Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media channels out there. Its popularity seems pretty high these days. More and more often you see brands and people jumping on the Instagram train who you’d never expect – and, it’s so much fun. From all the fun with photos, to the way we’re now able to shop straight from the app, to watching people live via Instastories – what’s not to love? If you’re on Insta and using it daily, you’ve probably experienced some subtle frustrations – like not getting the number of followers or likes you’d expect from particular posts. While I don’t think any of us have figured out the complex algorithm, you may be making some mistakes that you don’t even realize. Let’s take a quick look.
4 Instagram Mistakes You’re Making
- You’re forgetting the most important part: engaging with your audience and potential audience. Anyone and everyone on Instagram who you follow and interact with is a potential audience member for you, right? So not using the platform to like, follow, and comment on other brands and people’s posts is a huge miss. Making sure you’re engaging means you start to build that ever important and present community that you need to support your account. So make sure you’re out there searching topics, hashtags and people to find relevant accounts to interact with – and then, go for it.
- You’ve forgone any sort of content or visual strategy in favor of posting around the clock. What do you want your Instagram account to represent? Is it you as an individual or you as a brand? What does your brand look like, what’s it’s aesthetic? Your Instagram account to should align side-by-side with that look and feel and sometimes that means coming up with a visual strategy. Maybe you consistently use the same filter or your photos are always part of the same color family. Perhaps you try shooting all of your photos in the same style….Whatever your strategy, stick to it.
- You aren’t using Instagram Stories. Sounds a little intimidating, right? The first few times you use it – it totally is! It’s definitely something you have to get the hang of. But, it drives an incredible amount of traffic to Instagram accounts and is a great way to get interactive with your audience and creatively build up your brand. You can use it to showcase how to’s or tutorials, give a behind-the-scenes look into your business or life, advertise your other social media channels (cross-promotion!), showcase products you love – I could go on and on. People love following along and commenting on Instagram Stories. So go for it!
- Cross promote your Instagram account on your other social channels, website, and blog. This is one of the best and easiest ways to gain followers – by tapping into an audience you already have. It’s often not that people don’t want to follow you on Instagram, they just don’t even realize that you’re over there posting away. So include links wherever you can – straight to your account. AND, don’t be afraid to ask! Are you active on Twitter or Facebook? Tell your audience – “Hey, if you haven’t yet…don’t forget to follow me on Instagram!” It’s just that easy.
So what do you think? Can you use some of these tips to step up your Insta game? How many of these mistakes have you made? Let me know in the comments or tweet me @lorenridinger.
