The existence of Instagram made people start to appreciate the beauty of photography even more. From ordinary users to bloggers, they just can’t get enough taking picturesque images of nature, foods, products, and selfies. It’s like a mass beauty pageant through photos — no doubt why executives took advantage of this app to flaunt their business today.

But there are businesses that fail to achieve their mission because of these 10 blunders they make on Instagram. So be warned and don’t make the same mistake.

1. Incomplete Bio

A weak bio makes you look unprofessional to your target market. Where’s the description? What is your business all about? Is there a link to your website?

What to do?

Your bio is what people see first in your profile. Ensure that it describes the mission of your products/services and why you’re on Instagram. Don’t forget to add the link to your website to drive traffic.

2. Abusing or Misusing #Hashtags

Using irrelevant hashtags or captioning your post with tons of it.

#business #instagrammers #IGph #igersmanila #igphilippines #buynow #callus #bestproductever #excellentservice #followus #follownow #businessesininstagram

Seriously, how many hashtags do you want?

What to do?

Bombarding your post with hashtags is like keyword stuffing in your blog content, which is bad for your SEO strategy. Include only 2-3 relevant hashtags to your post.

3. Long or No Caption

Lengthy captions or not captioning your post at all turn offs your readers. What’s the message you intend to convey?

What to do?

Caption your post with a Call-to-Action (CTA) to draw your target audience’s attention. You can add questions to encourage engagement too.

4. Lack of Strategy

For instance, you posted a photo of your product with a caption, “Hurry! There’s only 1 left in stock.” It’s a call to your consumers, but the problem is the missing landing page. How can your customer purchase the product?

What to do?

Don’t lose your leads and pay attention to your strategy by including the correct landing page to your post.

5. Overposting or Underposting

Posting more than 3 updates per day makes your audience think you’re spamming them, while not posting any update within a week will make them forget and unfollow you.

What to do?

Overposting sometimes causes underposting. To avoid running out of updates to publish, post only 2-3 photos a day to keep the momentum.

6. Setting Your Profile in Private

Setting your Instagram profile to private is acceptable if you’re a regular user. But in the business context, how can you introduce your product or service to the public they’re not allowed to see it?

What to do?

Go to your profile > settings > toggle off the “private mode”

7. Posting Low Quality and Unoriginal Photos

Another way to tarnish your brand is to post pixelated or “grabbed” photos without mentioning the source. Anyone who sees it will think you own a fake account.

What to do?

Instagram is all about visual content so ensure you only post good quality images. For the grabbed photos, don’t forget to cite your source/s. You can also download photo reposting applications from Google Play or iTunes.

We also recommend these 4 editing apps to add definition to your photos:

• VSCO
• Aviary
• Afterlight
• PicsArt

8. Comment Spamming

Chopping your response into 3 comments is considered spamming, which turns off the user you’re commenting to. Another method of spamming is mentioning random users to a post multiple times.

What to do?

Don’t bombard your audience with chunks of mentions and comments. Although Instagram has no character limit, be cautious and concise to your response.

9. Not Interacting the Audience

Not responding to viewers’ comments, questions, or inquiries. Plus, not including questions or CTA in the photo caption.

What to do?

Just like what we mentioned earlier, add CTA or questions to encourage your audience to interact with you and when they do, respond to it.

10. Overselling

The mistake most business people make on Instagram is that they post the same product/service in a week. Your purpose is not only to sell, but to establish brand awareness, build advocacy, and create communication to your target market as well.

What to do?

Don’t dwell too much on selling. Create a social media calendar you can use to sort your posting. For instance, you’ll only post 2 pin quotes and customer testimonial on Mondays, product of the day on Tuesdays, and so on.

There are many beauties of Instagram: It boosts our creativity, brings out the inner photographer in us, and makes visual content marketing a lot easier. We just have to be responsible, cautious, and organized to our posting routine and greater leads will follow.

Do you want to give your social media strategy a leg up? We have digital marketing services that help boost your social media presence and promote your brand at its fullest potential. Contact us now!

Sources: MadeFreshly, Social Media Week, Inc., Purch

Photo by Librestock(dot)com