Instagram’s Family of Products

by Michelle Hummel

Much like how your family works together at your franchise to accomplish business goals, Instagram’s family of five products works together to help you connect with both your current and potential customers. Because Instagram (IG) is a highly personal social media platform for all of its one billion+ monthly users (IGers), people interact with the platform in many different ways. While you may be using some of these features to promote your franchise already, using all five can help you reach customers no matter how they’re using Instagram.

General Posting

When you log onto Instagram, the platform will automatically place you in your feed. Much like Facebook’s wall, your feed contains posts from people and businesses you follow. When you make a post on Instagram, it will be placed into the feed unless you designate it to go elsewhere. Photos are key on Instagram, and the platform will allow only square images. Each photo also has the option to include a caption, which is a short message that explains the photo. Each caption can include up to 30 hashtags that relate to your photo. Adding between 12-18 hashtags per post is best practice.

Many IGers follow hashtags for topics they are interested in so they can see content from any account that isn’t designated private. For example, if you own a dog grooming franchise and you’re posting a photo of a great groom, using #dogstagram in the caption will allow your content to be seen by the millions of users who follow this hashtag whether they currently follow your franchise or not.

Instagram Stories

Stories allow IGers to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours unless pinned as a highlight. These are visible to your followers and are a fantastic way to share a glimpse of your day. Some IGers only view Stories, so adding between two to seven per week is a great way to expand your reach. Stories’ image dimensions are 1920 px high and 1080 px wide, with an aspect ratio of 9:16.

If you own a restaurant franchise, consider trying a Story about today’s special. Stories are also a great way to promote events, calling attention to a blog, or even giving a shout-out to a great customer.

Reels

Reels is Instagram’s version of TikTok, which allows IGers to post videos that are three to 30 seconds in length and in the same dimensions as Stories. Perfect for quick tips, inspirational and even humorous takes on your products and services, Reels is a great way to reach audiences who want their information quickly.

Time lapse videos work particularly well on Reels, as do quick informational videos. Just be sure to hook your viewers’ attention within the fi rst fi ve seconds — this isn’t a place to bury the lead. Instagram is rewarding accounts who use videos more than images lately, so Reels is a great way to take advantage of this and get your followers interacting with your Instagram account.

IGTV

Need a place to post your informational videos? IGTV is that spot you’re looking for. The dimensions are the same as Stories and Reels, but this is the format for longer videos (from one to 10 minutes for accounts with less than 10,000 followers, and up to 60 minutes for verifi ed/larger accounts). Best practices are for videos that are two to fi ve minutes long.

Videos that do well on IGTV could include: “How do I know it’s time to hire a _____” or “How do I choose a _______.” It’s also a great space to teach people how to use your product or learn a skill they’ll need with your product. Let’s say you own a plumbing franchise. Posting an IGTV video teaching people how to fi x a running toilet could be a great opportunity. Even if viewers end up making this simple repair themselves, they will remember your franchise when a larger repair is needed.

Instagram Direct

Direct messages (DMs) allow you to start private conversations with other IGers. To send a new direct post, tap the top right corner where you should see what looks like a pen and paper. Then, you can contact one person or choose multiple users to create a group chat. This is a great way to share a promo code or other offer to entice IGers to try your franchise. Just be sure not to overuse this feature as it may turn off some IGers.

No matter which of the fi ve products in the Instagram family is your favorite, using a combination of each of them will allow you to keep your franchise top of mind with your current and potential customers. Have fun, play around, and experiment with the different ways to reach them on Instagram!

Michelle is the CEO and Founder of Web Strategy Plus, a full-service digital marketing agency, where her team of experts specializes in helping franchise owners develop websites, SEO and Social Media Strategies. A published author of three books in her series, “The Social Media Magnet: Everything You Need to Know to Attract Customers with Social Media.” She also holds a valuable Internet Marketing Degree and pro- vides training to help individuals acquire Social Media Management Certifi cation through Web Media University. Contact Michelle at michelle@webstrategyplus.com.