5 Mistakes That Keep You Behind on Instagram
Let's take a look at the 5 Biggest Instagram mistakes that are stopping you from growing and some solutions.
Instagram is a great platform to move in and start to engage with your audience as the engagement rate is on 2.2% while on Facebook is only 0.22%. This visual platform can provide you your great views and leads, and also help you build a better relationship with your audience and customers, yet as with every other social media platform you need to do some work and try to avoid some mistakes.
Let's take a look at the 5 biggest Instagram mistakes that are stopping you from growing and get your account to the next level! (and some simple solutions too!)
#1 Instagram Mistake: Posting inconsistently
Posting inconsistently is the number one mistake people make on Instagram.
Something we totally get it, life gets crazy and you get busy. And after having a really long day the last thing you want to do is think about Instagram, what to post and to create your contenet. BUT if you want to grow your account and see real progress you need to be consistent.
How to fix this:
Check your Instagram insights to see what days and time your followers are most active, based on those analytics you can create your posting schedule - and stick to it.
Take, create and edit pictures in bulk, create a folder on your phone or pc with all your photos that are ready to be posted, plan your feed in advance, start using an Instagram scheduling tool to help you stay organized.
#2 Instagram Mistake: Not engaging with other people
Another huge mistake people make is not engaging with other users. Look, Instagram is a SOCIAL media platform, meaning you need to be social!
You can’t expect people to follow you and engage with your content if you don’t do the same thing, right? You always get what you give and that’s why you need to give!
Give your time, give likes, give follows and give shoutouts!
How to fix this mistake:
Spend at least 20 minutes each day on liking/commenting on pictures in your home feed. (I prefer to spend 20-30 minutes before I post to engage and then, I'm going back to answer to all the comments!)
Spend some time engaging with people in your niche - you can find them through hashtags.
Respond to all the comments on your pots and start a conversation with your followers (a great way to do this is by asking a question in your caption or on your stories).
Respond to DMs or thank people with direct messages for their support on your page and content.
#3 Instagram Mistake: Playing games
No, I’m not talking about games you play with your followers on your stories and cute stuff like these. I am talking about the follow/unfollow games, leaving spam comments, buying followers and similar things.
They are not only against Instagram’s terms of service but also a waste of your time as people will see right through you and won’t engage with your account.
Buying followers or using some kind of automated liking/commenting tool might seem like a “quick way to grow” but these things will only be proven harmful for you in the longterm.
How to fix this mistake:
The answer here is simple: Just DON’T do it
Put some effort to grow your account organically, build relationships with your followers!
#4 Instagram Mistake: Posting low-quality photos
I'd never thought I'd be mentioning this but here we are!
We all hear about how important it is to use the right hashtags and engage with other people to grow on Instagram but those things are only an ADDITION to having amazing content.
Instagram is a visual platform and the main reason people will follow you is, obviously, your content.
Creating great content is the first step in growing your account and getting followers, Instagram's algorithm is constantly changing and gets better daily, so you need to have unique content and really awesome graphics. Instagram has the ability to understand if your account is genuine or fake, and unique posts have a really important role here!
How to fix this mistake:
In case you can't come up with something unique, just repost from others and give them the credits.
#5 Instagram Mistake: Using too broad hashtags.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make on Instagram is using hashtags like #business or #fashion that are too popular and too broad.
What do I mean by that?
Let’s take a look at #fashion. At the moment, there are 775m posts under this hashtag.
All the top posts have over 1k likes and have been posted less than an hour ago. The possibilities of your photo showing up in the top posts are close to none. And not only that, most of them aren’t even fashion related. There are selfies, food, even nature.
The reason I'm telling you this is to help you understand that using this kind of hashtags would do absolutely NOTHING for you, your post will get lost among so many photos. That’s why it’s so important to use less popular hashtags where your post has a chance to appear higher, so more people see it. This means: more people see it > more engagement > more followers.
Besides looking for less popular hashtags, it’s also essential to choose hashtags that are related to your photo.
How to fix this mistake:
Instagram is a great platform to move in and start to engage with your audience as the engagement rate is on 2.2% while on Facebook is only 0.22%. This visual platform can provide you your great views and leads, and also help you build a better relationship with your audience and customers, yet as with every other social media platform you need to do some work and try to avoid some mistakes.
