How to Market Your Business on Instagram and Facebook Stories

The rise of ephemeral sharing platforms where content is only live for 24 hours offers a unique ways for small businesses to engage with potential customers. Posting brief videos or images that expire just 24 hours later makes it easier than ever to experiment with new content themes, boost visibility, and grow your following. Here are three ways to market your Etsy shop on Instagram and Facebook Stories.

Save on Etsy fees when you drive sales to your shop

The Etsy Share & Save programme rewards you for the traffic and sales you drive to your own shop. When you share your unique link to your shop and make a sale, we’ll take 4% of the order total off your Etsy bill – so you pay less in fees for that order. We’ve made sharing trackable links super simple so you can save on fees any time you promote your shop, including when you're sharing on social media! Any URL you share from your Shop Manager or the Etsy seller app formatted like yourshopname.etsy.com counts toward Share & Save.

Here’s a quick look at some of the different types of links you can share:

Links to your shop. These links take buyers directly to your Shop Home so they can browse all the items you have for sale. You can find the unique link to your shop in the upper right-hand corner of your Shop Dashboard, in your Stats, and on the Share & Save page in your Shop Manager.
Links to specific listings. You can also save on fees when you share links to specific listings in your shop. This is great for sharing a trending item or a listing that’s on sale, or posting about new inventory. To get a unique link for a specific listing, head to your Listings in Shop Manager and click the gear icon on a listing and choose “Share”.
Links for a promo code. Let your followers know about any special offers you’re running. You can share a unique link for any of your promo codes with your followers off of Etsy and you’ll save on fees for the eligible orders you receive. On the Sales and discounts page, just select the promo code you want to share and copy the trackable link!
Links highlighting recent rave reviews. Blow your own trumpet! You can also share glowing reviews with a trackable link back to your shop. This feature is exclusive to the Etsy Seller app, so be sure to download the app ASAP if you haven’t already! You can share reviews from the Home tab of the app or from the "Reviews" section.
Links for a section of your shop. Encourage buyers to explore a particular theme or category of your listings. It’s easy in the Etsy Seller app – just tap Listings, choose the section you want to share, and copy the URL.

Get started with Share & Save.

Share exclusive updates about your shop

Releasing privileged information about new products, discount codes, and upcoming sales incentivises followers to check in with your story content regularly – and to share their exclusive intel with friends.

Posting these exclusive videos and assets also creates a sense of urgency that’s hard to replicate with other mediums. While a newsletter subscriber may let an email stagnate in their inbox for a few days, they’ll likely watch more of your video updates knowing that the content will be gone in a matter of hours. Since it’s a best practice to share this type of content daily, teasing out larger product and sale announcements over the course of a few days can help build interest and increase engagement before a big reveal.

Give a face (and a voice) to your brand

Many brands with large social followings are noted for posting relatable, candid content, whether that’s talking through a particularly memorable experience from their day or documenting a trip to the local coffee shop for an afternoon pick-me-up.

Round out the story of your small business lifestyle by incorporating behind-the-scenes aspects of your creative process. Try taking your followers on a walkthrough of your workspace, explaining a favourite tool or technique, or filming an unboxing video of what customers receive after ordering from your shop.

If you’re struggling to feel comfortable expressing your voice and narrative through video, imagine you’re sharing updates with a friend. Keep things natural and relatively unstructured. As an online business, off-the-cuff content humanises your brand, fostering a more authentic connection with followers. For inspiration, follow Etsy Success on Instagram where we regularly host seller takeovers where Etsy sellers walkthrough their creative process and tours of their spaces.

Experiment with different features

It seems like every week Facebook and Instagram are rolling out new features for stories, so why not take advantage of new and interesting ways to engage with your audiences.

Polls: Do you have a new product or new colour you’re testing out on a beloved classic? Why not go straight to the source for feedback. To set up a poll click the sticker icon (on Instagram) or the poll feature (on Facebook) and enter your question and your responses the publish it and let the feedback roll in.

Questions: This feature is a great way to build a stronger connection to your audience. This feature allows you to ask open ended questions to your audience which you can then respond to in real time. This is a great option if you’re not sure about what content to share on stories, you can always try a Q&A. To add this feature to both Instagram and Facebook stories, simply take a photo or video, then tap the sticker icon and then “Questions”.

Countdown: This handy feature is great for notifying your followers when you’re about to restock your shop. Take your photo or video then simply tap the sticker icon on Instagram and choose countdown, add a title, and choose a date (or date and time) to countdown to, and let the countdown begin!

Other features to experiment with:

Swipe up: Drives followers to a link outside of Instagram. While this is only available to Instagram users with more than 10K followers, you can use the link feature on Facebook stories if you have have a Shop Now link on your business page.
GIFs: Try adding an animated GIF or two to your next post on stories to bring in the fun to your next story post.
Tagging: On both Facebook and Instagram stories, you can add tags to people or places. This is great to use if you’re going to be at a craft fair or pop-up location, you can provide the information to where you’re going and tag the location of the event and tag the event host as well.
Music: If you’re doing a studio tour, what better way to add some additional texture to your posts by scoring it with a soundtrack. This feature is currently only available on Instagram.