10 Common mistakes small businesses make on their Instagram page

Instagram is a rich goldmine for small businesses, and best of all, it’s free honey! This means that even small businesses can be up to par with their bigger, more influential counterparts on Instagram.

Brands are flocking to the platform for an opportunity for more visibility and tighter connections with their customers (and key demographics).

However, if you want to learn how to make money online through Instagram, you must be strategic with your marketing efforts.

Here are 10 Common mistakes I have seen small business owners make while trying to promote their business on instagram. Don't worry, I also provided you with solutions on how to improve your fix them.

1: Using the Wrong Hashtags (Or None at All)

Hashtags help your account get noticed by your target market. Whether you post them in the captions or the comments, you have 30 hashtags to use on your Instagram posts so use them wisely, your content will become much easier to find, and engagement will almost certainly go up.

The Solution:

All my Social Media Revamp clients receive my Hashtag Cheat Sheet this will help you find hashtags that are relevant to your business and your target market. Look for hashtags under 500k posts that feature accounts within your target market. Think about hashtags your customers might be using that will help them find YOU and vice versa.

2: Not using IG Stories

Hashtags help your account get noticed by your target market. Whether you post them in the captions or the comments, you have 30 hashtags to use on your Instagram posts so use them wisely, your content will become much easier to find, and engagement will almost certainly go up.

The Solution:

All my Social Media Revamp clients receive my Hashtag Cheat Sheet this will help you find hashtags that are relevant to your business and your target market. Look for hashtags under 500k posts that feature accounts within your target market. Think about hashtags your customers might be using that will help them find YOU and vice versa.

3: Lack of Engagement

It’s not just about how your audience engages with you, but how you engage with your audience. It’s so easy to just post and run. Trust me, I get it -- you spend a lot of time figuring out what to post, when to post, writing captions, and researching hashtags - so when it finally comes time to publish that post to your feed, you’re ready to be done.

But it doesn’t stop there. It’s equally important to consider what comes after you hit ‘share’.

Consumers like interacting with brands through social media Ignoring your audience on social media is also a direct mar on your customer service. Building rapport with customers and potential consumers should be evidenced in your social interactions.

The Solution:

Respond to comments and DMs, engage with your current and potential target customers by liking/commenting on THEIR posts. Take time to nurture those relationships and show them you care.

4: Inconsistency

We all struggle with consistency, Life happens. We get busy. We get overwhelmed. We get frustrated with social media, and sometimes we just need a break (I'm guilty of this). But when you show up for your people with valuable information on a consistent basis, your efforts will pay off in a BIG way. When you stop showing up though, your business can suffer.

If you aren’t consistent on Instagram, take frequent breaks, or forget to post, your customers are going to lose interest in your business. When you’re not posting, you’re not showing up in your followers’ feeds, and they can easily forget you exist.

The Solution:

Plan and batch your content ahead of time so you’re prepared to show up once a day, 4-5 days/week, no matter what. Create your posting schedule and stick to it. If you have a business account and a Facebook page, use the Creator Studio to schedule your content so you can run most of your account on autopilot.

5: Neglecting or Poorly Constructing Your Bio

You have a matter of seconds to make a lasting impression when someone new comes across your account. Your Instagram bio section is prime real estate a neglected or poorly constructed bio can confuse your potential followers and cause users to avoid hitting that follow button. As a result, you experience a low conversion rate and a stagnant follower count.

The Solution:

Less is more. Your bio should be more about your customers than you! Your target market wants to know what’s in it for them before they hit that follow button. Keep your bio clear, short and simple: tell your audience what your business does/who it helps and speak to the pain points of your target market. Give them a place to go (website, opt-in, etc.) by adding a link to your bio. Add your location if you’re a brick and mortar business or work with local customers in your area.

6: Being Impersonal.

A lot of brands make the mistake of being too “professional” on their social media profiles. They adopt this corporate voice, filtering out their personalities in favor of what they think people would expect from a company.

The Solution:

Don’t do this; it’s far better to show off your personality, even if it’s a few shades more casual than your “typical” corporate brand voice. Again, Instagram is a human social platform, and you need to be a social human if you want to attract and retain a decent following. Find your brand voice and stick to it.

7: Being too "Sales'y".

Instagram is a platform where people can peek into people's lifestyles, laugh at funny memes or be inspired by powerful messages. It's a social platform before it's a shopping platform. Businesses can irk their customers by being too sales'y.

The Solution:

Don't make your page all about selling your product/service. Include photos and messages that encompass your brand voice or show funny pictures of your staff. Use your imagination but don't make every post a sales message or your customers will start to toon you out.

8: Not Evolving.

No Instagram strategy starts out as perfect, and there are always new trends and features to learn and incorporate into your campaign. If you want to be successful in the long term, you need to learn from your user data and make the meaningful changes you need to keep your momentum going upward. Otherwise, you’ll grow stagnant, and your ROI will slowly deflate.

The Solution:

On Instagram, just like with every other social platform before it, merely claiming a presence isn’t enough to net you a positive ROI. You have to work hard to understand your users, provide high-quality material, and adjust your campaign to keep seeing better and better results. It’s truly an investment, of time, effort, (and sometimes, money), but if you keep your users at the heart of what you do, eventually that investment will pay off.

9: Not Offering Value

People aren’t going to gravitate toward your brand unless you give them a solid reason to. Every post you make needs to offer some kind of value, whether that’s practical or entertaining.

The Solution:

Your content should strike an emotion or be of measurable practical value—without one of those two benefits, users will pass your brand up. And offering value has multiple benefits; the more valuable the content you share, the more likely people are to share your content with their audience, save it as a resource and engage with you in the comments. All of this can help your content rank higher in search engines, and driving more traffic, users, and followers.

10: Posting at the Wrong Time

Being consistent on Instagram is one thing, but knowing when to post in order to receive the best engagement from your target market is another. When you post at the wrong times, your content is at risk for getting lost, and may not even be seen at all. No one wants to post to crickets! When you post at the wrong time, you’ll see a significant drop in engagement. Naturally, this can also result in a low conversion rate from your target customers.

The Solution:

Check in on your analytics often to see how your audience is responding to your content and when you are getting the most engagement, and use that to help you move forward.

All my Social Media Revamp clients receive my Best Times to Post Cheat Sheet this will take the guess work out of when to schedule your posts on Instagram saving you time and hassle.

So there you have it 10 mistakes we as #smallbusinessowners might be making on #instagram and solutions on how to fix them. The thing about mistakes is that you learn from them and you can correct them.

If you need help with Marketing your brand/business on Instagram?

BOGC Designs now offers Social Media Management and Design Services through my Social Media Revamp design service. This will have your business shining online. Click Here to book a consultation or send us a DM on instagram.

Comment bellow what are some other mistakes you see business owners make online or have you yourself made any of these mistakes in your business?