Instagram has made it easier for businesses to get support from their customers and friends, through their platform, during this challenging time. 

They have introduced new ways for people to support by discovering gift cards, food order options, and fundraisers from businesses they love, on Instagram. They have also made available some great resources on how businesses can navigate through Instagram during this time, such as the COVID-19 Playbook. Read through, as I’ve broken down each one below.

Gift Cards for Businesses on Instagram

To make use of this feature, you need to have a business or creator IG account. Also, your business will need to set up a Gift Cards with a partner service using the instructions on the partner’s site. This service is only available in certain countries (Sri Lanka is not one of them) so check first if it’s available for you.

View Gift Card Partners

If your country is eligible, after setting up your partner service, you can proceed to set up gift cards on your (business or creator) Instagram profile. This is a simple process, which you can view here. 

Now, people will be able to buy gift cards through the Gift Cards button on your Instagram profile. Note that if you already have an active Book, Get Tickets, Reserve, or Schedule buttons on your profile they will be automatically removed if you add a Gift Cards button.

Once your gift card is set up, you can then add a gift card Sticker to your Instagram Story so that your customers can purchase them to support your business.

You should also note that

• Only one Gift Cards sticker can be added per story.
• Viewers can reshare your Gift Cards sticker to their own story.
• You won’t receive notifications when people reshare your Gift Cards sticker to their story.

By the way, Facebook also offers Gift Cards, which is only available in certain countries (not available in Sri Lanka).

Food Orders for Businesses on Instagram

Here’s an FAQ list on how to get your business on Delivery through Instagram.

Right now, this is only possible for vendors connected to UberEats, in Sri Lanka. For other countries, there’s a list provided based on region and country, on this page, or click here to view. 

Also, if you want to skip the TLDR and quickly set up food orders on your Instagram profile, visit this link. 

Food Ordering Partners

Fundraisers

This one is directly from Facebook, but I thought I’ll add it here. Only people from certain countries can create fundraisers on Facebook, Check out this link to see which countries are eligible (Sri Lanka is not eligible). 

If you create a fundraiser for a nonprofit, the nonprofit will receive donations directly from Facebook, or from Network for Good, or from PayPal Giving Fund. Read the Full Article here.

Also remember, Facebook does not charge any fees for donations made to nonprofits. For donations made to personal fundraisers however, there is a fee and it would vary depending on where the money is being raised. You can check out this article for details.

Instagram for Business COVID-19 Playbook

A comprehensive collection of tips and information to help you take action and use Instagram to manage through these challenging times.

Download Here

Now, businesses can get set-up with select partners and use new interactive Stories stickers with their own Stories content to drive awareness of these new ways people can support them. They’ll be able to share links to their offerings through a “Gift Card” or “Food Orders” Stories sticker, which will be available in their sticker tray. Supporters can also re-share these stickers in their own Stories to help spread the word.

I hope at least some of these options are available for your small business to gain support from Instagram & Facebook.

Finally, here’s a list of top help articles during the COVID-19 pandemic from Facebook that might come in handy. The list gives you a quick rundown on things like How to turn off ads and boosted posts, new ads policies around COVID-19, how to set up an account spending limit, monetization and more. 

Here’s how Instagram has made it easier for people to support Small Businesses👇
https://www.facebook.com/business/boost/get-support-on-Instagram/?ref=igb_blog_gift_cards_food_ordering

Tweet

Check out this growing list of FREE tools, services, and resources offered in support of small businesses facing the COVID-19 global crisis. 👇https://indunanayakkara.wordpress.com/2020/05/01/support-for-small-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19/

Tweet

Disclaimer: I don’t have any affiliation with the service provider at the time of publishing this post.