The 5 Most Common Mistakes in Instagram Marketing

Since Instagram’s inception in 2010, the platform has become ultimate social media marketing tool for brands and businesses.

Instagram has the second highest number of active users behind Facebook.

However, the most significant stats for businesses is that users are 10 times more likely to engage with brands on Instagram than on Facebook, 54 times more likely than Pinterest, and 84 times more likely than Twitter.

With those stats proving that Instagram is key in your social media strategy, let’s look at 5 common and easily avoidable mistakes your business may be making with its Instagram page:

1. Zero Charisma

A business’s bio and posts need a personality on Instagram. Posting pictures and descriptions of your products that would seem more at home in a catalogue will hamper your follower numbers and engagement. Of course, always ensure your users have the correct info but lay off on the hard sell and try to keep things light and informal. Also, keep your copy short and snappy for images: if users are having to scroll through your descriptions, it’s too long.

2. #nohashtag

Did you know that a post using at least one hashtag receive 13% more engagement? If you haven’t been using hashtags in your Instagram marketing, start now! Using hashtags is one of the most effective and efficient ways to improve and preserve your post’s visibility.

Pro tip: try using 4-5 hashtags relevant to your post’s content, then rewrite the content with a similar number of different hashtags. This is a great way of keeping your social media marketing visible without appearing spammy.

3. Picture Imperfect

Instagram is primarily a photo platform, so if you’re using low-res, poorly cropped pictures with bad lighting for your products then your social media strategy needs a serious re-think when it comes to Instagram.

Always try to keep your picture resolution above 1280px by 1280px and remember that Instagram pics are in a 4:3 ratio (basically a square) so ensure that nothing important is going to get cropped out when taking pics on a standard widescreen camera. Remember, presentation is everything on Instagram so make your pictures count.

4. Location Unknown

If you’re not letting your followers know where you’re at, then you’re missing out on Instagram. Posts using a geo-tag receive 79% more engagement, so any excuse you have to use one is a great opportunity to get your followers involved.

5. The Missing Link

Possibly the most basic mistake you can make with your Instagram page is to not include a link to your business’ home or landing page; it’s also one of the biggest. Make sure you’re utilizing the hyperlink in your bio page to drive traffic to your business’ site and your bio contains a call to action for followers to click on it.

By avoiding these mistakes, your Instagram marketing stands a much stronger chance of gaining followers and keeping them engaged.