Get your business involved with Go South Go Local on Instagram

Published on 20 August 2026

If you're a local business, there's a good chance you're already using Instagram to showcase what you do, connect with customers and promote what's happening in your business.

But did you know there are a few simple ways you can use Instagram to connect with Go South Go Local and put your business in front of even more people across the region?

What is Go South Go Local?

Go South Go Local is a City of Onkaparinga initiative celebrating the businesses, experiences, people and places that make our region such a great place to live, work and visit.

There are lots of ways local businesses can get involved – from displaying campaign assets in their shopfronts, to sharing local content and connecting with the wider business community. See here for access to all the assets and information.

How to make the most of your Instagram account

Instagram is changing, and the way businesses can help people discover their content is changing too.

We've put together this handy guide, and a digital download, covering some key Instagram changes every local business should know, including:

how to create a Collaboration post,
what to know about scheduling, hashtags, Instagram search, and
organising your profile.

Collaborate with Go South Go Local

Follow @gosouthgolocal, tag us in your posts and, when you have something genuinely new or exciting to share, consider inviting us to collaborate on your post.

Instagram's Collaboration feature allows two accounts to share the same Feed post or Reel.

When you invite @gosouthgolocal as a Collaborator and we accept, your post will appear on both accounts. This means your content can reach our audience as well as your own, while engagement such as likes, comments and views is shared between the accounts.

It's a simple way to introduce your business to people who may not have discovered you yet.

But collaboration isn't for every post

We encourage businesses to think quality, not quantity.

You don't need to send a Collaboration request every time you post – in fact, we'd prefer you save it for content that is genuinely interesting, relevant and useful to our audience.

Great opportunities for a Collaboration post include:

launching a new product or service
promoting an upcoming event, live music or special promotion
celebrating a business milestone or award
sharing something behind the scenes
showcasing a uniquely local story or experience
collaborating with another local business or organisation
sharing something new, exciting or community focused.

A good rule of thumb is:

Business as usual? A tag is perfect.
Something new, exciting or community-focused? Consider a Collaboration post.

This helps us keep the Go South Go Local feed fresh, varied and representative of the many businesses across our region.

Publish your Collaboration posts the right way

If you're planning to collaborate with Go South Go Local, be aware that scheduling a post directly through the Instagram app removes the Invite Collaborators option.

If you want to schedule your content, use Meta Business Suite on desktop or a supported scheduling platform such as Later. Otherwise, publish the post live through Instagram.

Make your content easy to discover

Think beyond hashtags.

When you're writing a caption, naturally tell people what you do, where you're located and what you're offering.

For example, instead of:

"Fresh stock has arrived!"

Try:

"Fresh native plants have arrived at our McLaren Vale nursery."

Being specific gives Instagram more context about your business and can help people searching for local products, services and places discover you.

It's also worth adding your suburb, town or venue as a location tag wherever appropriate and limit hashtags to three – five.

Is your grid showcasing your best side?

Think about your profile as your shopfront. Someone might discover one of your posts in their Instagram feed, but your profile is often where they decide whether to follow you.

Take a quick look at your profile and ask:

If someone discovered my business today, would my first few posts tell them who we are, what we offer and why they should follow us?

Instagram now allows you to reorder your grid, so you can put your best and most relevant content front and centre.

Open your Instagram profile
Press and hold a post
Select Reorder Grid
Drag posts into the order you like.

Ready to collaborate?

The next time your business has something worth sharing with the local community, think about whether it's a good fit for @gosouthgolocal.

Create your post, choose Tag People → Invite Collaborators, search for @gosouthgolocal, and send the invitation.

Just remember that your post will only appear on the Go South Go Local profile once we've accepted the invitation.

And if it's not quite right for a Collaboration post, tag us instead. We love seeing what local businesses are up to.

We're always looking for great local stories, new experiences and the people behind the businesses that make the south such a great place to live, work and visit.

Keep this visual guide handy and use it as a quick reference when you're planning your next post.

Download the visual guide

Your stories can reach beyond Instagram

Not on Instagram? No problem. There are still plenty of ways your business can get involved with Go South Go Local, including accessing campaign resources and promotional opportunities.

When you tell us what is happening in your business, it gives us opportunities to share your story with the wider community – not just our Instagram followers.

Go South Go Local also has a growing resident audience through our Shoppers Quarterly e-newsletter, where we share local businesses, products, experiences, events and things to see and do across the region.

You can always shoot us a quick email at gsgl@onkaparinga.sa.gov.au to let us know the exciting things you have coming up. It helps us discover the great things happening across our local business community and identify stories we can share with our audience.