4 mistakes businesses need to avoid on Instagram

Instagram demographics could be partially blamed for the reason marketers are hesitantly mounting lackluster Instagram marketing strategies. Or it could be most marketers don’t understand the marketing dynamics involved in hacking this 5-year-old site. Instagram appeals to the younger generation – millennials and the young at heart. Mark Zuckerberg bought a 13 employee startup for 1 billion dollars, which at the time seemed crazy. The spending spree by the CEO of the largest social media site Facebook is finally paying off.

Here are 4 mistakes you need to avoid on Instagram:

Not using enough hashtags

For the uninitiated, it’s good to mention early on that hashtags are huge on Instagram. They are like #onlinemarketing. If as a marketer you are not using them regularly enough, then you are not trendy enough. In the end, a marketer ends up losing big on capturing the follower’s attention. Secondly, social media followers like ‘unliking’ or ‘unfollowing’ brands because of reasons well known to the entire social media fraternity. You don’t want such a scenario with your Instagram site, do you?

The bottom line is that too many hashtags are good for marketing health. In fact, Instagram loyalists consider it as a prowess to create good flow using hashtags. Obviously, the numerous hashtags a brand utilizes should be in line with its overall online marketing strategy and directly related to its industry.

Posting more images minus the videos

Everyone is aware that Instagram stands for photography but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post videos as well. The video should be clearly designed to elicit desirable reactions from the followers. A lot needs to be put in place to ensure that the limited time allowed serves a great purpose. Therefore, a lot of effort needs to be placed in the making of the video than the posting itself. Instagram videos should be short and sweet.

Not having a goal-oriented strategy

This point is similar across the board. You can’t have effective digital marketing without a pre-designed, pre-placed marketing strategy. However, due to the varying functionalities and different audiences, each social media sites require a unique social media marketing strategy. The marketing strategy needs to employ the story telling provisions that are prerogative to a social media site such as Instagram. The Instagram marketing goals need to be in line with the overall brand goals.

Watering down content

Content should be seriously considered to ensure that it comes out qualitative enough to warrant a great social experience among the followers. Quality means creating provocatively creative content that arouses the awe moment or elicits targeted emotions once they view an image or watch a video. Additionally, it could be a creative caption that followers can’t get enough of. The more time spent creating content on Instagram increases the chances of followers pausing and sincerely appreciating the work you’ve done. Consequently, increasing engagements which is what digital marketing aims to achieve at the end of the day.