9 Mistakes Small Businesses are Making on TikTok (and How to Avoid Them!)

So you’re finally ready to get your small business established on TikTok but worried about making mistakes along the way? No worries, we’ve rounded up the most common mistakes small businesses are making on TikTok that you should avoid. Keep reading to learn what small businesses should AVOID and our advice on what your small business SHOULD DO instead when joining TikTok.

1. Not Joining TikTok

The most common (and the easiest to fix!) mistake we see small businesses making when it comes to TikTok is simply not joining the platform! It might feel like you’re already on so many social media platforms but we definitely recommend small businesses create an account on TikTok. Not sure which social media platforms your small business should be active on? Check out this blog post about ‘Why Your Small Businesses Should NOT Be on Every Social Media Platform’.

2. Not Watching TikTok Videos

The next most common mistake we see small business owners making on TikTok is creating an account but never logging in and scrolling through all of the great TikTok videos! It’s not only fun to watch TikTok videos on a regular basis BUT there’s a few key benefits to being active on the platform. By watching videos and interacting with the content you like, TikTok learns your preferences and will customize your ‘For You Page’ with TikTok videos they think you’ll love. Also, watching TikTok videos on a regular basis will help you keep up with all of the fun TikTok trends!

3. Not Creating Video Content

Not creating short-form video content isn’t just a mistake we see small business owners making on TikTok! Short-form videos are the future and there are so many reasons your small business should be creating video content to share on every social media platform, not just TikTok. It’s easy to create high-quality marketing videos for social media with Boosted, the video making app with tons of templates, stock video footage and great music!

4. Creating a Business Account

Okay, so not everyone will agree with this mistake but we think it’s a big no-no for small businesses to create a business account on TikTok. Typically we recommend small businesses to create a business account when joining a new social media platform however, we actually would consider this a mistake when it comes to TikTok. When it comes to social media platforms like Facebook & Instagram, creating a business account will allow you to see more insights and have more capabilities so why would this be a mistake when it comes to TikTok? Well, most of the commercial music that is trending on TikTok aren’t copyrighted for business use so if your small business created a business account you won’t be able to use all of the great, trending songs! We’d recommend joining TikTok as an individual and sharing about your small business through your own personal TikTok account. Read Next: “Why Small Businesses Should Be More Authentic on Social Media

5. Not Using Trending Songs

Speaking of trending songs on TikTok… it’s a mistake for small businesses (and everyone else!) to not use trending songs on TikTok. If you aren’t familiar with TikTok yet, you’ll quickly learn that music is key to the TikTok experience. Songs start to trend and using trending songs will help increase the reach of your TikTok videos and boost the odds of your small business getting on the FYP faster. Curious about the FYP and why it matters? Read our blog post ‘How to Get Your Small Business Featured on TikTok’s For You Page’ for our best TikTok tips!

6. Not Content Planning

Another mistake we see a lot of small businesses make on TikTok is forgetting to plan out their video content ideas for TikTok. Not sure where to start when it comes to video content planning? Just start scrolling TikTok! Because of all the trends and challenges on TikTok, it’s actually encouraged to ‘copy’ other people’s video content. Check out a few videos in your FYP and see if there’s any videos with trends, challenges or songs that your small business could participate in. Keep a list of ideas as you’re watching, then plan out your content and recreate those videos with your unique spin on it. Looking for more advice when it comes to content planning? You’ll love this article “How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar: A Guide for Small Business Owners”.

7. Giving up on Video Content

If you’ve been trying to make videos within the TikTok app and you are finding it too difficult to create and edit videos on the app, don’t give up on video content all together! We know it can be hard to learn how to edit videos and it can be hard to figure out how to do the transitions and edits within the TikTok app. Instead of giving up on videos if you’re struggling with TikTok, definitely look into an app that makes the video editing process easy, like Boosted’s video making app that helps you create high-quality marketing videos in just a few minutes! Read Next: “16 Essential Video Marketing Tips for Small Businesses in 2021”

8. Not Posting Frequently Enough

A super common mistake that brands of all sizes are making when it comes to TikTok, is not posting frequently enough. TikTok is a quick moving platform and things can start trending quickly so it’s super important to post often. Posting just once or twice a week is definitely not enough – you never know exactly which videos will ‘go viral’ on TikTok so it’s actually best to post as many videos as possible to increase your chances of your videos being watched. We’d even recommend posting as many as 1-2 videos a DAY on TikTok if you’re able to keep up with the content creation.

