Common Instagram mistakes every business must avoid

For a business owner finding it challenging to grow the audience on Instagram, the answer is that it’s because they have been making little mistakes that could even ruin the business. New trends and tools are being introduced regularly to make Instagram features a lot better, hence the need to stay updated as social media constantly changes.

The fact that Instagram has more than a billion active users on the platform makes it a goldmine for social media marketing for any kind of business. Despite this fact, many brands have not been able to use this advantage at their disposal to full effect. Be it the personal or business Instagram account, the more followers you have will be essential in promoting a brand. Strong Insta-community will help gain trust, credibility and establish a great base for social proof for potential clients.

However, to take an Instagram account to the next level, it’s necessary to gain the followers’ attention. This post will reveal the common mistakes that business owners must avoid on Instagram. It will also teach how to avoid these mistakes and help gain the trust of an audience by boasting a strong Instagram presence.

Here are the common mistakes any brand must correct on Instagram

Convert to Instagram business account

Instagram Business account provides valuable details about the followers, content, and other necessary analytics. In addition, it comes with all the essential tools and features needed to build a strong presence for the business on Instagram. By converting a regular account to a business account, stand to gain a host of good fortunes to help the business grow and obtain access to boosted posts and Instagram ads.

To properly maximise an Instagram business account and start enjoying its numerous benefits, it’s important to start using the Instagram insights tool, which enables to evaluate weaknesses. At this point take advantage of this tool to track the performance by using analytics like email button taps, impressions, profile visits, engagements, follows, and other metrics to push the conversation and build the brand’s presence. 

Optimise the bio

Having a great bio for the business on Instagram means that the bio must be very engaging enough to captivate its audience, there are only a few seconds to make that impression count. In addition, a well-optimised bio must meet certain qualifications because that is the first post every visitor will see on the page. So, why not make it exceptional?

The limit allowed by Instagram for writing the bio is 150 characters, and to make a good first impression with it, it’s strongly advised not to leave a single character left unused. It should contain detailed information about the brand and what the Instagram community can expect from the account. It’s also possible to add a call-to-action button to the setup and a URL link to the website, that way, the Instagram bio can serve as a virtual business card.

Be strategic

Setting goals do not guarantee success. To become successful, it’s key to stay focused on the plan until a set goal is achieved. For example, although Instagram allows brands to use numerous features provided on the app to market their business ideas, many brands have failed to use this opportunity to build a strong presence for themselves.

One of the common mistakes making these brands unsuccessful on Instagram is that most of them just post content and then sit back and wait for Instagram to do its magic. No! it never works that way. To achieve a goal on Instagram, it’s important to set it early and use the Instagram features strategically on all the published content. Create strategic relationships on Instagram, and then enjoy the success of the brand.

Always offer value

What value will the brand offer to the followers? This should be one of the questions to consider when setting the goals for the business on Instagram. It’s important to offer an audience something tangible that will make them keep following the brand; it’s either entertaining them or educating them.

It’s important to captivate the audience with the content even if the offer is educative. As long as it drives back traffic to the page and pushes the brand towards achieving its goal on Instagram.

Post consistently

Being consistent doesn’t mean spending all the time on Instagram but posting only when someone has free time is just another mistake that must be corrected. Sometimes, a few days or even weeks go by without posting a thing. It is understandable because, as humans, there are a lot of other important activities that we must tend to, and due to this reason, there might not be enough time to post consistently on Instagram.

Posting consistently is not as hard as it seems if someone adopts the process of creating a posting schedule. Use the Instagram insights to learn the time and days the followers are most online and create a posting schedule based on that. To make it less difficult, there are tools like Buffer that can help post content automatically. All that is necessary is to do is get the content ready for posting, then set the time and day to upload to the feed.

Pay attention to metrics

Not paying attention to metrics is another common mistake that most brands make. However, it’s not possible to relax and just assume what the followers and other users enjoy. Instagram has an analytic tool that can be used to audit the statistics related to the Instagram posts; with this data, it’s possible to know what the followers and other Instagram users truly like.

Instagram analytics include likes, comments, saves, shares, reach, impressions, follows, and more. Paying attention to these metrics will help take actions for the future content to benefit the brand. As mentioned above, remember that it’s necessary to switch the regular account to a business account before accessing this feature.

Using hashtags wrongly

Instagram hashtags can drive traffic to the profile and is also an excellent tool to find exciting places to go or fun things to do. Hashtags are an integral part of Instagram. However, it can also be ruinous when used wrongly, and that is a common mistake been made by many brands.

Instagram users can add up to 30 hashtags per post, and it is true that the more are used the more is likely to get seen on those feeds. However, using too many hashtags can lose a business’ reputation because it will make the post look less classy, stuffy, too promotional or even regarded as spam.

Another way brands can use hashtags on Instagram to increase visibility and engagement is to avoid using popular hashtags and adopt using less popular hashtags for their campaigns or creating a new hashtag.

Avoid long captions

Making people scroll down lines of text is never a cool way to get a message across; most people won’t even bother reading the caption if they are too long. The images that are posted accompanied with a short caption should be able to communicate a brand’s point to the audience. However, some posts might need an explanation for a process, this is the only scenario when extended captions are expected.

Post quality photos and videos

Photos and videos are indispensable as long as promoting a business on Instagram is concerned, and for a photo-centric platform, it is important to get this on point. It doesn’t have to be a collection of professional photos or videos, but since they are so important in selling a brand on the platform, it is only right to pay attention to every detail.

It is quite easy to get quality photos and videos. First, avoid blurred pictures and then learn how to make some little edits before posting. An option to consider is also to download stock photos from the internet or get help from resources that aids editing like Adobe Photoshop, Snapseed and Adobe Lightroom. These are tips to help with visual content:

• Note that the image size cropped by Instagram for square-shaped photos showing on the profile grid is 1080px x 1080px, but the ideal resolution for the upload is 2080px x 2080px, which is the maximum permitted. Images on the feed have a max size of 1350px x1080px, which is a 4:5 ratio, and with that said, it’s important to align with these Instagram algorithms to avoid losing vital sections of the photos getting chopped off.
• Use the phone camera to take pictures, instead of using the Instagram camera directly but avoid taking pictures in direct sunset or after sunset.
• For pictures inside, do it in a well-lit condition, preferably in front of a window.
• Apart from using picture editing software to boost the photo and video quality, there are also Instagram editing features to tune the images finely.

Poor engagement with the followers/other users

Like every other social media platform, Instagram is all about socialising, and there is no better way to do this than to engage both the followers and other brands in the same niche as the business. Posting new content consistently alone does not guarantee positive results that, it’s also necessary to build on engagement with the Instagram community.

The secret behind building on engagement is all about giving. Giving time, likes, follows, and also comments on posts. There’s no point to hope for people to like and comment on the brand’s posts after following the brand while they aren’t receiving back the same energy. Only what is given can be received back.

Check out what other brands in the same niche and try to give them positive reviews in the comment section; let them know what’s enjoyable about their post. Engage with the followers by asking them questions or keep the conversation going by responding to followers that commented with a question. Don’t be in a rush to leave the app after posting content; try to spend at least 10 to 30 mins engaging with the followers and watch how this act will favour the brand as time goes on.

Conclusion

Instagram is a robust platform that can help take a brand to the next level through its features. However, if these features are not used correctly, the reputation of the brand can be crippled. Be strategic in all do on Instagram; it might take some time for the hard work to start paying off but stay focused. Avoid making these common Instagram mistakes listed above and watch the Instagram account become that page that Instagram users want to keep up with.

The editorial unit