There’s no denying that Instagram has played an important role in the evolution of digital marketing. With a huge monthly user base, Instagram is deemed the most popular visual channel in the social media realm. It’s also considered a pioneer platform in digital marketing due to its visual nature and features. If you’re looking to raise awareness as a business, brand, or influencer, incorporating Instagram into your marketing strategy is a necessity. However, finding an efficient manner to master Instagram marketing is a challenge for many. Some say they’ve done all they can to establish a strong presence on Instagram, but their efforts go unnoticed. Yet they overlook how the app operates and make some basic mistakes. Below are 10 of the most common Instagram mistakes you must avoid.
Buying Engagement and Followers
Businesses, brands, and influencers sometimes get desperate to gain online traction which leads them to take shortcuts like purchasing followers. Buying fake followers and engagement does more harm than good for a business, brand, or influencer’s digital presence. Buying followers can put an account at risk because of Instagram’s Terms of Use. Since the use of bots are considered fraudulent by the platform, accounts could face shadowbanning or even get banned permanently. In addition to this risk, such behavior causes low and sterile engagement. Top reasons a business, brand or influencer tends to buy fake followers is to inflate their account, boost engagement and unlock the “Swipe Up” feature that only accounts with 10K followers can access. Since Instagram algorithms rely on engagement to display posts on a broader scale, any real audience would miss out on new content due to the lack of engagement. It also can be suspicious if an account has 10K followers but only gets around 75 likes per post. Now, the average user will be able to easily detect that you’ve purchased engagement which affects a business, brand or influencer’s credibility and trust. Inflating an account also hinders the connection between a business, brand or influencer and their target audience. This makes it much more difficult for a business or brand to turn an online community into customers and it makes it nearly impossible for an influencer to gain meaningful, long-lasting partnerships. It also makes measuring metrics extremely difficult. Before paying for Instagram followers and engagement, take all of this into consideration. It’s well worth the work to build a meaningful community around an account. Remember it isn’t about the size of an online community, it’s about the quality!
Not Optimizing Your Bio
Great content is key to any account's growth. Creating content that is visually inspiring should be high on the priority list but abandoning elements like optimizing your bio cannot be skipped. A properly optimized bio plays a critical role in establishing a business, brand, or influencer’s presence. For many users, Instagram is where they discover new businesses, brands, or influencers. Think about an Instagram bio as SEO for the platform. A bio’s main function is to explain the purpose of the account and drive users to act. This action could be to follow, visit a website, get directions, or make contact. Another key function is to increase account visibility and make it more discoverable. Writing a bio can be especially tricky because accounts are limited to 160 characters. It’s also very important to understand all the features available when creating a bio to maximize optimization opportunities. Bio features include name/username, profile photo, bio, website, category, call to action buttons and contact info. There are endless possibilities when creating a bio, so marketers need to structure these to reflect their strategic goals and clearly define their value proposition.
Adding Links to Caption
Unlike other social platforms, Instagram does not allow for clickable links within a post caption. This has caused many businesses, brands, and influencers to add shortened or awkward links to their post captions. Let’s be real, no one is sitting there and typing into a browser these links. A better option is the “link in bio” trick or, if the account is selling products, tagging products directly in the post so users can natively shop on the Instagram platform. Remember, social media is not “one-size-fits-all” and that also goes for your call to action (CTA) on social platforms! Businesses, brands and influencers should customize CTAs based on available platform features.
Posting too Little or too Much
When it comes to posting content on Instagram, consistency plus value is the name of the game. Posting frequency has sparked a large debate among marketers and Instagram’s ever-changing algorithms add a layer of complexity to the debate. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” formula for an instagram posting schedule. How often a business, brand, or influencer should post depends on goals and how much time can be allocated to Instagram marketing efforts. Posting too much content with low value can be a nuisance to followers but on the other hand, posting too little could cause even more damage. For example, if you go from posting several times a day to a couple times a week, you will lose followers and experience a loss in engagement. Simply put, the best posting frequency will be a frequency that you can maintain for the lifetime of the business and brand or influencer’s career. It is important to ask yourself before posting something, “does this align with my goals?” and “does this content truly provide value?”. A rule of thumb should be starting small and expanding from there, because once you increase frequency there is no going back.