9. Forgetting to Cross Promote

Okay, so if your small business is on TikTok and you are avoiding all of the mistakes we’ve mentioned so far, great job! The final mistake you’ll want to avoid is forgetting to promote your TikTok account on your other social media platforms. When you are putting in all the effort to create tons of great short-form video content, it would be a shame to not use them across all of your social media platforms! Select a few of your favorite TikTok videos that have done well within the TikTok app and try re-sharing those on Instagram Reels. You can even share the link to a TikTok video on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to boost the views on your TikTok videos!

Conclusion

TikTok might seem like a difficult social media platform to stay on top of but most of the mistakes your small business will want to avoid are easy ones to fix. We hope this list helps you successfully get started on TikTok and avoid some of the most common mistakes small businesses make with their TikTok accounts. If you’re looking to learn more about TikTok, definitely check out our articles, “The Ultimate TikTok Marketing Guide for Small Businesses in 2021” and “TikTok Analytics: Everything You Need to Know” for more advice.


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11 Instagram Content Ideas for Service-Based Businesses

For service-based businesses without a physical product, creating content for Instagram might sound like a really difficult task. But we’re here to reassure you that there are actually tons of fun, engaging and educational content that service-based businesses need to be sharing on Instagram. And if you are feeling stuck when it comes to brainstorming Instagram content, we’ve got you covered! Keep reading for tons of unique and easy-to-create Instagram content for your service-based business. 

1. Answer FAQ

As a service-based business, you might notice many of your clients and prospective clients have similar questions. Jot down a few commonly asked questions and create a series of posts to share on Instagram weekly or monthly to answer these FAQs. Not only is this the type of high-quality, educational content your clients are craving but it also helps cement you as an expert in your field!

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Emma | Social Media Strategist (@ninety.five.media)

2. Behind the Scenes Video

Who doesn’t love seeing some behind the scenes footage? Next time you are working with a client or wrapping up a project, be sure to quickly record a few short videos or snap a few photos on your phone. Later you can compile these quick clips together to create a fun, BTS video your clients will love! Not sure how to edit video clips together? With the video-making app Boosted, it’s super easy to create videos from photo or video content. Plus, there’s tons of templates, music and font options to create professionally branded videos! Read Next: “16 Essential Video Marketing Tips for Small Businesses in 2021

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by ADVENTURE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER (@rebekahviola)

3. Client Reviews

Have clients that absolutely love your work? This is the PERFECT content for service-based businesses to be posting on Instagram. You might already have a few client testimonials on your website but in order to help drive potential clients to your website to book your services, you need to be sharing these great reviews on Instagram. So don’t be shy about posting these as often as you can!
 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Anita | Chartered Accountant 💷 (@goselfemployed.co)

4. Tutorial

As a service-based business, your followers and clients look to you for educational content in your field and a tutorial is the perfect type of quality content your clients will enjoy engaging with. Choose the topic you want to talk about, write out a few step by step instructions and create a few Instagram Stories or carousel tutorial to share on Instagram. Read Next: “7 Secrets For Entrepreneurs to Get The Most Out of Instagram Stories

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by social⚡️digital⚡️strategy (@lindsaysganga)

5. Mistakes to Avoid

You probably see many of your clients making the same mistakes often. *cringe* Help out your clients and potential clients by (nicely!) sharing a few mistakes people often make with their social media, accounting, fitness, etc and give advice on what they could be doing instead.

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Jess | Branding + Web Design (@graceandoak)

6. Mood Board Monday

If you’re a service-based business in a creative field like photography, graphic design or wedding planning, we have a fun and refreshing type of Instagram content to test out… mood boards! Simply compile a few aesthetically pleasing photos and create a mood board to help your clients get inspired!

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by TORONTO WEDDING PLANNER (@prettyplans.ca)

7. Time to Hire

If you work with a lot of small businesses, it’s a great idea to share a few signs that they are ready to hire you for your services. As a small business owner, sometimes it’s hard to know when it’s the right time to start outsourcing and hire service-based businesses to help you run your business. Let your clients know exactly what you are looking for in clients that are ready to work with you and signs that it’s time for them to hire you!

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Rebrand + Launch Copywriter (@aleisekay)

8. Reading Recommendations

Have any great books you’ve read recently? This is a super easy and fun topic any service-based business could share on Instagram! Select a few books you’ve read recently (brownie points if they are related to your service offering!) and create an Instagram Reel to recommend these books to your clients. Not sure how to create Instagram Reels yet? It’s easy to create high-quality marketing videos in just a few minutes with the video-making app Boosted!
 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by JENNA | Virtual Fitness Coach (@jennafit_)

9. Pros & Cons

As a service-based business, part of your job is selling your services and a great way to do this is by sharing the pro’s and con’s of using your services. (Hint: Share lots of pros of hiring you!) You can share these in an Instagram caption but creating an Instagram Reel is even more fun and engaging for your clients to watch! Read Next: “13 Instagram Reels Content Ideas for Small Business Owners

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by SHOSHANA SOCHER | Realtor (@shoshana_socher)

10. Share a Stat

Are there any interesting stats related to your business that your clients might find relevant? Sharing industry-related statistics is an easy and educational piece of content you could share every once in a while on Instagram. Make it visually interesting and be sure to make it clear why you clients should know or care about these statistics. 

