Avoid the 8 Most Common Mistakes Brands Are Making With Instagram

In this era, social media has become an important part of our lives and has now become one of the basic necessities. On average, a person spends around 4 hours a day on Smart Phones. Brands are already aware of the potential that Social Media has in reaching out to the target audience. With a simple interface and easy sharing of pictures, it is famous among most of the Social Media users. With 1 billion monthly active users, this photo-sharing app should be in your list to pitch for your customers.

While most of the brands are now active on Instagram, there are still many more to join the league and before you do, there are certain things that must be kept in mind so that you have an edge in the market. 

Below is the list of things you must avoid before diving into Instagram Marketing:

1. Lack of a Plan:

The first step is to decide why are you using Instagram? Be it creating brand awareness, interacting with your consumers or showcasing your product or services, keep one thing in mind, the content you share must add value to your customers’ feed rather than spamming it. 

Tell your business stories in the form of videos, reply to the queries of your audience, keep them updated about what you do through office pictures or you can keep uploading your product photos and videos. But keep one thing in mind, planning what you upload is a must. People don’t like to see content scattered about randomly. A clumsy profile might as well put your brand in a bad light. Take the cue and plan your content!

2. Poor Content:

You might be aware of how people use Instagram, it’s scrolling through a single line of the photo or video content. Users pause only when they find something different. When everyone is trying to build their brand on social media, how can you stand out? The answer is by providing quality content. 

Design your content plan in a way that the users stop to engage with your posts rather than scrolling down. Share high-resolution photos and videos that will represent how much your business believes in quality. 

3. Not being Consistent:

Consistency is the key! You must stay in the eyes of your customers constantly and this doesn’t mean spamming their feed with just any stuff. You can also automate such processes using digital marketing software. A well-planned feed managed regularly is sure to give you a good return on your time invested. 

4. Not utilizing the real potential of Hashtags:

Hashtags can be annoying but that doesn’t mean they are not useful. Higher the number of hashtags, higher the number of likes and comments on your posts. You can use up to 30 hashtags on Instagram. Start using the right ones and see how the graph of your engagement changes! 

5. Buying Likes and Followers:

You might be aware of the buying and selling of Instagram followers but if you want to really build your brand, this method won’t take you anywhere. Recently Instagram took down several such accounts which resulted in a reduction in the number of followers. Your target must be getting organic reach rather than falling into the buying-selling trap.

6. Failing to use the follower-base in the right way:

Your followers are your brand ambassadors. But businesses fail to realize this and thus lose the potential of gaining more followers through existing ones. Using your Instagram audience in the right way can make all the difference in making your presence felt.

7. Avoid the explosion of promotional Stuff:

Keep yourself in the shoes of your customers and now see if you would like to see just promotional stuff advertising sales or discounts on your Instagram feed or not. While promotional stuff is important for your business, there are other things you can do to actively connect with your target audience. 

Share the photos of your office work culture, show them how much efforts goes into designing your products or you can highlight the activities that your business is doing for social welfare once in a while. Sharing such photos and videos will definitely land you in a positive light. 

8. Not Engaging with Customers:

Customers need a platform to engage with your brand and when they are doing it, don’t run away. Brands make the mistake of not following back the followers or replying to the comments or taking a look at the mentions. If the audience is too large, you can use customer feedback software to manage customers’ opinions and complaints. 

Active interaction with your customers will help you gain their faith in your brand which in turn will help you with indirect publicity through word of mouth.

Follow back your customers to know the type of content they like and share and you can modify your post plan accordingly to make the best out of Instagram Marketing. 

Wrap Up:

In the end, everything works on a trial and error basis. Keep experimenting by keeping in mind the above things and try to avoid these mistakes the next time you plan your Instagram Post!