3 Ways Local Businesses Can Stand Out On Instagram

Competing against the larger companies who have thousands of followers on Instagram can seem like an impossible challenge. However, it’s not always just all about how many followers you have! As a local business that is providing your product or service to a specific geographical area, you have a lot of unique ways you can utilise Instagram (ways that those bigger, online companies simply can't!) 

Below are 3 ways you can use being a local business to your advantage on Instagram to attract customers.

1. Geotag your posts

This might sound like an obvious one, but you’d be surprised how many local businesses forget to tag their location! If you’re using Instagram as a way to attract customers to your local store, you NEED to tell them where to find you! Very often, people search through location tags, whether it’s to see what’s going on in their local area or they’re visiting a town and want some inspo. If your business is continuously popping up, you’re bound to attract some new customers!

Aim not to always tag the same specific landmark of area, switch up from time to time to target all the different locations around you. This will allow you to be discovered by an ever wider range of people.

2. Use stories

If you’re a business on Instagram and not using stories, you need to start! I’ve wrote a whole other blog post on the benefits of Instagram stories for businesses which you can check out here. But, in short, stories provide a great way to connect with your audience, let them know what’s going on in real time and give them exclusive behind the scene shots to help them feel closer to your brand!

For local businesses, geotagging your stories is just as important as geotagging your usual posts. Instagram curates stories for specific locations which means if you’re geotagging, you’ve got a chance your story will be seen by even more people who are flicking through the story of your local town. To tag your location on your story just go into the stickers menu and choose the ‘location’ sticker. Again, be sure you switch it up and tag different surrounding areas to attract as many customers as possible!

3. Repost local content

Reposting content posted by your followers, customers and other businesses in local areas is a great way to strengthen your reputation in your local community! This is not only great for you as it's essentially free content you can post on your Instagram, but people love it when their content is featured (as long as credit is given where due!) Sharing content posted by real, normal people will also make your business appear much more down to earth, approachable and friendly.

At the end of the day, you want your customers to feel you are a friendly, part of the community as opposed to another business just wanting to take their money! A great way to encourage people to share and tag you in their photos is to create a company hashtag, and use it in your posts and encourage users to do the same!

There’s 3 easy ways you can start levering Instagram's benefits as a small business and start standing out against your competitors! Give them a try and see if it makes a difference to your engagement on Instagram and sales!

We’d love to know how you get on, comment below or drop us a DM on Instagram if you have any questions or need any more advice on nailing your Instagram strategy! - @lucyhitchcock_ @sassydigital