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Socialfly (@socialfly)

11. The Lingo

This last idea for Instagram content for service-based business might just be our favorite! There are likely tons of terms you use in your business on a regular basis that are pretty basic to you, but this doesn’t always mean your clients will know the lingo! Share some of the terminology that you use on a regular basis to help your clients learn more about your industry and make it easier for them to communicate with you once they’ve hired you for your services!

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by CL Designs | Graphic Designer (@_clieu)

Has your service-based business created any of these types of Instagram content yet? We hope you enjoyed these ideas and can’t wait to see all of the great content you create! 


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How Instagram’s New Professional Dashboard Can Help Boost Your Small Business

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

Have you heard about the new Instagram Professional Dashboard? If not, don’t worry! We’ve put together a complete guide for business owners with everything you’ll need to know about the new Professional Dashboard.

We’ve broken it down to help you understand exactly what Instagram’s new Professional Dashboard is. We’ve even provided you with 4 key strategies for how to use the Dashboard to help your business succeed on Instagram.

So, What is the New Instagram Professional Dashboard?

Instagram recently announced the launch of their Professional Dashboard to provide creators and businesses with a central hub to access all of the key tools and features that Instagram offers. The new Instagram Professional Dashboard consolidates all of Instagram’s current tools and resources to make it easier for you to track and monitor your performance and set up professional tools, like ads and shopping features. The new Professional Dashboard even makes it easier for you to explore educational content curated by Instagram to help your business succeed on the platform.

The New Professional Dashboard Offers 3 Key Sections:

1. Track Your Performance This section is where all of your analytics are housed, making it much easier to monitor your business’ performance on Instagram. This section provides a high-level look into your business’ account performance. Here you can check out data about your audience and stats on your posts’ engagement and reach stats. This is also where you will be able to easily access your full Insights section from now on.

2. Grow Your Business The Grow Your Business is a key section providing easy access to all of the tools users need to manage and monetize an Instagram account. This is where users can check out and set up features like Badges, Branded Content and IGTV promotions. Instagram creators and influencers can check their accounts’ eligibility for monetization and business owners can manage key features like Shopping and Ads here.

3. Stay Informed And finally, the last section of Instagram’s new Professional Dashboard is the Stay Informed tab, which provides users with access to all of Instagram’s educational resources to help you get inspired and learn all of the Instagram tips and tricks curated into one place.

While this new Professional Dashboard doesn’t offer any new analytics or features at the moment, this new tool makes it significantly easier for businesses and creators to find and access all of their insights and tools now that it’s consolidated into one central location within the platform.

How Can Businesses Use Instagram’s Professional Dashboard to Succeed?

Like we mentioned, all of these features have already been available on Instagram, but the new Professional Dashboard brings them all together into one spot which makes it much easier for you to find and access all of these great tools and resources to stay on top of your business’ Instagram account. Here are 4 ways your business can leverage the Dashboard to succeed on Instagram:

1. Monitor Engagement One of the most important things your business can do to succeed on the platform is to monitor the engagement on all of your posts. In order to do this, tap into the ‘See All Insights’ tab to see all of the metrics and performance of all your recent posts. The ‘Content You Shared’ section provides a breakdown of your recent posts (for both feed and Stories). Monitoring your performance metrics will help you know exactly which posts are generating the most engagement. And then you can continue creating the types of content your customers love seeing and engaging with!

2. Learn Tips & Tricks The ‘Stay Informed’ section of Instagram’s new professional dashboard is such an amazing resource for anyone to learn more about how to succeed on Instagram. Be sure to check out this section on a regular basis to learn how to make the most of Instagram! Not only has Instagram curated tons of educational resources to help guide and inspire you, but there’s also plenty of tips and tricks to help you best utilize all of Instagram’s features and tools.

3. Track Ad Performance As a business on Instagram, you’ve likely run Instagram ads. Whether you like to do a few small ad campaigns a year or have several big budget Instagram ad campaigns running, it’s imperative to constantly track the performance of your Instagram ads. Within the ‘Grow Your Business’ section, it’s much easier now to quickly access your ad campaigns and check in on their performance. In order to boost your business with Instagram ads, you will want to ensure you’re only keeping the most effective ads live.

