5 Instagram Hacks for Pet Pros
#1 Post with Intention
Every post should have a reason behind it. Your account exists to market your business, so always post with that in mind. Are you posting to add value for your current clients? Trying to attract new ones? Think about what purpose the post will serve. This will help you hone in on what to post and how to caption the post.
#2 Don’t Neglect Your Captions
Speaking of captions, they are often overlooked or (gasp!) not even included. But a well written caption can boost your engagement and help your business grow. Try telling a story or asking your audience to interact with you. And your followers will love telling you stories about their dogs too, just ask!
#3 Be Social
It’s called social media, don’t forget! When people leave comments on your photos, don’t ignore them, respond back. Comment on other people’s posts, like their images, respond to their stories. Set aside a block of time each day for being social on Instagram (15-20 minutes is great for most businesses).
#4 Use Hashtags
Hashtags help increase your post’s reach and you can use up to 30 hashtags per post. Make sure the tags you’re using are relevant to your post, and use local hashtags rather than generic ones. Hashtags like #dog aren’t going to be effective since there are so many posts with that tag. Yours will be buried in an instant, so it won’t help your reach. It also won’t get your post in front of the people who might want to hire you like local hashtags will.
#5 Use Instagram Stories
Don’t overlook instagram stories! This is another opportunity to interact with others, and due to Instagram’s algorithm your posts will not show up in all your followers feeds. Stories allow another chance for you to reach them. You can share your own image posts to your stories or create content just for stories. Don't forget to post video to your stories— give people a behind the scenes look at what you do. There are also some interactive tools you can use to get stories viewers to interact with you, including polls, questions and sliders. More interaction tells Instagram the person interacting with you enjoys your posts, which increases the chance that they will see your posts in the future.
