One of the reasons Instagram is so popular for promoting business is because it encourages engagement above all else. In fact, Instagram has more engagement many times over Facebook or even Twitter.
- Not Using Instagram – This is an obvious mistake but needs to be said. So many people are unsure of Instagram and how they can use it for their business. But, if your audience is there, you need to be on Instagram. It’s a fast way to build a loyal audience and convert sales.
- Creating a Private Instagram Account – No, you want your account to be publicly visible because people who want to follow you aren’t going to want to wait around for approval. You want everyone to be able to see your photos and videos without being blocked in any way.
- Posting the Same Thing on Every Social Media – You don’t want your shares on social media to all look the same. You can repurpose and alter them, but don’t share the exact same thing at the same time via all channels.
- Posting the Same Type of Content All the Time – You want your Instagram to be interesting to your followers, so you need to change it up a little. Use different types of images, different amounts of text descriptions, and so forth. Change it up with video, interactive calls to action, contests and more.
- Posting Content Too Often & Quickly – Give each image or video that you share time to resonate with your audience before you send out another. If you share too much too fast you’re likely to get unfollowed because people get irritated.
- Not Engaging With Commenters – Instagram is about social engagement and if someone comments, you need to respond back. You’ll get a notification that someone comments and they’ll get one back when you comment back to them with their @ tag.
- Not Using Relevant Hashtags – Too many look spammy but not using them will make you miss out on important followers who are searching for that hashtag. You can add the hashtags as text overlay on your images or within the comment section. To find good hashtags for your industry, try checking with your competition to see what hashtags they like to use.
- Not Creating an Optimized Profile – On Instagram the only way that people can get to your website, sign up for an email list and so forth is by going to your profile. First, your content should be amazing to get people to look at your profile, and then you need to ensure that your profile is optimized.
- Not Creating a Telling Profile Picture – What is meant by telling is that your profile picture should tell a story about you and it should be a good one. You need to keep your profile picture the same for a long period of time. It’s how people know who you are and if you change it too often it may confuse them. Don’t change it more than once a season.
- Not Learning to Follow Others Strategically – When someone follows you, follow them back. When you want to follow someone thinks about how it will help you. Are they someone in your niche that would be interested in your updates and will you want to engage with their updates? Because, social media, Instagram more than most, is all about engagement.
It doesn’t matter if you’re new to Instagram or have been using it a while, you can use these tips to get started off with a bang or to improve the way you currently use Instagram.
