When it comes to a social media marketing strategy for your floral business, Instagram should be at the top of your list. That’s especially true in 2021, after a year of pandemic-fueled growth! Here are seven of the top Instagram trends and ways to incorporate them into your floral business:

1. Customers Can Shop and Buy Right from Instagram

With the 2020 improvements to Instagram Shops, customers can now log onto your IG account, shop for what they want, and pay right there.

This is a vast improvement, so take advantage of it:

• Set up an Instagram Shop for your floral business.
• Use product tags in your posts and stories so that people go right to the Shop to buy them.
• Partner with local floral design influencers and have them tag your Shop in their posts.

2. Instagram Live Streams are Longer

Thanks to the pandemic, Instagram Live became a vital tool for businesses to conduct events and announce new offerings; Live viewings increased by 70% from February to March 2020 alone! To satisfy the increased demand, Instagram Live extended the maximum time from one hour to four hours.

Tap into this trend as follows:

• Announce new products or services on a live stream.
• Hold live floral workshops.
• Share livestreams with other Instagram accounts
• Hold Live Q&As using the Q&A sticker.

3. Guides are Used to Inform and Recommend

Introduced in 2020, Instagram Guides was initially designed so companies could put together self-care tips during the pandemic. Now, people are also using Guides to recommend places, products, or posts to others.

You can use Instagram Guides to:

• Introduce new floral arrangements or products.
• Create articles about proper floral care.
• Promote other local businesses you’ve partnered with.

4. Instagram Reels add fun content

Spurred on by the TikTok craze, Instagram launched Reels in 2020. Reels are short videos, 15 seconds maximum, and you can put multiple clips together in one video.

They’re intended to be much more casual than other Instagram video content. Reels are a great way to show quick how-to videos, and they’re a lot of fun.

Use Reels to:

• Share a short, fun video on how to care for cut flowers.
• Put your own spin on a trending meme.
• Partner with an influencer, such as a well-known local wedding planner, to show how they use your flowers.

5. The Instagram Challenge Trend Has Exploded

With so many people unable to meet in person during the pandemic, the need for connection led to far more Instagram Challenges! Challenges follow a specific set of guidelines, and they tend to spread quickly, like memes.

Here’s how to get in on the Challenge trend:

• Check out the accounts of other florists or influencers and jump on any challenge they may have out there.
• Create your own challenge and share it along with a unique hashtag — they’re a lot of fun!

6. Carousel Posts Can Be Educational

While Instagram Carousel posts have always been a great way to showcase products, many people now use Carousel to inform and educate. It’s easy to make these educational Carousel posts since there are many free templates on the web.

You have a lot of options for Carousel posts:

• Create a Carousel post on the meanings of different colored flowers.
• Make a Carousel that walks someone through the steps to make a DIY arrangement.
• If you’ve already got infographics on your website, turn these into slides and feature them on a Carousel post.

7. Instagram is Becoming More Casual

As we’ve already mentioned, social media challenges from TikTok and Twitter have become increasingly popular, and they’re far more casual than other types of content. So, while you may be featuring beautifully shot images of your floral arrangements on Instagram, don’t be afraid to mix it up with more casual and fun content. This makes you more relatable and can be highly effective.

It’s easy to create these “off the cuff” posts:

• Take a screenshot of a tweet or post you’ve done elsewhere and put it on Instagram.
• Find a trending meme and post it, adding your voice to it.
• Create simple, quick videos on your phone of things happening in your shop and post them.

We hope this information on Instagram trends has been helpful. It’s a powerful tool and can make all the difference for your floral sales. We can’t wait to see how you show up on Instagram from this point forward!