6 Common Mistakes That Business Owners Make on Instagram

It’s no secret that Instagram is an incredibly popular platform. It’s not only widely used by individuals, but businesses as well. Here are some stats from business.instagram.com:

There are 25 Million+ business profiles worldwide

60% of people say they discover new products on Instagram.

200 Million+ Instagrammers visit at least one Business Profile daily.

1 Billion+ Instagram accounts worldwide are active every single month.

80% of accounts follow a business on Instagram.

Are you surprised by these astronomical numbers? It’s critical that businesses do well on this platform. I’d like to share with you six mistakes that I see businesses making regularly, and the fixes to improve.

The first mistake can’t be ignored…

Mistake #1 - Not being on Instagram

More than likely, your target audience is on the platform. It’s not just for the youngins. Check out the stats, 33% of users are 25-34.

If your business is on Instagram, make sure you have a business profile. It’s very easy to change a personal profile into a business profile, here’s how to do that. The benefits to this is access to Insights. These are analytics on your your profile and they are very useful when it comes to planning your strategy. With a business profile, you also get a Contact button, a line in your profile that shows your industry, and when you hit 10,000 followers you’ll have the ability to add links in your Stories.

Mistake #2- Not Having A Strategy

There are plenty of people who post whatever, whenever. That’s fine on your personal profile, but you’re missing out on a lot if that’s the way you manage your business profile.

Using your Insights, you will be able to tell what posts are performing well, who is engaging with your posts, the days and times of day that are best for your followers, etc. With this knowledge, you'll be able to plan your content to better serve your ideal audience. Do they like video over pictures? Selfies over quotes? Are they liking your posts more on a Friday PM vs. a Tuesday AM?

Having a visual strategy is also important. Deciding on a “theme” for your feed is a great way to build a consistent look. Browse feeds that you love for inspiration and make note of what it is you love. Is it a light and airy feel? Or muted and moody? Once you’ve figured you how you want your feed to look, and you’ve collected/created content, find a post planner to help you plan your feed. I love Later and Unum.

No matter what you post, make sure your content does one of “The Three E’s”. They need to Engage, Educate, or Entertain the follower. Some would say that there’s a fourth “E”, Emotion. The “Es” is a topic for another blog post because there’s so much to each of them, but keep it in mind when you post.

Mistake #3- Not Using Stories

500 Million+ accounts use Instagram Stories every day according to Instagram. And its popularity is growing when compared to scrolling a feed.

Stories are a great way to take a user behind the scenes to get a more intimate and authentic view of you and your business. Posting several Stories a day is recommended. Be sure to use hashtags, locations and mentions!

Mistake #4 - Not Knowing Your Audience

Once you find out who your audience is via Insights, do a deep dive into what they’re into. Stalk them a little. :) Who else do they follow? What are their personalities like? What are their occupations? Where to the shop?

Then make sure your brand voice is relevant to whom you are targeting. It is crucial that you speak in a way that attracts who you want to attract. You may have heard the saying, “Your vibe attracts your tribe.” It’s so true.

Mistake #5 - Not Engaging Your Followers

Your brand should be on Instagram (or any social media platform)  to build genuine connection. After all, it is “Social” media. Have you ever heard of posting and ghosting? That’s what you’re doing when you post something and never come back to reply to comments or acknowledge engagement. It’s a sure fire way to make someone feel rejected by your brand, especially if your account isn’t flooded with engagement. So much for genuine connection.

If you’re looking to grow your Instagram account, you should be responding to every comment- even the annoying bots. Instagram’s algorithm still sees it an engagement. Let your followers know you’re listening and that they play a huge role in your business.

Mistake #6 - Not using the right hashtags

The whole goal of hashtags is to end up on that tag’s Explore Page in the first 9 or so posts. So if you use hashtags like #love, #like4like and #blessed, chances are they’re not helping you out. These hashtags have millions of posts, and the odds of you ranking for them is low. There’s too much competition.

When you’re first starting out, and your following is on the lower side, you’ll want to aim for a mix of hashtags that are under 100k. You can use up to 30 tags, and you should mix them up regularly.

Do you know which hashtags are working for you? If not, you’ll want to find out. Many business profiles are showing analytics for hashtag performance. (Instagram rolls features out slowly, so not everyone ends up with the same features all the time.) I use Later to help me know which hashtags are performing best.

TIP: Part of my hashtag strategy for local businesses is to use popular tags specific to the location. For example, the name of the town. It takes a bit of research, but it’s worth the visibility.

I hope you found this information helpful, I know it can all be a bit daunting. Don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have about Instagram for businesses.

- Cassie

Disclosure: Some of links in my posts are affiliate links which means that at no cost to you, I earn a commission if you click-through and make a purchase.