5 Instagram Mistakes Most Businesses Make

 5 Instagram Mistakes Most Businesses Make

There are billions of social media users in the world with Facebook being the leading medium. Instagram is closely running behind Facebook with almost one billion users in the world. What better medium can you use to sell? Many entrepreneurs have taken to creating Instagram accounts and even making sales there, but majority of them see that no matter how well they try, they cannot seem to make much sales which brings them to the question “what am I doing wrong?” You might be doing a lot of things wrong some of which you will learn about in this article.

1. Buying followers: it is true that effective marketing on Instagram relies on followers, but do not buy followers. Make your followers organic . Grow them yourself because it is very easy to spot an account with fake followers. For instance when you have about 5000 followers and you posted a picture that earned you only 20 likes, what is that called?.

Quoting Hugh Stephens ” It can be disheartening when a business starts out with 50 followers to try and figure out how it is going to get to 1,000 or the pivotal 10,000 followers. You may spend a few days at it, and get a few new followers, but getting to a bigger number can seem like a lifetime away. This is why so many businesses fall into the trap of buying followers, but it’s possibly one of the biggest mistakes a business can make. Firstly, any frequent Instagram user can spot a company with fake followers a mile away. Picture an account that has 10,000 followers but only gets 10 likes a photo. It screams “bought followers!” and in turn has a reverse impact on your brand where you look very uncool. Also, you aren’t really buying real people to follow you. You are buying likes from fake, robot accounts who are not real people who will actually ever buy from you. It’s neither smart for business or engagement. Furthermore, if Instagram picks up that you have bought followers, it can implement a shadowban — which means that it will hide your hashtags from the public and only your followers can see anything you post. When you get a shadowban on your account, it can be very tricky to convince Instagram to undo it and you may need to set up a whole new account and start from scratch again. I repeat, never, ever buy followers on Instagram.”

2. Never commenting on other people’s post: Instagram is a community that builds on engagement and you should make use of that. When you see people’s post, comment on them. If you ignore this, then it shows you are not using Instagram as a social media but as a megaphone. Always take time to comment on post, it doesn’t matter if they are from your followers or from influencers or anyone. By commenting on posts and news feeds, you also stand the chance of gaining more followers because, like I mentioned, Instagram is a community, once you comment, your comment becomes visible to as many people who wants to explore on the post on which you have just commented. A number of them might find your comment or your profile interesting and start to follow you on Instagram. This increases your followers reach and also your chances of making great sales.

3. When you make it all about business: don’t make everything all about business. Sometimes, you just need to make posts that are not business oriented. Hugh Stephens in one of his write-ups said “Instagram is a platform where people can peek into people’s lifestyles, laugh at funny memes or be inspired by powerful messages. It’s a social platform before it’s a shopping platform. Businesses can irk their customers by being too salesy. Don’t make your page all about selling your product. Include photos and messages that encompass your brand voice or show funny pictures of your staff. Use your imagination but don’t make every post a sales message. For example, Apple sells phones and computers but its Instagram channel is mainly dedicated to showing photos its customers took using its phones. The same goes for celebrities and pop stars. They ultimately want to sell their songs and concert tickets but their Instagram is almost always full of glimpses into their glamorous lives and adventures. They may make an occasional mention that they have a new tour starting or a song but, like Ariana Grande does, most of this will come from sharing fan love or through “swipe up” Story links.”

 

Read Also: 6 Ways to Run a business with the Future in Mind

 

4. Not offering values: as much as you don’t always have to make things business on Instagram, do not leave out the place of value. Offer value in whatever thing you are posting on Instagram. Remember, one of the goals of a business is to offer value and you have brought that to Instagram. Show the value. “People aren’t going to gravitate toward your brand unless you give them a solid reason to. Every post you make needs to offer some kind of value, whether that’s practical or entertaining. On the practical side of things, you could connect people to events they may not have the opportunity to see in person, or offer some kind of contest, or demonstrate tips or tricks. On the entertainment side of things, you can show off your office and your team having fun, or post images of beautiful things you’ve found related to your company or industry. It should strike and emotion or be of measurable practical value—without one of those two benefits, users will pass your brand up. And offering value has multiple benefits; the more valuable the content you share, the more likely it’ll be to earn inbound links that can help your content rank higher in search engines, driving more traffic, users, and followers.”

5. Using hashtags inappropriately: hashtags can be very fun and interesting to use, but only when you use them appropriately. As much as using hashtags makes you look classy and unique, avoid stuffing your post with too much of them. Limit your usage of hashtags or your post might be regarded as spam. Besides, using hashtags inappropriately can make you look exploitative and you could even lose your business reputation to someone who has genuinely invested the hashtags.

 

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