In 2023, Instagram is a must-have app, ranking fourth among the most popular social media sites. Since it has more than 1.3 billion monthly users, it’s likely to contain your target demographic. You should go introduce yourself now. People look for brands like yours there, and they do things like browse, get inspired, shop, like, comment, and engage with brands. What began as a service for exchanging photographs has expanded to meet the needs of other sectors.
Instagram now features a wide variety of media types, from still images to time-lapse videos to live broadcasts. Even the smallest Instagram marketing missteps can lead to consumers clicking the unfollow button, so it’s important to tread carefully.
Statistics Show That Visual Content is Shared 40 Times More Often Than Textual Stuff
This raises awareness of the brand, produces leads, and fosters consumer confidence. New supporters are valuable, and it’s important to hold on to them.
Learn how to avoid being unfollowed and losing credibility on Instagram by reading this guide. The painfully apparent ones, like forgetting to make your account public or buying followers (please don’t do either of these!! ), will not be the only ones we discuss. We also provide some advice on how to avoid and deal with these difficulties.
Not Knowing What You Want To Achieve
You can’t make a strategy if you don’t know where you’re going. Without a strategy, you will be lost. You can’t be consistent if you don’t know where you’re going. And since consistency is the key to earning your followers’ confidence, this is a significant turnoff for them. You can’t tell your followers what to do if you don’t know what you want them to do. Therefore, they will be confused as to what you want of them, and this may cause them to unfollow you.
It’s important to have a well-defined objective in mind before diving into social media marketing. Are you trying to raise awareness of your company, enhance sales, or attract more people to your website? Your followers will be more motivated to aid you in reaching your objectives if you post information that they find interesting and relevant.
Your Bio Doesn’t Include a Link
Instagram profiles can only have one active link in their bios. This used to be a major obstacle for businesses that provide numerous services, but this is no longer the case. By using a service like Linktree, you may have readers click on a single link in your bio that will take them to a hub page containing numerous other resources.
Your primary domain, several social media profiles, pivotal videos, different calls to action, and so on may now all be linked in one convenient location. You’re missing out on a lot of potential clicks to your website if you don’t have at least one link in your bio. The absence of a link may also imply that you aren’t concerned about attracting a substantial following. Include a call to action like “buy this now by clicking the link in our bio” if you’re having a sale on a specific product. If you include a link in your call to action, that link should lead to the product, landing page, or squeeze page you described. And if you’re going to utilise a service like Linktree, identify your links correctly so that visitors don’t become frustrated and click away.
Your Audience Isn’t Engaged
On Instagram, you may interact with your audience in a variety of ways. The comments section on your site is only the beginning. Customers are quick to jump ship with any brand that provides poor service. You’ll miss out on sales if you ignore your consumers’ requests for interaction on Instagram.
Customers who follow you show some level of brand loyalty, and those who engage with your images and comments take that loyalty to the next level. You will come to seem uncaring and uninterested if you don’t engage with their feedback. Customer relationships improve in proportion to the amount of time spent interacting with followers. It will make a huge impact on the way your followers interact with you if you dedicate 30 minutes a day to responding to comments on your posts.
The interaction continues after that. Include a “Ask me anything!” inquiry box in an article you publish, or make a poll asking your fans “what they want to see next” from you. The possibilities are practically unlimited, so use your imagination and test out different approaches to see what works best with your target demographic.
Putting Quantity Before Quality
When it comes to the optimal posting frequency, no single answer exists. Instagram posts should be made between three and seven times weekly, according to Instagram experts. But nowadays, you also need to think about stories, reels, and live feeds in addition to individual posts. It may be difficult to update your feed more than once or twice a week if your crew is small. If you have a huge team, you could be tempted to publish constantly, but that would be a mistake.
Each group would do well to look into alternative posting alternatives to stretch their finances as far as possible. To increase participation, the tiny staff may make more regular posts of lighter content. With a larger crew, we could devote more manpower to producing reels or broadcasting in real-time.
Keeping Everything Even and Consistent is the Key
The more frequently you post, the better your chances of making a connection with your audience. However, the number of posts must not suffer for the sake of quality. What, exactly, constitutes a high-quality post now?
There Has Been a Movement Away From Highly Edited Feeds on Instagram
The #MakeInstagramCasualAgain initiative has gained support from celebrities, influencers, and regular Instagram users alike. This means less retouching and more raw authenticity. As a company, you should take this with a pinch of salt. Keep a level head and go with the flow. Keep in mind the tone of your brand’s social media posts and stick to that.
Never assume that a low-quality image or video is acceptable. Your brand’s reputation will suffer and you will lose followers if you post low-quality images. Avoid using stock photos, which tend to seem tacky and generic, and aim for images that are double the recommended size (1280x1280px).
Republishing Previous Posts
How to lose followers on Instagram with minimal effort. Put up the same picture over and over. Think about alternative uses for your content besides simple reposting. Put together a carousel post rather than listing each stat or item if you’re selling a set. Then, instead, highlight each one individually on your story another time. Create a video going into greater depth the following day.
Some studies have found that as much as 27.5% of consumers are looking for humorous material from their favourite brands. This means the pictures you make should be amusing. Duplicate posts can bore your audience to tears.
Misuse of #hashtags
Hashtags are more than simply a cutesy extra for your status update. They function similarly to Instagram’s search engine optimisation.
Hashtags, if utilised properly, can help you connect with people who are actively looking for what you have to offer. Discover which hashtags are currently trending in your field, and add them to a spreadsheet where you can access them quickly and simply whenever you’re creating new material. Using your custom hashtags is also recommended. Hashtags that are relevant to your brand foster a sense of belonging among your followers and encourage brand loyalty.
Do you use just one or two hashtags, or do you use all thirty allowed for each post? There is no universally correct number of hashtags to use, although studies have shown that posts with 20–30 hashtags get the most likes and comments. #GetToHashtagging!
Ignoring Current Trends
You shouldn’t discount the significance of trends. Some marketing trends, like the renegade dance, the cinnamon challenge, etc., are best left in the past. However, you can easily repurpose some of them for marketing purposes. The reason why trends become trends is that they resonate strongly with a large number of people. Whenever possible, you should join the crowd.
Truly Beauty is a wonderful illustration of this. The skincare product manufacturer frequently inserts their wares into memes and other cultural allusions. This post contains a bunch of Truly items and is also a witty, relatable meme. The caption of this post informs readers of a discount and also reminds them that they can purchase Truly at Ulta. The bells are ringing! We’ve got a victor among us.
There are many more examples like this on their page, including posts about the Super Bowl halftime performance and other prominent media. The key is that they found a new use for popular culture references and fads that they already knew their target demographic would appreciate.
Last but Not Least
Instagram, as a whole, isn’t too complicated to learn. We all know that marketing is risky, though. All your progress may be undone by a single mistake. If you think you might be making any of these marketing blunders on Instagram, use our checklist to find out. If you make the modifications we recommend and keep producing great content, beating the competition on Instagram will become much simpler.