Saw a comment here this week from a tattoo artist who paid for growth help for two months, got followers, and almost none of them lived close enough to book. That's one of the most common problems I see with local accounts, and it happens organically too, not just with paid help.

The reason is pretty simple. Most growth runs on interest. Hashtags, trending audio, broad topics. Instagram finds people who like tattoos, coffee or yoga, and the biggest groups of those people are almost never in your city. So the numbers go up and the bookings don't.

For local I would always start from the place instead of the topic. Other businesses in your area, local food spots, city pages, event accounts, and especially the people who follow and comment on them. Interact with those people, tag your location, mention the neighborhood in captions, do collabs with the shop next door.…