4. Enable Shopping If you are a product-based business you will definitely want to take advantage of Instagram Shopping! Instagram Shopping allows businesses to create a shop on Facebook which enables your customers to buy your products directly on Instagram! How? Head into the Instagram Shopping tab to add all of your products to your Instagram/Facebook shop. Then, whenever you post a photo of your products within the feed or Stories, you can tag the products to create a shoppable post!

We hope this guide made it easy for you to understand exactly what Instagram’s new Professional Dashboard is and more importantly, how you can use it to succeed on Instagram and boost your business! Check out more of our recent blog posts here to learn even more tips and tricks to help your business grow on social media! 

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.


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Why Small Businesses Should Be More Authentic on Social Media

Are you running out of content ideas for your small business to post on social media? Try letting your personality shine through on your small business’ social media accounts. Not only is this a great way to easily create more content for your social media profiles it will also bring you a lot of value. Being more authentic and personable on your business’ social media will help build trust among your customers.

Read on to learn about the benefits of being more authentic on social media plus, discover six content ideas to help build your small business’ authenticity.

3 Benefits of Being More Authentic on Social Media

You might think that you should keep things strictly professional when it comes to your small business’ social media accounts, but when you start to get more personable, you’ll see there are tons of benefits. Three of the top benefits include:

1. Build Trust Share content beyond your products and services! Show up on your small business’ social accounts. By hopping onto your social media profiles more often and showing your customers the person behind the account, your customers will find you and your business even more trustworthy.

2. Open Dialogue Once customers know who’s behind the account and who exactly they are talking to when they engage with your business on social media, it can open the dialogue more. People are more likely to want to connect with someone they feel like they know vs. an anonymously-run account. If you want to get more DMs from customers, being more authentic is a great strategy to open up the dialogue.

3. Create Empathy Running a small business can be really hard! Be open and authentic about the things you are struggling with sometimes. This will help customers understand a bit more about what it takes to run your business and will help them be more empathetic if something goes wrong like delayed shipments, etc. Here’s some inspiration from @the.workaround:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CH3DnYXBAig/

6 Content Ideas to Inspire More Authenticity on Social Media 

1. Intro post If you’ve noticed an influx of new followers recently, then it’s a great time to re-introduce yourself. Already did an intro post? Great, do another! Not only is it a good way for your new followers to get to know you, but it helps your long-time followers feel connected and learn new things about you. Another fun version of an intro post is to play the ‘two truths and a lie’ game. Simply share 3 facts about yourself and ask your followers to guess which is the lie.

@Costello.beauty recently shared a great introduction post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJEwqWVgs5L/

2. Behind the scenes Instagram Stories and Reels are the perfect platforms to show the behind the scenes of your business in a fun, easy to absorb way. Share a few clips of things you are working on whether it’s packing orders, doing a photoshoot or planning out new products.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLmU2kWAFE6/

3. Share your family Of course only share what you and your family are comfortable sharing, but as a small, family-run business it might make sense for you to share a bit about your family. Not only does this help you feel like a relatable family, but it’s a great way to show a little bit of the behind the scenes, build trust and allow your customers to feel like they are ‘part of the fam.’ Pizzeria @farinella.ottawa recently shared a sweet BTS family post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKJpS7alNJR/

4. Offer Advice Don’t be afraid to offer advice to your followers. You can share advice on any topics you’re able to speak to, whether it’s tips and tricks you’ve learned as an entrepreneur, hobbies, cooking or self-care tips. Sharing advice is an important tactic to establish you as a trusted friend and is also a great content for videos to share on Instagram Reels or TikTok!

Here’s some inspiration from mindset coach @marinapintout:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CL6YWevgO-R/

5. Share your day A very easy way to be more authentic without having to show your face is sharing snippets of your day. This is another opportunity for your followers to get to know you and to provide more things for you to chat about with your customers. A great example of this is sharing your shipments, new products or workspace in general. Showing the sometimes ‘messy’ behind the scenes of running a small business is interesting to your customers and will definitely help them trust you even more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEmEHmxDV7w/

6. Ask me anything Host an ‘ask me anything’ series! If you have some time in the day to be extra active on social media, let your customers know they can ask you anything and be ready to respond to all of their questions! This is usually done best in Instagram Stories, but you can do this on Facebook and respond in the comments. This helps your customers get to know you, builds trust and is a really fun and interactive way for your customers to learn more about your small business. 


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Brainstorm 20+ Social Media Content Ideas for Your Business in Less Than an Hour

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

Are you struggling to come up with a host of content ideas to revamp your social media? A lot of business owners might think that generating content is a time-consuming process, but you can easily brainstorm 20 or more new social media content ideas in an hour or less with the right brainstorming strategy!

