Instagram Delivers on Its Promise to Promote Local Businesses with a Dedicated Sticker

Instagram launched a new sticker with the ability to raise awareness for local businesses. As we all know, local businesses are like the lite versions of international companies. Smaller audiences, narrower areas of activity, hence low-key resources and revenue.

However, being small does come with some perks. For one, local businesses can create wonderful communities. Their representatives are real humans with a predilection for that kind of customer service that makes store visitors feel truly welcome and special. Secondly, they stay true to local traditions and quality standards.

On the other hand, it’s pretty difficult for them to compete with international players. Their locations are oftentimes not that convenient, especially when they aren’t present in that place with high foot traffic yet particularly expensive, the shopping mall. Plus, for every effort they devote to make themselves visible online or offline, others have already invested in that area budgets they cannot match.

Simply put, it’s easy to see why small businesses are in need of any shred of support they can get. For that matter, Instagram launched an extremely useful sticker to its Stories with the intent to bring local entrepreneurs closer to the app users in their proximity.

What Is The “Support Small Business” Sticker About?

The “Support Small Business” Sticker is a tag any user can add to their Instagram Story that mentions a local business. Business accounts themselves can use this sticker in a self-promotional way. However, its purpose fits better clients rather than business owners.

The “Support Small Business” sticker is meant for users who have already tried local products or services and want to recommend them to their Instagram followers. Through this new feature, Instagram aims at offering visibility to those projects most impacted by the 2020 pandemic — local businesses.

How Does The “Support Small Business” Sticker Work?

It’s as easy to use this new sticker as with any other Instagram feature. Here are the steps.

First, work your magic in front of the Instagram camera. It can be either a photo or a video. Once your 15-second Story is done, click the Sticker button. Among stickers of polls, mentions, donations, quizzes or music, you’ll find a tag just for small business mentions. Click it, and your creation will be enriched with the latest Instagram sticker.

The first thing you’ll be prompted to do is to type in the name of your favorite small business. Instagram is assisting you at every step of the way by suggesting business names according to the first letters you’ll enter. Mind you, you can only add business accounts.

Once the name you seek is entered, the feature will add a preview of three random photos the business account has in its feed. This is a great addition that helps showcase key products or projects.

You can make these previews disappear in case you don’t want them. Tap on the sticker once, and it will take on a minimalistic look. With this version, only the name of the business will be displayed.

Afterward, the sticker is all yours to make it smaller, bigger. You can change its position and place it in any corner you’d like.

Now that the entire Story is done, you can post it. Your followers will rapidly get to see which local brand you endorse.

Local Business Stickers Come with Their Own Perks

Instagram and influencers made sure that the efficiency of this new sticker is completely optimized. Here’s a look at what the Support Local Businesses sticker entails:

• VIP spot. Instagram automatically collects all the mentions people you’re following have created. The incurred collection is then featured as the first Story people see in their Instagram Story list. That’s an extremely coveted place to have, and Instagram is dedicating it to driven entrepreneurs.
• Influencers’ favorites. Once the sticker appeared, influencers have been spotted mentioning their favorite places to shop locally. Even though they’ve been talking about their favorite shops for years, it’s a different thing to see those tags grouped in one place. It’s clean and efficient.
• Highlighted lists. Influencers are cherishing their favorite list of local businesses enough to save them in their Highlights. This way, anyone interested can simply check their highlights and discover where their favorite accounts get their glam from. Plus, it’s a great way for influencers to declutter their inboxes which are usually filled with questions about their brand preferences.
• Reposting is love. Businesses can encourage further support by reposting all the Stories that contain a sticker with their name on it.
• New opportunities for visibility. All these initiatives are only the beginning. If you are the owner of a local business, you can think of various ideas for campaigns that encourage people to tag your business. This sticker hides great promotional potential.

Final word

At the end of the day, there’s space for everybody. As long as people are aware of their entire range of options, small and big businesses have enough room for growth.

The Support Small Business sticker is just one of the many features Instagram has rolled out during the COVID-19 health crisis. This is a time of fear and uncertainty that only a united community can safely navigate. Given the current context, Instagram’s initiatives are aiming at strengthening their communities by giving them opportunities to stay updated to official sources and keeping in touch at a time when everybody has to practice social distancing.

That being said, what businesses do you intend to promote next on your Instagram? It has become so easy to help others. All it takes is a little determination and empathy to give a boost to those things and projects that matter to you.