5 Mistakes You Might Be Making On Instagram

Instagram is the best platform for your business to be on with over 1 billion active daily users. It’s a great way to build brand awareness, build your reputation, and bridge connections with your target audience (aka ideal client/customer).

If your growth is stagnant, or if you aren’t generating any leads or making sales through Instagram you might be making one of these mistakes:

YOU ARE MARKETING TO EVERYONE.

Have you heard the phrase, "there are riches in the niches?" When you develop your ideal client avatar, you want to get specific. Who are they? What do they like? How do they spend their time on social media? Knowing exactly who you are marketing to will help you know where they are hanging out on social media, how you can speak to them, and what they need.

When you market to everyone, you are marketing to no one.

YOU AREN'T BEING CONSISTENT.

One of the biggest things about Instagram is that you have to be consistent. This looks different for everyone depending on how much content you have, your industry, and the time that you have to plan out your content. However many times you plan on posting, stick to it! If you aren't going to post that day, share on stories, or engage.

YOU AREN’T BEING PERSONAL.

Are you hiding behind your logo and boring stock photos? If you are, then you are missing out on one of the biggest benefits of social media. The social aspect. Especially if you are the principle behind your brand, you want to step out of your logo and share who you are. 

Being personal won't deter away your ideal clients (it will attract them!) You don’t have to share everything unless you want to, but you should share some things about your life. This will help your followers get to know you better.

If you are a brand or company, stick to a cohesive brand across your Instagram: same logo, colors, and fonts. Introduce your staff or team to your audience. People love getting to know the person behind a brand.

YOU AREN'T PUTTING IN THE WORK ON ENGAGING.

If you have low engagement on Instagram, no it isn't your hashtags, no it isn't your content, it is because you aren't engaging on the platform! You get what you give on Instagram. You should spend a little time everyday (however long you have) to like, comment, follow, DM, and interact with stories!

YOU DON'T HAVE A PLAN.

If you are just rolling with the punches, and posting a photo and caption on a whim, you are doing it all wrong. Creating a solid plan of what you will share for any new products, services, or launches helps set those launches up for success. You also want to make sure you aren't sharing the same content over and over. Every week you should at least share the following:

• Give value.

• Entertain.

• Get personal.

• Talk about your products/services.

Keep in mind that Instagram is a social media platform. It wasn’t created as a business tool, but over the years it has evolved into the biggest social media marketing platform. Don’t focus on vanity metrics such as the number of likes, comments, or followers you have. Yes, more followers mean more eyes on your content but if they are not in your target audience then they aren’t going to buy from you. So what’s the point?

Stick to the basics and don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Always remember that you give what you get on the platform. If you feel you aren’t growing, then check your insights on your posts and stories and see what you can do to improve!

If you’re still needing more time and are feeling overloaded with every single task, check out our membership that offers new monthly templates for Instagram for posts, stories, and 2,500+ hashtags!