Top 3 Mistakes You’re Making on Instagram, and What To Do About It

Welcome back to the Marketing 101 blog, and our other new blog series! Top 3 Mistakes is dedicated to helping you identify the mistakes you may be making across social media platforms, and providing you with some ideas to rectify them! 

This time round, we’re talking about Instagram. You may have seen our post on social media identifying the top 3 mistakes that users make with Instagram, and you’ve come to read more about it… well you’ve come to the right place!

Mistake No.1: You’re not posting video content 

As we discussed in our last blog post, video content is taking over the world! And Instagram really is no exception for it. In fact, they’re probably one of the biggest players when it comes to pushing video content onto people’s Instagram feed. Instagram prioritise video content over static (single images) content, and therefore you may find that your content isn’t getting as much engagement if you’re only posting images! Why not try uploading a short reel to your Instagram feed to see how that post performs in comparison. If you’re stuck for ideas, or are unsure on where to start, head to our other blog post about video content for social media for a helping hand!

Mistake No.2: You’re not utilising Instagram’s features

Over the past few years, Instagram has introduced a wealth of different features for its users to utilise. This includes Instagram stories, Instagram Reels (60 second video clips), IGTV (Instagram TV, where you can upload video content up to 15 minutes long). When you use these features on Instagram, the platform will push them onto other people’s feeds. This is for several reasons. Instagram wants its users to utilise the tools on the platform, and will push out this specific content to other users to encourage them to use it, meaning more people will see your posts. Not only this, but Instagram algorithms have recognised that people find video content more engaging than static content, and will therefore push this out too. 

Instagram also allows accounts with any number of followers to now post links to their stories, meaning that small businesses and micro-influencers can now post links to products and websites without having to encourage people to click the link in their bio!

Algorithms are your friend, not your enemy! So work with them by starting to change up the content you’re posting on Instagram and utilise their features and see whether this makes a difference to your engagement rates!

Mistake No.3: You’re using the incorrect hashtags

Hashtags – you either love them or you hate them. Either way, they are an important part of social media marketing, particularly on platforms like Instagram. By using hashtags, you’re enabling your content to be seen by more than just your followers. You can target specific audiences simply by using one hashtag.

We recommend doing some research into the hashtags that you’re using – are they still relevant to what you’re posting about? Perhaps consider having a document called a “hashtag bank”, and setting up some groups of hashtags that you can use across your posts on Instagram. For example, if you’re a hairdressing business, you could use hashtags such as #hairinspiration #hairdressersofinstagram #hairstyles #makeover #hairstylist*location* to reach more people. You can also now follow hashtags on Instagram, so if you have a hashtag for your business (for example, #marketing101) you can see what people are posting about in relation to your hashtag!

We hope you’ve found this article useful! Keep your eyes peeled on our socials for our next edition of Top 3 Mistakes…

You can check out our last blog post all about video content for social media by clicking here.