If you want to generate a lot of ideas in a short amount of time, it’s important to ensure you are getting inspired and brainstorming in a strategic way.  It’s a great tactic to block out a dedicated amount of time for each task and group similar tasks together. To help you brainstorm more efficiently, we’ve broken up the content generation process into two parts.

The first part is focused on researching and gathering inspiration. When you are in this mode, you shouldn’t break your focus by trying to also brainstorm.  Instead, it’s better to gather as much inspiration as possible for a variety of content buckets. Then, after you’ve spent some time getting inspired, you can shift your focus to actually brainstorming specific ideas based on all of your research. It’s much easier to brainstorm a lot of content ideas quickly once you’ve gathered tons of inspiration and you’re in the creative, idea-generating work mode!

PART 1: GATHER INSPIRATION

We recommend spending the first 30 minutes or so focusing on gathering inspiration, saving re-shareable content, reviewing your competitors and making a few quick notes of business questions or updates. Check out the table below for set time blocks to dedicate to finding inspiration. 

5 Mins Find QuotesWho doesn’t love seeing a good motivational quote as they’re scrolling through social media? Take 5 minutes or less to browse the web and find inspirational quotes that will speak to your audience. Copy & paste them into a doc to help you brainstorm social media content later. Be sure to also jot down the proper credit for the original author.
10 MinsCheck HashtagsNext, look up trending posts under hashtags that are relevant to your business and save some of those posts. See which type of posts are doing the best under those hashtags or if there’s any content that you would like to repost. Checking out social posts under key hashtags is a great spot to get inspired for new content ideas, understand what type of content performs well and find quality content to repost.
10 MinsReview CompetitionIn 10 minutes or less, check up on a few of your competitors to see what social media content they’ve been posting recently. This is something you should be doing on a regular basis so you shouldn’t need a ton of time to do this. Check out both bigger brands as well as small businesses and save the content that resonates with you or that received a lot of engagement.
5 MinsBrand QuestionsNext, it’s time to focus on answering some questions about your business! You’re the expert on your brand, so in 5 minutes or less, jot down several commonly asked questions from your customers. Also, jot down anything else you’d like to tell your followers about your business, whether it’s an exciting update, a new product, a change to your shipping policies, etc.

PART 2: START BRAINSTORMING 

Once you’ve spent some time gathering inspiring content from a variety of sources, it’s time to start brainstorming specific content ideas to help generate 20 (or more!) unique social media ideas to refresh your bank of content as you plan out your social media for the next few weeks. 

5 MinsSelect QuotesOpen up the document where you saved all of the inspirational quotes that you liked and select several that you want to share with your followers. And if you are feeling extra creative, jot down some ideas for new original quotes that are inspired by some of the motivational quotes you’ve saved. 
5 MinsSave RepostsNext, take a look at the posts that you’d like to potentially repost. Select and save the ones you’d like to repost in the near future. It’s a good idea to save either links to these posts in a document or create a collection on Instagram to easily repost this content. Not only is reposting content from other brands or influencers a really easy way to generate new content for social media quickly, but it also encourages engagement from the people you are reposting. 
15 MinsContent ListNow it’s time to plan the bulk of your new and original content that you plan on creating. Check out the posts you’ve saved from big brands or other small businesses that you’d like to try to replicate, with your own unique twist of course! Make a specific list of content that you can create based on these posts. For example, product photography ideas including props you may need, new video content that you’d like to create, etc. Making a list of exactly what content you plan to create will make it easy for you to quickly create new content later on.
10 MinsAnswer FAQsThis final step should be the easiest… planning content about your own brand! Look at your list of FAQs and jot down a few ideas for posts based on answering these. Telling your customers more about your products and answering some of their common questions along the way doesn’t need to be boring! You could create a video explaining a cool feature or service you offer or you could share a customer review that answers the questions. Also, be sure to brainstorm some content ideas that share more with your customers about any exciting upcoming events up – it’s great to build excitement and keep customers coming back to check out your social media. 

We know it can feel like an overwhelming project to brainstorm and generate tons of content ideas for social media, but when you break it down into smaller time chunks dedicated to certain tasks and block off your time based on the type of work you are doing, you’ll find it so much easier and faster to generate new content for your social media calendar. Let us know if you use this time block plan and brainstorming guide to help you create 20 (or more!) social media content ideas in an hour or less! 

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.


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11 Instagram Content Ideas for Product-Based Businesses

It can be difficult to come up with creative social media content ideas for your small business. Service-based businesses face the challenge of not having a physical product to post about, while product-based businesses have the opposite struggle what should they be sharing on social media aside from their products?

If you’re a product-based business owner having trouble coming up with content ideas for Instagram, we’re here to help! Sharing photos of your products is great, but it’s ideal to share a variety of content types. Get inspired by these 11 Instagram content ideas for your product-based business.

