Instagram is highly popular with over 25 million profiles of business brands and has more than 200 million visitors daily visiting with one business profile at least. Instagram is the social media channel that is the easiest for brands.
It is difficult to grab the attention of distracted users and keep it over time. This is also why many brands are now focusing their efforts on buying instagram likes, versus trying to put in the time and effort to create original content and grow out their following slowly. The users are not at fault as there are too many brands and making mistakes is common. Fixing such mistakes is sure to be of immense help to Instagram growth. Here are a few pitfalls, the 4 branding mistakes of Instagram that need to be fixed.
1.Lack of Engagement
Rushing to post is a must. But it should have good stuff and reveal creativity. There is a need to have effectiveness in your post to bring out some magic. Without anything, Instagram’s charm cannot make your brand popular. There is a need to provide context and information that may be missing in the photo.
The content may be one of the established brands or new. Aiming to get attention is a must but depicting all the attention and putting in a huge investment of skill and time for the post is also a kill. The aim is to communicate about the brand quality. Thus, ensure the content style retains modesty and is not counterproductive. Creating polished videos alone does not always pay off.
How to avoid:
- A fact is that people relate to authentic content better that brands should concentrate on sharing real moments. The key is to be direct and to maintain simplicity by creating relatable content.
- There should be a mix of video and static content depicting places, people, and things packaged together to make relatable posts presenting a creative manner.
- Do not disappear after posting. You must reply to the posts or comments. Apart from this, engage with other users of Instagram, preferably choose the people with common interests towards your brand.
- Look for your industry hashtags and comments. The comment should be tailored and natural to trigger a conversation. You may respond to a caption or ask a question, but remember to avoid giving comments such as I love it or nice, as they are generic comments.
2.Hashtags wrong use
Instagram marketing has an important part and they are the hashtags. They are a wonderful way of increasing your reach in your niche to people and to get identified by fans and customers interested in your products, content, and services.
Hashtags may be effective when you are expected to use them and you are unable to do it as required. Thus, there is one thing that is damaging the brand effect on Instagram and it is the overuse of hashtags.
How to avoid:
- Instagram is popular, yet attaining success is not done in one-step, especially with the strategy of a hashtag. You may track the functioning of the hashtags to know that resonates with your audience and helps in increasing the engagement.
- Hashtags are important, but the characteristics help in detailing for future posts so that you follow a mixed strategy. Hashtags are the best to get noticed and there is no need to concentrate getting overboard.
- Instagram prioritizes hashtags, but not over the content. Thus, using hashtags sparingly helps in bringing relevancy to the criteria. Create a long-term vision of the branded hashtags and reach sparking conversations and new audiences.
3.Too much self-promotion
Instagram is popular for its interactivity. Yet, going with too much self-promotion works destructively. It is an anti-interactive thing done on the platform. It gives a boring look when there is over promotion. However, if you want to get IG famous, you are likely going to need a little help from your audience and a few content creation and social media sharing tools as well.
There may be tons of great stories relating to your business, but you must keep a check on them and avoid telling all of them. A simple point is seeing over 5 photos in one’s feed-in succession from a single account also turns off users. You must realize when you posted something unusual, funny, or snarky? If you are not able to recall, it means you are strangling your audience with self-promotional boring content.
How to avoid:
- Promoting on Instagram demands one to show their creativity or else it will appear as self-promotion.
- An engaging post evokes emotion and sparks a reaction.
4. Followers bought through bots
Getting organic followers is not easy on any of the social media sites and the same is with Instagram. It may be tempting to beat the system easily and to pay to do the same work for the bot- programs. The bot programs involve investing a few dollars and you receive new followers in just a few hours. Buying followers, likes, and comments show your desperateness. This pushes your behind from attaining goals.
Getting followers through bots is a deadweight as they are fake engagements who are your followers. They do not transform into sales or escalate your buyer journey. Thus, having followers in thousands that are bot bought is of no use as they never are engaged with your content.
How to avoid:
- Grow organically your following on Instagram.
- Share great content consistently.
The bottom line here is, if you want to grow your following on Instagram, there are plenty of options to choose from. Run through the list above to see which are best for you to follow, while also seeing which are best for you to avoid.
If you are lost and not sure what direction to take, head over to IG and take a look at what some of the top brands and influencers are doing with their content. When it comes to finding a winning formula, you can never go wrong with original content creation.