Most Common Errors Businesses Make on Instagram
Instagram is not a place to ignore in 2020. It’s a perfect place to connect with almost any type of audience. It has become one of the main focuses of social content marketing game in general. However many businesses struggle to be relevant and create a strong presence on the platform. It may be especially true for B2B companies.
Whatever the challenges might be, it is a platform that is absolutely worth all the investments spent. It shows very high engagement rates and has hundreds of millions of users use the platform daily. Unfortunately, it’s not really hard to fail. There are so many brands, and if you are new to the Instagram game, you might find it hard to build an effective presence.
Let’s talk about some of the most common mistakes companies make on the platform and ways you can improve things.
Using IG bots for gaining followers
This is one of the most popular ones. But can you really make a difference using those tools?
AI tools can help you increase your numbers. And there might be a chance that a new visitor of your account will be impressed for a spare second by your followers count. That is…until they see your posts and engagement on your page. 30 thousand followers and 34 likes under a post seem suspicious. And usually a person is able to understand what is really happening and what do these numbers mean.
No, fake numbers do not really matter. What you need are real users that do want to engage with your posts.
You can build your following organically by using relevant hashtags and being consistent with your content. Besides, there are many other small tactics that you can utilize. It is always helpful to like and comment content from other pages and interact with other users.
Usually, businesses have higher engagement on IG compared to Facebook, so the platform can be used very effectively for achieving your goals.
Not inviting to your site and other channels
Before, there were some limitations to adding links to the content on the platform. You could only add a link to your profile, but that made it almost impossible to invite followers to your other content on different channels.
Right now, the situation has changed. And accounts with more than 10 thousand followers are able to add links to their Stories. You can also use IG’s eCommerce tools, but that’s pretty much it. However, it still provides some great opportunities.
Many ignore them, and even though they might have quite impressive of a following they ignore inviting their audience to their website and new content on other channels. It may seem challenging, but it still can be done with success.
Accounts that have more than 10,000 followers are luckier here. They are able to add links to their Stories and invite users to their new product pages, e-mail subscriptions, posts, infographics, etc.
However, you can always add a link to your main site to your bio. Inviting visitors and followers to your landing page can be very effective in increasing conversion, but of course, it is important to have a great landing page.
You might want to think about ads on the platform. There are some extensive targeting settings that make it very easy to reach out to a particular type of audience. IG is showing in average some 1% conversion rate. That not may be the highest among other social platforms, but it is still something.
Of course, Instagram is mobile-users oriented, so make sure that your site will be able to provide an exceptional experience for users of mobile devices.
Not posting Stories
Stories are reaching much more audience than regular posts on the platform. They are incredibly effective, and they are shown at the top of the user feed, so a person is more likely to click on them. Besides, when you have a large following, you are able to add links to your products and blog posts to your Stories.
Ignoring Stories is a huge mistake because it really can help you to stay in touch with your audience. But a thing to remember here is that Stories are very time-sensitive. So relevance is very important for them.
You are missing out on great opportunities if you are pushing Stories and their potential away. One might want to focus on videos more as they have been proven to grab attention of the audience more than static photos. Using interactive features can be another great idea. People want their opinion to be heard, so you can user polls and ask questions in order to invite other people’s responses.
Also Stories are a great place for posting UGC, talking of which…
Posting only informational or product posts
Instagram is not a place when everything has to be very serious. If you are constantly posting about your products and services, your followers might get boring. Maybe it’s the perfect moment to spice everything up with more fun and laid-back content. UGC can be a great addition to your regular content; Stories are just perfect for it.
Try to post all sorts of content. Find inspiration in all the things around you. You might want to write about your team, capture your traveling journeys and beautiful moments. Look at the example of Ann Handley’s Instagram. She is writing about her company, MarketingProfs, but she also posts a variety of content that looks very inviting and entertaining.
Ignoring your followers
IG is all about building connections and relationships. And besides, the platform tends to highlight content with higher engagement. So that’s why you might want to engage with your audience and invite them to have a conversation. You can simply leave a like to a comment, and that can be sometimes enough.
You can initiate a dialogue by commenting under their content. But try to be fake and just friendly. Try to talk about the details that matter to you. What did you find relevant and truthful to your experience? So one has to really focus on building real relationships with their audience on the platform.
Instagram has become one of the main destinations of social media marketing for small business. IG can be effectively used for promoting B2B brands. Often in order to succeed on has to focus on building trustful and personal relationships with their audience and being consistent with their content.