1. Showcase your packaging One of the fun parts of being a product-based business is bringing your branding to life through packaging. You’ve probably put in a lot of effort to ensure that your customers have an enjoyable unboxing experience, so why not show off your packaging on Instagram?

2. Mood board inspo Instagram is all about the aesthetics! Share a mini mood board for your brand. Simply collect a few photos that show off your brand’s personality and create a quick collage. This is a great idea for both your Feed and your Stories as well. Read Next: 21 Ideas to Revamp Your Social Media for 2021.

Get inspired by @blushsidemotherhood’s mood board:

3. Photos of your supplies or tools You can showcase more than just your finished product! Taking photos of the supplies or tools you use in your product-based business makes for great Instagram content because it shares a new perspective into how your products are created and opens up a conversation about creating with your customers. Here’s a behind the scenes look at how @homebody.handmade creates their product:

4. Extra close-up product shot Snap photos of your products extra close-up. This works really well for product-based businesses that have products with interesting textures. Read Next: 8 Ways to Spice Up Your Brand’s Instagram Feed.

@Bia_skincare achieved this effect beautifully in a recent Feed post:

5. Behind the scenes Invite your customers to go behind the scenes with you! Share videos or photos of your day-to-day, whether you’re packaging, working on your website or creating your products. This type of content works great for for Instagram Reels and Instagram Stories. Read: 7 Secrets For Entrepreneurs to Get The Most Out of Instagram Stories.

Check out this behind the scenes post from @taudreyjewelry21:

6. Your go-to work essentials As an entrepreneur, you’re working hard and often doing a million things at once. What are the things that help you be most productive during a busy day of work? Arrange all of your go-to work essentials on your desk for a quick, flat-lay photo to post on Instagram, like this one from @workspacery:

7. Your hobbies What are some of your favorite hobbies (aside from your business of course!)? Share what your favorite hobbies are to help your customers get to know you on a more personal level. Not only will this provide you with some really easy Instagram content, but it will make your brand more human and can spark some new and interesting conversations.

8. Something funny! There are so many funny memes, quotes and tweets on the internet…why not share some humorous content on your Instagram to make your followers smile? This type of content works best when you tie it back to your brand. You can even customize it to match your branding. If you are using someone else’s tweet or quote, just be sure to properly give credit.

Here’s a great example from @functionofbeauty:

9. Product benefits video How do you tell your customers your products are great without actually telling them your products are great? Make a video that shows off your products! While you don’t want to fill your entire Feed with product photos, you certainly will want to have videos that highlight some of your products’ best benefits on Instagram. Here’s some inspiration from @bite:

Once you’ve created a few high-quality marketing videos, you can share them to your Feed, Reels and to your Stories! If you aren’t a video pro, no problem check out Boosted for easily customizable video templates you can create for your brand.

10. Motivational quotes One of the easiest types of content to create and post to Instagram on a regular basis is motivational quotes. Find a few quotes that you love and make a photo or video that matches your branding to post on Instagram. You could even do this on a certain day each week so that your customers can continually look forward to consuming some inspiring content from you.

11. Introduce yourself Has it been a while since you’ve introduced yourself to your customers? You’ve likely grown your Instagram account this past year and some of your newer followers might not know too much about you. Share a few fun facts, the inspiration for your products and a photo of yourself, like @wander.and.roam did here:


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5 Unique Ways to Promote Your Business This Valentine’s Day

Your small business doesn’t need to be directly related to traditional Valentine’s Day products and services to promote your brand during the holiday! Valentine’s Day is a fun holiday and a time when people are looking to shop for gifts and spread a little love to their friends and families.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect holiday to reconnect with your current customers and offer them a few ways to gift your products to their friends and family members. While you are promoting your business on Valentine’s Day, be sure to explain why your products would be a great Valentine’s Day gift to give and how much you love your customers. Here are 5 ideas to help you promote your small business for Valentine’s Day 2021.

1. Offer a digital gift card With many countries and cities back in lockdown this winter, people are looking for easy ways to send a little love to their friends and family virtually. If you don’t already offer a digital gift card for your business, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to launch and promote it! Offer your customers the option to gift their friends and family members with a digital gift card in varying amounts and be sure to market the digital gift card to your current customers through social media and email. 

2. Have a Valentine’s Day flash sale Flash sales aren’t just for Black Friday! A lot of people tend to buy Valentine’s Day gifts last minute, so a flash sale is the perfect promotion to help remind your customers to spread the love this Valentine’s Day. You could either have a flash sale a few days before Valentine’s Day to remind your customers to buy gifts for their loved ones OR you could have a flash sale on Valentine’s Day to encourage your customers to treat themselves in honor of the holiday.

