Avoid the 8 Most Common Mistakes Brands Are Making With Instagram
Ever since it cropped up in 2010, Instagram has become one of the more powerful social networks around. It is now the place to be for more than 300 million users, and that audience continues to grow.
However, as we all know, when it comes to social media it’s not just about how big your audience is but also how active they are. The Instagram audience is extremely active. About 150 million users open the app, spending an average of 21 minutes a day on it. That’s a lot.
Long story short, Instagram is as viable a platform as any to market your brand. In fact, Simply Measured’s Quarterly Instagram Network Study for Q4 2014 revealed that 86 percent of Interbrand’s Top 100 Brands for 2014 had an active Instagram account.
To be successful with social media, you need to regularly engage your audience and you must understand the best way to do that. It’s about more than just having a presence, it’s about having the right one.
We always say the best way to know how to do something right is to understand when you’ve done something wrong. That’s why we’re going to take a look at the most common mistakes brands make on Instagram.
1. Not Posting Enough
Being consistent with your posts is important, but not as important as offering a healthy amount of content. Your mileage may vary depending on your audience. A study by Union Metrics showed that many brands post on Instagram about 1.5 times per day, while others post once an hour throughout the day and see higher engagement ratings.
The thing with Instagram is that, to be relevant, you need to post regularly. It’s not like Facebook where your posts are promoted or the more popular content stays relevant for longer. Once your post is older, it sinks down in the news feed and that’s that. Of course, users can always browse the content later via your profile, but they need to know how to find you first.
MAC Cosmetics is a great example of how to adopt a posting schedule. Sometimes it’s not about what works for others, it’s about what works for you. Take a look at its engagement ratings.
2. Unique Content
At the center of Instagram is the unique, relatable content. Some of the imagery is fantastic, but you can see that it’s relatively raw and unpolished – aside from the infamous hipster filters being applied. Your own content needs to have a similar tone.
Michael Kors found this out the hard way when it started posting ads to Instagram – it was one of the first brands to jump on the platform, actually. Its audience was pretty rough, simply because the content being posted was considered too polished and ad-like.
Instagram users don’t want ads shoved down their throats. That doesn’t mean the platform isn’t a good place to advertise your brand; it just means you need to adapt your marketing strategy.
Focus on posting authentic, more personal photos like a regular user would and then engage with your audience.
3. Ignoring Your Audience
One of the worst things you can do on any social media network is operate under the mentality of posting a status and walking away. You absolutely need to engage with your audience. Answer questions in the comments section, ask questions of your audience and comment on other images.
It’s the same concept as posting unique content; if you’re not using Instagram as a real, live human would, then you’re not going to get much out of it.
Sharpie’s Instagram is focused on sharing user-generated doodles created with their products. The company took this strategy a step further and has decided to engage with its audience directly through unique content.
4. Don’t Reuse Content
There’s a pretty good chance your fans are following you on other social media platforms in addition to Instagram. That means they won’t want to see the same content across all of these platforms. Not to mention, Instagram users want to see very different material than, say, a Twitter or Facebook user. They interact and engage differently.
Since the focus of Instagram is user-generated content and the audience loves unique material, it shouldn’t be difficult to find something specifically for the platform.
Thom Duma Jewelers hosted an exclusive contest for its Instagram audience, which boosted engagement ratings for the brand. The trick is that it hosted the actual contest via Instagram, instead of forcing users to swap over to Facebook or Twitter to participate. That’s important.
5. Not Following Back
If someone follows your brand or account, then follow back. It strengthens your audience and adds another person to interact with, but it also shows everyone that there’s someone behind your account.
Plus, if you don’t follow others, you’ll never see what kind of content they’re posting. By following others, you can truly get to know your fans and this will help you tailor your own content.
The Starbucks Instagram account is currently following 1,873 users. That might seem measly compared to its 4.6 million followers, but it’s actually not. Most brand accounts don’t follow anyone at all.
6. Not Giving Back
Social media relationships are very give and take. That is, you can’t expect someone to share, comment or like your content if you’re not doing the same with theirs. It’s this social interaction and networking that drives engagement ratings through the roof.
You need to do more than just interact with your audience through their content, however. You need to ensure your own content is valuable and gives them something in return. For example, many brands offer behind-the-scenes videos of their production process, employees and more – giving Instagram followers an exclusive look at how the brand operates. If that’s not how you’re using the platform too, then it should be.
It’s also a great idea to adopt a helpful tone. As marketers know all too well, teaching others is a great way to boost engagement. Offer tips, advice and tutorials for various topics your brand is related to.
Nikkie Tutorials offers makeup advice. Every image provides a link to a tutorial or guide for applying the makeup yourself. The images drum up anticipation and interest, and the tutorials improve user engagement. It’s an excellent strategy.
7. Don’t Misuse Hashtags
Hashtags are great when you use them correctly. If you abuse them, however, things can get pretty bad.
Hashtags are used to connect related topics, discussions and content. For instance, everyone posting with a hashtag such as #fashionadvice might be showing off their outfit and providing fashionable tips. Adversely, those posting about #beer are … well, you get the point.
Hashtags group content together and tie-in discussions, but they also allow the Instagram audience to discover new material. If you’re using hashtags appropriately, your audience will continue to grow as they discover your brand in trending lists and active discussions.
Also, on Instagram it’s beneficial to use a well-rounded list of hashtags. A Quicksprout infographic claims that posts with 11 or more hashtags received about 80 percent interaction, as opposed to just 22 percent with 10 hashtags.
The GoPro Instagram account does a great job of using multiple hashtags with each post that’s relevant to the content. This allows new and interested followers to discover the brand organically via the platform.
8. Don’t Buy Your Audience
One of the more popular things to do these days is to purchase followers and engagement. This is a complete waste of time and money; don’t do it.
If you don’t have the resources to invest in a network like Instagram and build your audience organically, then don’t bother. As you can see by what Michael Kors experienced with its first foray on Instagram, the main audience on the platform wants to see real, active people – not programmed, fake accounts.
It doesn’t help that the Instagram admins are coming down hard on fake and spam accounts, either; which is primarily what is used to boost engagement and a follower base when you pay for them.
By learning from these mistakes and doing your best to avoid them during your use of the platform, you’ll find things much easier. Perhaps what’s more important than learning from what’s listed here is learning from your own mistakes. You’re going to make them; that’s pretty much a guarantee. It’s how you adapt and change your strategies for the better when you do make mistakes that matters most.
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