9 most common mistakes that are made on Instagram

With over 700 million users, it’s no wonder that Instagram is a key part of most social networking strategies. Therefore, it is important for brands to first be sure that they will not destroy everything by making mistakes from being unwanted or by failing to do what is currently relevant to marketing.

If you are confused by the idea of filters, hashtags, titles and followers, or just looking for a way to increase your presence and visibility on social networks, the following list of common mistakes made on Instagram can help you to reach the full potential of your brand.

For those curious ones, we have created a comprehensive digital marketing course for 2019 and the coming years.

#1 Shopping followers

Good companies are working hard to build a strong presence on this social network, so by buying your own way to the top you will not do any service yourself.

As an experiment, Hotsuite created a fraudulent account and bought Intagram escorts to find out what would happen. The research has shown two main points with this tactic:

Engagement is just a zero. Although there were 1,000 followers on the first day, the content that was uploaded did not receive any comments or libas.
Risky audience. By reviewing the followers, it came to the conclusion that these are mainly teens who publish their selfies or some inappropriate content. These are not users with whom the brand wanted to connect.
Instead of buying an audience, it’s better to make a thoughtful strategy, set smart goals, publish good content and engage audiences as much as possible.

#2 Ignore numbers

Once you make an order, it may be tempting to start publishing postings and not to look too much at how much the reaction that the publication caused. But in order to take full advantage of Instagram, you have to pay attention to the numbers. Even with the mistakes you make, you can judge what kind of content best passes by the audience, which hestags, which is the best time to post, or which addresses encourage most engagement with the audience. All this can be of great benefit when you want to spread awareness of your brand and develop business with social networks.

What should be measured on Instagram is the following:

Number of followers, and growth and their loss
Their engagement (and the likes and comments)
Using your hegs
CTR for your URL in the description
Mention (how many others mention in your posts)
Frequency of posting
Demographics of your audience
Audience engagement time (at what time you get the most likes)
Sales via Instagram (by creating a special Instagram coupon)
One way to keep track of this is certainly the Insights section on your account, which provides insights into who your followers are, when online, and so on. You can also see Insights for individual posts and Story.

Although the numbers and statistics are not a measure of your success on Instagram, they can certainly help you get indications of doing something good or bad.

#3 Too many promotional activities

As with all other types of promotion tools and other social networks (especially Facebook), the constant imposition of your brand on Instagram is actually a way to distance yourself from the audience.

If you have your own product or logo in each picture, followers will begin to lose interest. Instead, try doing something subtler, try to show the values ​​that your brand represents with interesting content. If you’re not sure how to do this the best, hire professionals to run your profiles on social networks. Also, you can always enroll in a digital marketing course and thus expand your knowledge.

For example, IKEA in Canada made an order that shows the images of employees, the community in which they work, lifestyle content, which in a subtle way brought the audience and their products closer. This also builds a visual display of the brand showing how products can look real.

#4 Insufficient attention to titles

If you want to increase audience engagement, you should not ignore Instagram titles. Great titles will not only give an added context to your post but will also generate emotional reactions from the audience.

A psychology study has shown that evoking a feeling increases the chances that people share your content more. Emotional stimulus activates the nervous system and improves social transmission.

How to write good Instagram addresses?

Put the most important words at the beginning. Part of the text will not be seen in most cases, but use @ and # at the very end of the text.
Ask questions. Encourage the audience to engage by asking them a question for reflection. You can ask them for an opinion about your latest product (which is shown in the post) or something more general.
Feel free to use emoticons. This visual language helps you to draw the attention of the audience and enter a funny tone in your release or show the human and natural side of your brand.

#5 Incorrect use or abuse of heslags

About 91% of posts on Instagram have between one and seven hashtags, so it’s obvious that they have their value and are a very powerful tool. But like most things in life, power can often be used for bad purposes.

Hashtags are abused in many ways, for example by being too used or not being used at all or by using those that are not relevant.