Here’s some inspiration from British Columbia based small biz @twodrunkwitches:

3. Create a special discount code Another way to promote your business on Valentine’s Day and drive sales is by creating a themed discount code, like LOVE15 for 15% off. Once you’ve created a love-themed discount code you will want to be sure to share it with your customers in a way that will not only generate sales, but also grow your business in the future. For example, you could offer the discount code only to your email subscribers to encourage your social media followers to also join your email list. 

4. Host a social media giveaway Hosting a giveaway is a great way to say thank you to your customers and show just how much you love them this Valentine’s Day! You could host a Valentine’s Day themed giveaway to gift your customers a few of your products or a gift card to your website. Not only is this a great way to show your followers how much you appreciate them, but giveaways are also a great way to boost social media engagement and gain new followers. 

Check out @my_charcuterie‘s giveaway for inspiration:

5. Build a themed love bundle You might not have time to create a new product in time for Valentine’s Day, but you could still find a creative way to launch a new offering. Consider creating a love-themed gift bundle bundle a few of your products together with Valentine’s Day themed gift wrapping to create an easy way for your customers to send a love-themed gift to their friends and family this Valentine’s Day.  Pennsylvania based @stormfieldsoapcompany created a bundle offering for Valentine’s Day 2021:

Don’t miss out on a fun holiday that has the potential to be a great marketing opportunity for your business just because your products or services aren’t considered ‘traditional Valentine’s Day’ gifts. Valentine’s Day is a great chance to reconnect with your customers, show your appreciation for them and offer them exclusive deals and ideas so they can easily gift your products to their loved ones (or treat themselves!).


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8 Ways to Spice Up Your Brand’s Instagram Feed

Do you ever feel like you’re always posting the same type of content to your Instagram feed? When you’re running a small business, you’re juggling a million different things at once and it isn’t easy to constantly be coming up with new, creative ideas for social media. Even if you’ve been wanting to change up your social media posts for a while now, it can be hard to figure out where to even start.

Before you can spice up your Instagram feed with great, new content, you’ll need to take a look at what you’re currently posting, analyze the types of posts that have performed well and understand what it is about your content that makes you feel like you’re posting the same thing over and over again. Then it’s time for the fun part brainstorming some new social media content ideas to spice up your ‘gram

8 Ways to Brainstorm New Instagram Ideas for Your Small Business

1. Get inspired by your own top posts

Your own feed is the first place you should check when you’d like to brainstorm new social media content. Head to your Instagram Insights to find out what what your top posts are. You can filter by Post Type (photo vs. video), Metric (comments, likes, reach, saves etc.) as well as time period (anywhere from the past week to the 2 past 2 years).

Instagram Insights

Brainstorm what made your top content successful. Did your static content perform best or was it your video content? Did your short captions get better engagement than your long captions? Take note of what worked so that you can create more of that type of content.

2. Keep up with your competitor’s content

It’s extremely important to know what your competitors are doing on social media. Don’t try to copy their content rather, think of their social accounts as a great place to refer to when you’re trying to brainstorm new content ideas to give your Instagram a makeover. Take note of what they’re doing well and what they aren’t doing well to help guide you when you are creating your own content. 

3. Search trending hashtags in your niche

Figure out what the top posts are in your industry. If you are a flower shop, look up hashtags related to florists. Get inspired by the top performing content within those hashtags. You can even follow a certain hashtag so that you’re always kept up to date.

How to Follow a Hashtag

4. Check out what influencers are posting

Influencers are a great source of inspiration when you want to brainstorm new content. Don’t just look up any celebrity on Instagram though you’ll want to check out smaller influencers in your niche. The goal here is to find influencers who have similar followers to your own customers. For example, if you sell products for moms or babies, you’d want to research several different mom influencers.

5. Watch Instagram Reels

Even if you’ve never created an Instagram Reel yet, you’ve likely seen several pop up on your feed! Get inspired to create some video content to spice up your Instagram feed. Not sure where or how to create high-quality videos? Check out the Boosted video making app for easy-to-use templates, with stock photos and videos that are perfect for small businesses.

Check out this creative Reel by social media expert @jera.bean for inspiration:

6. Ask a friend for a few ideas

Who said you need to do all of the brainstorming by yourself? As a small business owner, your friends and family likely are very supportive of your business and know it well. Let them know that you’re looking for new Instagram content ideas and ask them to help you brainstorm. Also ask them to take a look at your account and note what you’re doing well and what you can improve upon.

7. Check out your tagged posts

Your customers’ photos are an amazing source of inspiration for brainstorming new content ideas for social media. What type of photos are they taking and tagging your small business in? See what parts of your business they are loving and then share more content based on those insights.

