If you look at all of the brands on Instagram, you’ll discover that only a small percentage are getting traction. Meanwhile, even those with large followings have poor engagement.
Why?
The issue is, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to understanding the Instagram algorithm and growing your following. However, there are a few typical Instagram marketing cultures that could be damaging your chances of getting likes, comments and followers.
To prevent the embarrassment that comes with an Instagram blunder, keep reading to learn about the 5 most common missteps brands make. Of course, we also show you exactly how to avoid them.
- Posting Poor Quality Images and Videos
Instagram is an 80% visual app. Before you feature anything on your account, ensure that it fulfills these three characteristics:
- Attractive
- Well-captured
- Has radiant colors
If your pictures have been short of these, it’s time to make a change.
Many marketers nurture the idea that anything can fit in their Instagram page. They fail to properly analyze the reactions their audience will have upon seeing these visuals. You don’t want to be in this category. If you claim to be a quality brand, then everything on your page should reflect this.
That said, poor lighting and mediocre shots aren’t the only thing that can cause a picture to have a bad quality. Some photos look great after editing but once you post it on Instagram, the quality appears bad.
Actually, Instagram reduces the quality of images through compression. They do this to prevent the Instagram server from overloading.
Solutions
- To get the right picture you have to plan ahead. Your pictures should reflect adequate lighting and have a good background.
Therefore, take pictures in well-lit areas and put some effort into making the surroundings aesthetic.
- More frequently than not, your images get compressed because they’re too large.
For example, if your pictures exceed the required specifications, they’ll get compressed badly. Also, you can stay above Instagram compression by doing the compression yourself before uploading. With this, you can control, to some extent, how much quality the picture loses.
- Another solution is to adjust your camera settings before taking the pictures. This way, you get to stick to the original specifications that Instagram requires without having to compress or reduce the photo’s size after.
- Avoid sending your image through too many apps. Doing this can cause the image quality to reduce.
- Ultimately, ensure your Instagram app is updated. This way, you know your app is functioning maximally and isn’t cutting down your image quality unnecessarily.
- Continue working on your photography skills and invest in better cameras. By doing this, you position yourself to take better pictures and generate enough likes from your audience.
- Using Hashtags Wrongly
Hashtags (#) are one of the best features that Instagram supports. Why? They help your your brand:
- Gain more visibility and followers
- Easily build a community of your target audience
- Categorize your content
Recent studies assert that including one hashtag to your Instagram caption will increase your engagement by 12.6%. Posts that have 11 hashtags get 80% more engagement.
The takeaway? You should never joke with your hashtags if you plan to grow massively on Instagram.
Now, have you been using hashtags but notice that it’s not been working for you? Perhaps you’re doing it wrong. It could be that you’ve been using them excessively in your posts.
Another possibility is that you have not crafted your own brand hashtags and you’ve been using the wrong ones.
Some marketers even go as far as using the same set of hashtags for all their posts. Nope! Don’t do that.
Even worse, brands use banned hashtags in their posts. Instagram has over 120,000 banned hashtags so it’s pretty easy to make this mistake without even realizing it.
Solutions
- Create custom hashtags for your brand. Because they’re unique to your brand, they’ll boost your brand awareness. They’ll also immediately remind people of you when they come up.
- Hashtags work like SEO keywords – they help specify your business to your intending followers. If your content is about food you have no business using entertainment hashtags in your posts. While there are creative ways to merge the two niches, it’s always safer to maintain your niche when using hashtags.
- Instagram detectors are quite smart and will notice when you use the same hashtags for all your posts. This gives an impression that you’re all about promoting your brand rather than dishing out relevant content to your followers. Be dynamic about your hashtag usage. When you continually copy and paste hashtags, your content will come across as spammy.
- To avoid using banned hashtags, do your research before using any. It’s pretty simple to figure out a banned hashtag.
Type your desired word on the search bar and click on the word when it pops up on the result list. Click the “recent” tab that shows up after. If the hashtag is banned, the screen will go blank.
- Creativity comes with marketing, so uniquely bring in new hashtags for your next post.
- Uploading Content Inconsistently
Inconsistency is a huge disaster to your Instagram marketing. When the posts on your page are too few, your audience will quickly forget about you and your product. An app like Grammarly can help you create engaging, error-free content that your followers will want to read.
Besides, the Instagram algorithm favors consistency. This is because it passes the message that you’re serious with growing on the platform. As such, your posts will receive a boost.
Also, when you constantly post pictures, videos, stories on your Instagram page, chances are that you’ll maintain strong engagements on the platform. And the possibility of expanding your reach becomes higher.
Always keep your customers eager to visit Instagram because of you. Sometimes, you can get your followers to air their views on the happenings in the world. That’s how you build a community and skyrocket your brand’s growth.
Finding it hard to stay consistent? Here are a few tips.
- Brainstorm and research content ideas. Make sure to gather as many ideas as possible. When you have an endless stream of ideas, creating content becomes easier.
- Batch creates Instagram content. This will not only help you post consistently, it’ll also help you plan and post content in a strategic way. And you’ll get better results.
- Use content planning and scheduling tools to plan and schedule your posts. With this, you won’t miss posting times.
- Buying Likes and Followers
As a newbie brand on Instagram, you may want to quickly garner a huge number of followers inorganically. The best way to do this is to post attractive content for your target audience. And maybe take a chill pill. When you give value, others will be eager to join your community and learn.
While buying likes can help you, you also need to consistently produce top notch content. Why? Because you can’t rely on your purchased “likes” forever. If you want to always have massive engagement, with or without buying likes, posting quality content is the key.
Tip: Always identify your target audience and plan towards reaching and converting them. With time, your account will rise to millions of followers. And you’ll get a natural boost in your engagement and sales.
- Grammatical Errors
Grammatical errors are one of the most embarrassing things you can find in a brand’s text. They mess up the message you’re trying to pass across and leave a sour taste in the mouth of your reader.
The last thing you want is to let a grammar error hang around in your Instagram captions. Thankfully, some apps are made specially for this purpose.
If you’re always in a hurry to post, you should get the help of correctional apps like Grammarly. The app will help you pick out your grammar errors, effectively and quickly.
Before uploading your posts, do well to check through. Overall, apportion enough time to writing captions and Instagram texts. This way, you get enough time to patiently cross-check your text for errors.
Why Instagram Marketing is Paramount to your Brand’s Growth
Statistics show that 44% of people buy from Instagram brands weekly. If your business gets a minimum of 30 customers weekly through your instagram account, wouldn’t that be a decent win for you?
If you handle your Instagram marketing well, you can get way more sales in addition to:
- Increased Engagement
All social media platforms are known for fostering interactions and engagements. However, when it comes to engagement, Instagram gives 23% more results than Facebook. With effective strategies, you get to relate with your customers, reply to comments, ask questions, and learn as you build a strong community.
- Traffic Generation and Profits
For many brands, one of the topmost goals is to generate more websites and increase profits. With the bio link that you’ve attached to your Instagram business page, you can drive more traffic to your website and increase profit.
- Brand Awareness
Instagram exposes your brand to the world. The app gets over 2.9 billion visits monthly. As such, brands on this platform get the opportunity to bring their brand Into limelight, while telling the world about their product and services.
Conclusion
Instagram is the best place to market your business. But mistakes can cut your progress short and affect your goals. If you’ve been making the 5 mistakes discussed in this article, use the solutions to turn things around.