise. You might be surprised how specific the subcategories can be. \nThe do’s of using general forums to spread awareness of your business\nAs with most things, there are right and wrong ways for your business to engage with general forums. Here are some of the best practices that you should be using as you start getting involved. \nDo be up-front about your business identity\nYou’ll gain much greater credibility (and attract less wrath from forum admin and members) if you are completely forthcoming about your identity and your links to your business.\nYou may choose to either create an “avatar” (online persona) that has the name of your business, or (more preferably), use a variation your own name or something else that doesn’t necessarily mention or call attention to your business association, but that also doesn’t make you seem like you’re hiding that fact either.\nimage of torn paper promoting honesty for forums\n\nIn your forum profile and other visible details, you should be very clear that you represent a business. This is the primary way forum members will begin associating you and your comments/answers with your business, and can proactively search for your business when they want services like yours.\nYou will be much more likely to be accepted and recommended by long-time forum members if you are up-front about your business purposes rather than get exposed as a “company shill.”\nDo contribute to industry-related discussions\nWhen posting as your business, keep your comments related to your industry. Contribute to hot topics and high-traffic conversations that you know a lot about. As you get more involved in these discussions and people recognize your business as a contributor, awareness of your business on that platform will expand and people will look to you for more answers. \nDo follow relevant topics\nAs you are using a general forum like Quora or NextDoor, you can follow specific topics to get notified when new discussions and comments are posted. Follow topics that are relevant to your business and industry so you can quickly get involved and ideally be the first person that responds to a new, intriguing question. \nDo respond and give updates\nPay attention to the responses people post on your comments. Did you answer their questions? Did they have any followup questions? Provide timely updates and make sure you read all of the responses on your answers. Respond to users as they engage with your posts and stay involved in the conversation. \nonline forum speech bubbles for small business marketing\n\nDo make your questions and answers easy to read and skim\nJust like any other content online, your posts on general forums should be easy to read and skim through. Huge walls of text are going to deter users from reading your comments, leading them to skip yours and read the next one down the line. \nBreak up your posts with headers, bullet points, and short paragraphs to make them easy to read. \nDo check your analytics\nAs you are getting more involved on a forum and posting frequently, start checking the analytics that platform provides. Which of your questions or answers seem to be performing the best? How are people engaging with your comments and posts?\nEven if all the forum software provides is a simple view counter, that can tell you a lot about which of your posts and responses are getting the most attention.\nLearn from these insights and use them to help guide your participation on the forum. \nThe don’ts of using general forums to spread awareness of your business\nYou’ve got several things that you should be doing as you participate in general forums. Now let’s go over some things that you should avoid doing as you get more involved. \nDon’t just lurk\nA common thing that people do on forums (usually as individual users) is sign up for an account just so they can read the discussions and comments, and see full content. \nSome forums only allow registered members to view uploaded pics and other content, for example. So people register and go through the member approval process, but then they never post anything, and thus are defined as a “lurker.”\nAs a business, you should be getting involved in the conversation, not just lurking. Sure, in the beginning, reading the comments and threads and becoming familiar with the platform before posting is a good idea. \nBut at some point you need to start posting questions, answers, and comments—otherwise you won’t see any benefit from being there in the first place. \nDon’t use the wrong subcategories\nPay attention to the categories/subforums that you are posting in. Don’t post your questions in irrelevant forums or you won’t get any traffic or responses on those questions. \nLearn how to use the forum that you are involved with and use the correct subcategories to get the most out of your experience. \nDon’t derail conversations\nPeople who derail conversations and start new topics within a specific conversation or “thread” are the worst kind of people on a forum. Don’t be that guy/gal. \nyoung woman annoyed by forum spammer\n\nKeep your comments and answers relevant to the conversation so the followers of that post find value in your contributions and actually engage with your responses. \nDon’t spam or over-promote yourself\nForums are not the place to blatantly advertise your business (unless you are a paid advertiser with the authorization of the forum administrators). \nForums are a place for sharing valuable insights and helping people find answers to their questions. \nDo not spam or aggressively promote your business within your comments and responses. People are likely to blow past your comments when you do this and you aren’t going to see any benefit from the forum—quite the contrary. You will likely be shunned and possibly banned from the forum. \nNo one likes to be spammed, whether in emails, texts, phone calls, or on forums. Don’t do it, even if you think you’ll see significant gains. \nno spam sign\n\nThat doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t ever mention your solutions in a relevant response to someone’s question.\nWhen you have valuable information or resources that are applicable to the discussion, then by all means, post away.\nJust be conservative about the number of links and self-aggrandizing posts you make, and don’t just provide the same canned answer to every query. \nDon’t link back to your website in comments\nSimilar to not aggressively promoting your business, you shouldn’t post links to your website within your comments. This is seen as a spammy practice and the forums and their users can see right through it. \nIf you want to link to your website, most forums provide a place for this within your business’s profile. If anyone wants to learn more about your business, they can easily access your profile from your comments and find your website from there. \nSomething like “if you’re interested in learning more about X, a link to my website is in my profile” is usually fine—just don’t overdo it.\nGetting involved in online forums can be an effective way to enhance your marketing efforts and spread awareness of your brand. 

The do’s and don’ts of business participation in general forums like Quora

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

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. 

34 articles found in “Social media”

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Why Instagram Stories are the most underrated small business marketing tool

How to use Instagram Story Highlights to market your small business

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