8. Look up local hashtags

If your small business has a local presence, you will definitely want to check out what’s getting posted in your city! Look up local hashtags for some ideas of what people living nearby are posting and engaging with. Not only are these the hashtags you’ll want to be using, they are also a great source of content inspiration. You might even want to ask for permission to repost some of the relevant content. Check out How to Reach Customers on Instagram When You’re a Local Business for more insights on this topic.

How to Decide if a Content Idea Makes Sense For Your Brand

As you’re brainstorming, it’s important to know that not everything you see another brand or influencer posting will be a good fit for your own brand. For example, they might have a large photography budget or marketing team to help create elaborate product photos.

Here are 7 questions to ask yourself to help you decide whether or not certain types of content will work for your small business:

1. What are the elements that I like about someone else’s feed? 

2. Does this content align with my brand values?

3. Will this content spice up my feed?

4. Am I able to easily recreate this type of content? 

5. Does this fit my color scheme?

6. Will my customers find this content interesting?

7. Am I excited to create & post this new content?

We hope that these tips help you get inspired and brainstorm new ideas to get out of your Instagram content rut and spice up your ‘gram! One final piece of advice remember that your Instagram content doesn’t need to be perfect. Try and create new, exciting content that your followers will love but it’s always better to post and engage with your customers than to not be active at all.


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Why Instagram Engagement Rates Matter Most for Small Businesses

By: Cori Widen, Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks

Not all Instagram engagements are equally important for your business. There are a lot of different types of Instagram engagement metrics such as follows, likes, comments, video views, profile visits, etc. but there is one Instagram engagement metric that matters most for businesses: engagement rates.

So what exactly is an Instagram engagement rate? There are a few different ways to calculate an Instagram engagement rate, but it’s essentially the amount of people who interacted with a post or account divided by the amount of people who might have seen the post. Certain industries and types of businesses might have higher engagement rates, but a general rule of thumb is that around 2-3% is a good engagement rate. 

5 Reasons Why Instagram Engagement Rates Matter for Small Businesses

Out of all the Instagram metrics, engagement rates matter the most for businesses. It might seem like an extra step for your business to begin monitoring engagement rates for your Instagram account and individual posts, but there are several significant benefits to doing so.

1. Attract New Customers Achieving a good engagement rate means your business is more likely to attract new customers. How? Users who are liking, commenting and sharing your posts are helping boost your Instagram account, which will help new customers discover your business.

2. Conduct Market Research Monitoring engagement rates can also be a very easy way to conduct some basic market research to really understand your customers and their interests better. Check out your Instagram posts with the highest engagement rates to understand which types of content and topics are the most interesting to your customers and keep these topics in mind when creating your social media content calendar.

3. Prioritize Social Media Efforts By measuring Instagram engagement rates and understanding what types of content and posts typically perform best, you will be able to better prioritize your social media efforts. For example, if your Instagram videos are getting the best engagement rates, you’ll know that you should be creating more video content.

4. Provide Credibility It is detrimental for a business to only care about a high follower count, while not working to maintain a good engagement rate. Customers pay attention to these things if a business has a lot of followers but not many people are commenting and liking their posts, customers might wonder if they have fake followers. Maintaining a good Instagram engagement rate will help make your business more credible to customers.

5. Increase Sales So how exactly does your Instagram engagement rate affect sales? When customers love your social media content and engage with it frequently, this can help increase sales in two ways. First, by engaging frequently with your content, your business will be top of mind for your customers. Secondly, having high-quality social media content that users love helps customers trust that your products and services are high-quality as well and they will be more likely to purchase from your business.

Which Instagram Metrics Matter (and Don’t Matter) For Businesses

Besides engagement rate, the second most important Instagram engagement metric might just be video views. Instagram posts with videos generate twice the engagement of static photo posts on Instagram (Hubspot). Creating high-quality marketing videos is much easier than you might think! Check out the Boosted app for ready-to-go video templates to help you create custom Instagram videos in 3 minutes or less.

And finally, when it comes to an Instagram metric that doesn’t really matter that much to businesses, you might be surprised! A lot of people think follower count matters most to their business, but it really isn’t that important. Yes, you will want to continue to grow your community over time but it’s actually better to grow your follower count slowly and maintain a high engagement rate. In fact, if your business has a lot of followers who aren’t super engaged, this will hurt your engagement rate and your account won’t be viewed as often. 

The Takeaway: There are so many different types of Instagram engagements but not all engagements are equally important to your business. Prioritize a high engagement rate on Instagram to help your business understand your customers better, connect with new customers more often and most importantly make more sales!

Cori Widen is the Product Marketing Lead at Boosted by Lightricks. She has been leading product marketing campaigns and doing qualitative market research in the tech industry for 10 years.


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