Instagram is such a powerful and versatile social media platform that shrewd entrepreneurs, celebrities, influencers, and top brands are leveraging Instagram ever since its inception in October 2010.
As per https://www.entrepreneur.com, Instagram has been assisting numerous big and small organizations in overall brand building and in generating sales. It is high time that you too are on the Instagram bandwagon so that you could achieve business growth and success. You could consider creating a free Instagram for Business account or profile for promoting your brand and business online. It involves very few easy steps for creating your Instagram Business profile. Your Instagram business profile is quite easily accessible to interested Instagrammers.
You may consider setting up an Instagram account for your business so that you could post pictures, build and bolster the relationship with your fans and followers and convert them into your loyal customers. Let us explore some Instagram marketing mistakes that every business must avoid to achieve their marketing goals.
Mistake: Having a Private Account on Instagram for Your Business
You are consciously limiting your sales opportunities on Instagram by creating a personal account for your business and keeping it in privacy settings. It makes no sense for businesses to have an Instagram account that is not easily accessible to the public in general. When your Instagram business account is kept public, you get far better opportunities to reach out to a much wider audience so that you could boost the number of fans or followers on Instagram. If the people who are keen on buying your product find that your business account is on a privacy setting, they would assume that you do not wish to encourage them, or they may be, compelled to wait until you get the time to log in to your Instagram business profile and then accept their request. The private icon would indicate that you are not interested in them. You may consider double-checking your Instagram business profile settings to avoid such a grave mistake.
Mistake: Not Leveraging Instagram Stories Optimally
Even the minds at Instagram who launched the Stories feature did not predict its meteoric rise in popularity. Hence, it is imperative on the part of businesses to leverage the Instagram Stories feature optimally.
Avoid posting pictures solely on the grid. It would make your business lose out on opportunities to make the most of Instagram’s valuable feature.
For every image you are posting, you should have many stories as well. Your Stories on IS (Instagram Stories) last for just a day. The Instagram Stories features give you the chance to go ahead and post multiple pictures and videos for narrating a story.
By utilizing IG Stories, you could allow your audience to take a sneak peek at some of the behind-the-scenes moments or glimpses. You may post pictures of a photoshoot, video editing process, cooking a specific recipe, travel pictures to share some treasured moments with your Instagram audience. Moreover, businesses may consider posting on IG Stories, discounts, sales, or offers that are taking place in real-time. You could utilize the Swipe Up feature provided you have more than 10K Instagram followers.
You may even consider sharing your activities, however, you should exercise some caution as social media may not be that safe. For instance, if you wish to share the photos of an amazing restaurant where you seem to be enjoying a quiet dinner with your spouse or if you are thinking of sharing pictures of a wonderful place where you are having a great time, ensure that you are sharing the snaps once you have already left the restaurant or the place. IG stories should not always be in real-time.
Another wonderful way of using Instagram Stories is by sharing posts from other Instagram accounts. This seems to be a sound and an organic stratagem for growing your business account on Instagram and an amazing way of engaging with other organizations from your niche. You may get likes on Instagram fast by posting interesting pictures on IG Stories and by seeking assistance from a professional digital marketing organization.
Mistake: Posting Low-Quality Content
Instagram is first and foremost, a visual platform. Engagement and visibility are extremely important, of course, but everything plays second fiddle to the actual content you put up. Everything ranging from the quality of the photo/video you post to the caption. Your holistic content strategy plays a big role in your success on the platform. With smartphones becoming ubiquitous, the days of needing to be a professional photographer to create quality photos are long gone. Editing tools like Lightroom, Photoshop, Lumyer, Facetune, Snapseed, and VSCO also let you take your content to the next level.
On social media, people prefer bright and punchy pictures as opposed to realistic lighting and colors. Go for natural sunlight in photos or purchase a solid studio light or ring light setup to avoid poor lighting. Direct sunlight can lead to overexposed photos; sunlight and sunset are the best times to shoot photos. Indoor photographs should be taken close to a window to get as much light on the subject as possible. Use sane framing and ensure your background is clean and not cluttered since any noise in the background, be it an unintentional mess or too much decor, takes attention away from the subject of the post. Blurry pictures are a recipe for social media disaster, and cropping should only be done sparingly. Macro photos if taken with the right tools can look wonderful too.
Mistake: Not Adopting a Goal-Oriented Approach
No matter what your domain, your strategy is going to be flawed and hollow if you do not define a goal towards which you are working. You need to clearly define realistic objectives that you want your marketing strategy to achieve so that the effort and resources you put into it do not go to waste. Take a macro view, for a large span of time up to the day you are building the strategy, to what you want to see an equal amount of time in the future. Clearly write down whatever you have in mind once it strikes you. Good documentation makes a good business plan.
Conclusion
Instagram is a great platform for promoting your brand online and achieving your business targets and goals. You just need to do it with perfection. Avoid all the mistakes discussed above and follow the suggestions. Remember one silly mistake could cost you a valuable prospect.
