Because of its immense reach and superior engagement, not having a presence on Instagram is not an option for businesses, small or large. According to statistics, 71% of American businesses are present on Instagram and this is growing at a very fast clip. With a potential audience of more than one billion, it is very clear that mistakes in the Instagram strategy can prove very costly indeed. Despite the critical importance of getting your Instagram strategy right, it is evident that most online businesses will make mistakes as they struggle to grow their follower base, expand the reach, and boost the level of engagement to be able to generate traffic to their website or achieve in-app conversions. If you know the mistakes most online businesses make, it can be easier to sidestep them and build a profitable enterprise faster. Some of the top Instagram mistakes explained:
Neglecting to Insert the Website Link in the Bio Section
While many online business owners may be inclined to think that forgetting to include the website link in the bio is a minor mistake, it is perhaps the costliest mistake that you could make in terms of lost sales. Till very recently, the bio was the only place where followers for Instagram were allowed to insert a clickable link and even today, it is the location where most customers would expect the link to be for making purchases. The missing link will confuse users and leave them with no option to transact.
Promoting Your Posts with Hashtags That Are Very Popular
While every social media marketing expert will recommend using popular and trending hashtags, it should also be appreciated that if you use a hashtag that is really popular, the chances of your post being found in the avalanche of posts are very slim indeed. Also, even as trending hashtags can bring topical attention that you can take advantage of, their lifespan is extremely limited. Popular hashtags are akin to short-tail keywords in SEO, generally, they are too broad in their scope to be of any use. The best way of using hashtags is to use long-tail and branded hashtags customized to the content you are posting. As per https://sproutsocial.com, currently, seven out of every ten hashtags are branded.
Neglecting Instagram Stories
Instagram introduced Stories as a response to the growing popularity of Snapchat and provides its users an option to put up informal posts that have a life of only 24 hours, after which, it disappears. With Instagram’s environment requiring high-quality posts, Stories became a useful alternative that could host quickly-put-together photographic narrations without spoiling the carefully curated look of the main account. Moreover, links could be inserted in Stories to provide a way for users to transact with the business. If you are not using Stories, you are losing out on potential organic traffic generation and also the opportunity to achieve conversions from within the app, a feature that Instagram has recently introduced.
Conclusion
When you want to leverage Instagram profitably, it is very important to focus on keeping the engagement level high and facilitating opportunities for the users to make the transactions they want to. High-quality content, relevant hashtags, link in the bio, as well as taking advantage of the newly introduced features like Stories will keep your business vibrant and successful.