Not Having a Clear Strategy
Marketing on social media, including Instagram, without a clear strategy can become a huge time-suck. Instagram is an efficient tool that enables marketers to publicize their brands on a shoestring budget. Sometimes businesses, brands, or influencers overlook developing an Instagram strategy. In the long run, neglecting to develop a clear and consistent strategy will undermine efforts and can produce frustrating results. Having a coherent strategy in place offers multiple benefits which includes building a powerful, organic presence. Developing a strategy that includes implementing a social media management platform also saves time by scheduling and organizing posts in advance. Just like other digital marketing efforts, implementing an Instagram strategy provides business, brands, and influencers with direction and determines a method to reach predetermined goals.
Not Engaging with Followers
Social media activity is meant to be social. Businesses, brands, and influencers need to engage with their followers to build a reputable presence on Instagram. Engagement is one of the most important metrics to track to measure the success of a social media strategy. A trend among successful accounts is a sense of community. If businesses, brands, and influencers don’t engage with their followers, the likelihood of users interacting with their account is slim to none. No one wants to follow an account that seems like one big advertisement. Users look to follow businesses, brands or influencers that provide some sort of value to their lives. So, next time someone interacts with your account, take it as an opportunity to get to know followers better and create a personalized, positive experience that surrounds the business, brand or influencer personality.
Neglecting to Share User Generated Content
When it comes to social media marketing, users’ opinions are considered gold. Many users decide to buy or follow a business, brand or influencer based on their peers’ opinions. This is the purpose behind user generated content (UGC). UGC is one of the most sophisticated yet simple tools in the social media marketing realm. This type of content serves as a credibility piece because it is truly authentic. UGC is such a fascinating type of content because not only is it extremely beneficial for a strategy, but now you have your audience acting as an advocate for your business, brand, or influencer personality. It shifts the process from marketing to your followers to marketing with your followers. Users are more likely to engage with UGC compared to branded or sponsored content. So, it is extremely important to reward your followers by sharing their content when it makes sense for the business, brand, or influencer. Think twice before skipping out on this type of content - it could be detrimental!
Ignoring Analytics
In social media marketing, analytics gauge a strategy's effectiveness, and pinpoints what needs to be adjusted or improved. Of course, Instagram is part of this realm, and its metrics need to be seriously looked at to become more influential and provide real value. There are many social media management tools available in addition to Instagram’s native analytics to help digest all the metrics. Analytics provide businesses, brands, and influencers with insight into their audience so they can deliver more valuable content. Furthermore, metrics keep businesses, brands, and influencers in the loop about the performance of their account. It shows engagement rates, which type of content is performing best, growth trends and the best times to post. Analytics save time, effort and provide actionable insights. By contrast, ignoring key metrics could turn Instagram efforts into a time suck and provide less than desirable results.
Ignoring Key Instagram Features
When businesses, brands and influencers are building an Instagram strategy, it is important to incorporate key features of the platform. Instagram has launched many features in the last couple of years which took marketing on the platform to an almost daunting level. The Instagram algorithms look at accounts that utilize all features and reward them with more exposure. Look at the goals for the account, and figure out how utilizing IGTV, stories, grid posts, Instagram lives, and reels can be of value. Sometimes businesses, brands and influencers can become overwhelmed by the new features. Simply figuring out a schedule that consistently incorporates features into the content plan will make a world of difference. Also, look at the different types of content topics the account discusses and see how content can be repurposed and diversified to the format of these features. Businesses, brands, and influencers don’t necessarily need to recreate the content wheel for each feature.
Posting Poor Quality or Inconsistent Images/Videos
Instagram absolutely takes the crown when it comes to visual content. Historically, visual content is proven to generate more comments, likes, shares, and saves than plain text content. Since Images, graphics and videos are what everything revolves around on Instagram, it is imperative to create a consistent look and feel around an Instagram account. An account’s visual aesthetic should follow the style guide for the business, brand, or influencer so their Instagram profile can be easily recognized as an extension of their brand. If a business, brand, or influencer doesn’t have a style guide, developing one can be quite simple. It starts with creating a document that outlines the photo/video/graphic style, what filters or presets are used in editing and what font and colors are used on stories and reels. Posting high quality visuals is equally as important as posting consistent visuals. High quality doesn't mean going out and buying a dSLR camera; Afterall, most mobile devices have high powered cameras built in! There are many Instagram accounts that are built off iPhone or Android photography and graphics made with Canva or Spark. Get creative and start using the tools you probably already have.
If you’re a business, brand or influencer that has made a few of the above mistakes, don’t sweat it! The great thing about Instagram is that there’s always the opportunity to redeem an account - it just takes some strategic and creative thinking paired with consistency.
If you’re interested in discussing or learning more about Instagram strategy development, then let’s chat! Email Samantha Gant at Samantha@s-alchemy.com.