Let's take a look at the 5 biggest Instagram mistakes that are stopping you from growing and get your account to the next level! (and some simple solutions too!)
#1 Instagram Mistake: Posting inconsistently
Posting inconsistently is the number one mistake people make on Instagram.
Something we totally get it, life gets crazy and you get busy. And after having a really long day the last thing you want to do is think about Instagram, what to post and to create your contenet. BUT if you want to grow your account and see real progress you need to be consistent.
How to fix this:
Check your Instagram insights to see what days and time your followers are most active, based on those analytics you can create your posting schedule - and stick to it.
Take, create and edit pictures in bulk, create a folder on your phone or pc with all your photos that are ready to be posted, plan your feed in advance, start using an Instagram scheduling tool to help you stay organized.
#2 Instagram Mistake: Not engaging with other people
Another huge mistake people make is not engaging with other users. Look, Instagram is a SOCIAL media platform, meaning you need to be social!
You can’t expect people to follow you and engage with your content if you don’t do the same thing, right? You always get what you give and that’s why you need to give!
Give your time, give likes, give follows and give shoutouts!
How to fix this mistake:
Spend at least 20 minutes each day on liking/commenting on pictures in your home feed. (I prefer to spend 20-30 minutes before I post to engage and then, I'm going back to answer to all the comments!)
Spend some time engaging with people in your niche - you can find them through hashtags.
Respond to all the comments on your pots and start a conversation with your followers (a great way to do this is by asking a question in your caption or on your stories).
Respond to DMs or thank people with direct messages for their support on your page and content.
#3 Instagram Mistake: Playing games
No, I’m not talking about games you play with your followers on your stories and cute stuff like these. I am talking about the follow/unfollow games, leaving spam comments, buying followers and similar things.
They are not only against Instagram’s terms of service but also a waste of your time as people will see right through you and won’t engage with your account.
Buying followers or using some kind of automated liking/commenting tool might seem like a “quick way to grow” but these things will only be proven harmful for you in the longterm.
How to fix this mistake:
The answer here is simple: Just DON’T do it
Put some effort to grow your account organically, build relationships with your followers!
#4 Instagram Mistake: Posting low-quality photos
I'd never thought I'd be mentioning this but here we are!
We all hear about how important it is to use the right hashtags and engage with other people to grow on Instagram but those things are only an ADDITION to having amazing content.
Instagram is a visual platform and the main reason people will follow you is, obviously, your content.
Creating great content is the first step in growing your account and getting followers, Instagram's algorithm is constantly changing and gets better daily, so you need to have unique content and really awesome graphics. Instagram has the ability to understand if your account is genuine or fake, and unique posts have a really important role here!
How to fix this mistake:
- Take your pictures during the day. Avoid taking pictures after sunset as they won’t turn out as sharp and clear. Don’t take pictures in direct sunlight.
- And if you create graphics, just use royalty-free images (or mention your source), same about quotes and try not to copy other's images. It's really tiring for Instagram users to watch the same images and quotes over and over again with just a few changes.
In case you can't come up with something unique, just repost from others and give them the credits.
#5 Instagram Mistake: Using too broad hashtags.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make on Instagram is using hashtags like #business or #fashion that are too popular and too broad.
What do I mean by that?
Let’s take a look at #fashion. At the moment, there are 775m posts under this hashtag.
All the top posts have over 1k likes and have been posted less than an hour ago. The possibilities of your photo showing up in the top posts are close to none. And not only that, most of them aren’t even fashion related. There are selfies, food, even nature.
The reason I'm telling you this is to help you understand that using this kind of hashtags would do absolutely NOTHING for you, your post will get lost among so many photos. That’s why it’s so important to use less popular hashtags where your post has a chance to appear higher, so more people see it. This means: more people see it > more engagement > more followers.
Besides looking for less popular hashtags, it’s also essential to choose hashtags that are related to your photo.
How to fix this mistake:
- Search for less popular hashtags
- Use relevant hashtags
- Niche down ( look for more specific hashtags)
Now if the latest solution seems to you like a huge work or you're struggling to find the best hashtags for you, I can help you with that a bit more, just Click Here
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