With a stark increase in the number of business accounts on Instagram, people have begun to understand the plethora of opportunities the platform entails. From escalating brand awareness to expanding consumer base and of course generating revenue-Instagram has done it all! It has successfully managed to acquire an essential spot in the marketing strategy of businesses; small and large alike.
A thriving and promising Instagram account for business owners is the dream! In an attempt to fulfil this dream you’ve been creating the best content, posting consistently, following your SMM (social media marketing) Guru’s top advice, spending hours searching for the perfect hashtags and putting in relentless efforts.
You can barely see the Instagram analytics going up. Well, it’s a sign to take a step back and do an Instagram audit to check if you’re making these pesky mistakes and get them fixed. Mistakes are acceptable and everyone makes mistakes. What is not acceptable is ignoring them. So, here are 5 mistakes you should stop making on Instagram. Right Away!
1. Not optimizing your Instagram Profile
Before you daydream about getting a million followers on Instagram, one of the most important steps to make sure your profile is fully optimized. A well-optimized profile is the key to make your account more search-friendly, attract more eyes to your business, allowing your audience to know more about your brand, the products and services and eventually growing conversions.
If you’re uncertain how to optimize your profile, make sure to cross off all the items on our Profile-Optimization checklist:
1.Convert your account to an Instagram business profile
2.Simple and easy-to-remember username
3.Searchable business name
4.High-Quality Branded profile picture
5.Clear statement of who you are and what you offer in the bio
6.Add a compelling Call-To-Action
7.Include the link to your website
8.Updated highlights
9.Post quality content with a consistent Brand voice
2. Not updating your content
Guess what? Just like medicines, content too has an expiry date. Followers are weary of dated content. What helped you gain more engagement 6 months ago, might turn off your audience and compel them to tap ‘unfollow’. Thus, a sure fire way to retain your followers count is to experiment and create fresh content. Allow your creative juices to flow and hop onto different content formats (Reels, Stories, Carousels, Single posts, Videos, etc). Keep a tab on the analytics and see what type of content is working for you and what’s not. Don’t forget your focus should be on creating ‘valuable’ content not ‘viral’ content.
3. Not adopting an Instagram strategy
With a proper Instagram strategy in place, you’re probably just wasting your time. A potent and effective Instagram strategy will help you plan your content in advance, thus, giving you more time to focus on the metrics and improving your content rather than scribbling last minute and putting up poor-quality content.
Few questions that you must answer to improve your Instagram strategy:
1. What are your business goals?
2. Do you know who you are targeting?
3. Which format of content will you be using?
4. What does your posting schedule look like?
5. How do you plan on making the most of the new Instagram features?
4. Not cross-promoting your Instagram account on other platforms
Got a website for your business? Have you shared the link to your Instagram account over there? I hope yes!
As a consumer myself, whenever I visit a website and come across the link for other social media handles, it intrigues my curiosity and I straightaway tap to visit their accounts. Another reason why you should cross-promote your Instagram page is because there are so many people out there who might be active on some other platform, let's say LinkedIn but not on Instagram. By making a mention of your Instagram account on your LinkedIn profile, you’ll increase the chances of people stopping by your LinkedIn page to check out your Instagram account as well. And who knows, if you’ve got great content, they might as well hit the follow button.
5. Trying to reach that mark of perfectionism
Now, this is where I burst your bubble, perfectionism is just delaying your success. In an attempt to create the perfect content, you’re wasting too much time on looking for inspiration and consuming content. Naturally, you grow tired and never take action. Rather than focusing on perfection, aim for progress. Start by planning out your content calendar, use whatever means you’ve already have with you and start creating content, make mistakes, learn and evolve. That’s it! That’s my social media marketing motto!
If you’ve been trying to grow your Instagram by doing things over and over again but it’s just not working, Contact us to get an Instagram audit.
UpfluencingYou will help nurture your vision by providing appropriate professional guidance in framing the perfect marketing strategy for your business.