They are most commonly used to allow others to find content that they are interested in using relevant keywords. If you’re saving your post using too many irrelevant hashtags, you disable your account and you risk losing credibility. #Please #none #to #do # build.

In the second case, if you have high quality content and do not use key heights related to your product / service, you will again hurt yourself and miss the opportunity for someone to reveal you and become your hired fan.

#6 Insufficient content editing

Compiling photos and videos on Instagram can increase audience engagement by more than 45%. On the other hand, it is not necessary to change everything too much. It is necessary to balance between the tendency to leave photos completely unprocessed and the desire to put too many filters and make them unrecognizable. Knowing some simple photo principles and the availability of countless applications for processing means there is no justification for blurred and non-inspiring images.

Here are some simple principles you can follow when using a smartphone:

Make a series of photos on the same subject (which means you have to take pictures outside the Instagram application) to get a great photo.
Monitor the light and try to take photos in indirect natural light if possible. Additionally, pay attention to shadows and unintentional reflections that appear in your pictures as they can distract the main subject and destroy image quality.
Edit the selected image with taste, do not overdo it with filters. Some of your favorite applications, such as VSCO Cam, Snapseed, Priime, Afterlight, have great editing capabilities that can make a big difference between amateur and professional images.
Find a visual style and hold it. Consistency in pictures is important when the brand is viewed as a whole, it is something that also gives you credibility, and it looks visually appealing.

#7 Ignoring the community

Like most other social platforms, Instagram did not “set and forget” the type of work. It is very important to build relationships and meaningful relationships.

To get the most from the Instagram community:

Follow relevant users. Find them using hairstyles and other pages. Pay attention to who they are bothering and following these people.
Separate the time to answer comments and questions. Marketing and branding have the goal of building relationships, so it really makes sense to participate in a conversation with the community on Instagram.
Publish the content of your fans. “Advertise” your audience by reposting their content and showing them gratitude.
Organize offline events. While this is not possible with every brand, it can be greatly beneficial to strengthen your community.
Ask questions. Show the followers how important your opinion is to them by encouraging them to give their answers in the comments of the publication. For example, if you have launched two colors of a sidekick, ask them which colors they prefer and who you would like to see next. On the other hand, if you get more of the same questions at the same time, you can use it for the next post, in which you will give a thoughtful answer.

#8 Ignore New Options

About 120 million Instagram users click on the link to the website, call, get directions, e-mail or DM (direct message) directly through the application. After launching a paid campaign, over 70% of companies see an increase in conversions, and at the same time, these clicks.

If you do not use commercials, you miss a huge opportunity to reach users who would probably want to hear what you have to say. There are four basic types of ads that you can use to place your content, such as: Photo Ads, Video Ads, Carousel Ads, Story Ads. Start trying them if you have not yet!

#9 Ignoring the Instagram Story option

Instagram Story allows users to publish images and recordings in a slideshow form, and all of this content remains on Instagram for only 24 hours. Over 200 million Instagram users use Story everyday. One in five of these stories results in the receiving of a private message (DM) by the viewer. If you want to receive direct messages from your followers, then you must not ignore Story.

How to make the best use of Story?

Tell the story. Story (The Story) did not get the name for no reason. The order and short format allow the content to be interesting and make a bigger story from short parts. For example, you can post a step-by-step recipe, record a tour of your office, or display one of your employees’ day or workday.
Be authentic. Do not worry about whether the content is perfectly processed. This platform is futile imperfection and should be used spontaneously (or at least it should appear to be used spontaneously). Make a mistake, show the reality and the true person behind your brand.
Give the audience some value. In addition to what you want your content to be authentic, you must make sure that content gives something valuable to your fans and that you do not waste their precious time. Check out once again what your goals are, what kind of strategy you have imagined for social networks, and make sure to fit in with Instagram Story.
Be creative. Take advantage of everything that this feature offers – filters, stickers, text, drawing option, tags – making the content more interesting.
When you use Instagram correctly, you get an incredible opportunity to share your brand’s vision with the world. Keep in mind these most common mistakes that are made on Instagram to avoid them in the future at large.

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