Instagram Mistakes to Avoid
Do you remember when Instagram came out in October 2010? We were confused on how to use it compared to Facebook. It is a platform that might seem fairly easy and simple to use until you turn it into a business account. Then, it is a different story.
Social media influencers, celebrities, and entrepreneurs have taken advantage of using Instagram to engage with their target audiences. Who would have thought that you could turn Instagram into an online marketing campaign to increase leads, revenue and site visitors? It is one thing to implement Instagram into your digital marketing plan, but if you do not do it right, then you are wasting your time. You do save money compared to traditional marketing campaign costs, but you need the right strategy to make sure you are getting that ROI.
Let’s talk about what NOT to do on Instagram:
Saturated Selling Spams
On Instagram or other social media channels, the users joined those platforms to share their lives, follow their friends, follow their favorite brands or celebrities. They are not merely here just to get sold on everything and anything every 5 minutes with selling ads. Instagram should not become a commercial TV channel. Share content that is not all the time about selling your business. Impact the people first with your beliefs and engage with your target audience.
Poor Quality Images
How many times have you seen businesses using low-quality pictures that almost looks like tiny squares all over? If you think about it for a minute, remember how many users you have on Instagram… 800 million users as of right now! Your picture has to be top notch to attract those users. Think about yourself as if you would want to click on the picture, like, comment or share. Humans love visuals so keep in mind to be cautious of your visual content. Sometimes it takes us way too long to find the right picture, but it does matter, so we flow with what works.
Duplicate Photos
If you have poor quality photos and share duplicate photos, you will quickly see a drop in your followers. People are here to see new posts, new ideas, and new pictures so innovate. Share different ones except, with the exception of when a picture was really a big hit, sharing it a few months later is typically okay. BUT do not make this a lazy solution. Again do you like seeing the same photos again and again? Probably not so avoid it.
Selfies
Overloading your business Instagram with selfies won’t do any good. People love to see who’s behind the scenes but if you continuously share selfies in a car, in a bathroom, or similar spaces, it is unprofessional and gets tiring. Instead of boring selfies, share pictures of you that someone took of you at events, at work, or at a client’s meeting, etc. We are not saying do not use selfies, occasionally, of course, it is fine but remember if you aren’t the Kardashians people will probably stop following you due to the number of selfies posted.
Misspend Hashtags
I remember the time hashtags was the new thing and we did not know how to use it correctly. I remember a friend in college who was making fun of me because I was doing it wrong. Thanks to her I learned it quickly so I did not look silly on my posts. The use of hashtags is a strategy to promote your page and to be found within your niche. Instagram has a limit of 30 hashtags per post so use 30 of them if you want as long as it makes sense and is related to your content and niche. If it does not make sense, then you don’t have to use it. Quality over quantity for hashtags. Do a little mix of general popular ones with specific ones, check what your competitors do for their hashtags, check if they get more engagement with theirs. If you decide to only use the most popular hashtags with more than 1 million posts, it can also be inefficient. Your image will quickly get lost in the sea due to the amount of how many users are using this #.
There is so much more to avoid, but I will keep the other ones for another time. Do an audit on your own Instagram until my next article comes out :)
